Parachute | Harry Styles Short Story

8 - Betrayal!

BSL. Speech + Sign. Speech.

It is evening and the house is quiet. It is always quiet but it feels a little more quiet than usual.

Enough to make Anne step out of her office and check on her son.

By now she expects him to take his usual evening walks, the super helpful ones that help him clear his head and reset his mind for the night.

To her surprise, he's in the living room watching a cooking show with captions and scrolling through his phone.

Anne frowns a little, noticing he's barely paying any attention to the cooking show and watches him for some minutes.

Harry is curled up on the couch with a bottle of water by his side and in his own world.

Anne takes a step closer and gently taps his shoulder, causing him to flinch a little before looking at her.

On seeing his mother, he relaxes a little with a small smile.

"It's just me," she signs and speaks.

"I was distracted," he nods.

"Can I join you?" she asks.

Harry pats the space next to him with a smile and Anne gladly joins him.

They sit next to each other and she exhales. Harry puts his phone away and looks up at the screen.

The cooking show is far gone and he doesn't even remember the last part he was at. He frowns, wondering when they go to the current scene and rolls his eyes.

"They're far gone," he tells his mother.

"I was sure you weren't concentrating," she scoffs.

"How can I?" he sighs.

Of course, there's a lot on his mind. It all centres around one person and that is Blue.

There's a lot about Blue on his mind.

"What's on your mind, love?" Anne smiles a little.

"I feel like a jerk," Harry admits.

Anne frowns not understanding the last word.

Some words are still hard to pick in BSL and she tries her best to keep up with him.

"A what?" she asks.

Harry narrows his eyes as he judges her before clearing his throat to speak.

"A...A jerk?"

Hearing her son's voice after nearly three years does something she cannot explain to her heart and Anne struggles to fight back the storm of tears threatening to feel.

It might seem a little dramatic to him but this is a grand moment for her, especially with the context of how and why he stopped using his voice.

Anne steadies herself but her arms are already coming around him as she leans closer to him.

The word doesn't come out as intended and it's not totally coherent, you can make out the first sound.

That's basically it.

Harry is not sure how that word is supposed to be pronounced and right now he's just ready to type it out if she still doesn't understand him.

"I think I can get it," she calmly responds.

"Are you about to cry?" he frowns at her.

"No!" Anne quickly lies. "Did you mean J-E-R-K?" she finger spells.