Delude | h.s.

twenty one

'Cause there is no guarantee
That this life is easy
When I Look At You - Miley Cyrus

♤

Layne

The sound of my alarm blaring from my phone pulls me from the deep sleep I was in. I roll over and tap the screen to snooze the annoying sound. I close one eye because my phone screen is too bright and try to work my phone in my disoriented state.

It's eight o'clock, not too early, but early enough.

Last night, after I put Josh to bed, Zoë and I got a little too wine drunk and went on a walk around the block. At some point, she fell into the grass by the pond across the street and stared at the stars for twenty minutes. We were literally right outside our house, I don't know why she couldn't have dramatically collapsed in our yard, but whatever.

When I open my phone, my eyes instantly fall to the messages app. There isn't a little red dot in the corner like there usually is. I feel my heart sink a little and open the app.

I texted Harry last night after Josh fell asleep, but he didn't respond. Before I went to bed, I texted him goodnight. He usually doesn't fall asleep until two or three o'clock in the morning, so he probably saw my message. It would help if he had his read receipts on, but the man likes to be mysterious.

I try not to overthink it as I set my phone back down on the nightstand and get out of bed.

After I'm done in the bathroom, my legs carry me upstairs. As I get closer to the door to the kitchen, the smell of bacon fills my nostrils.

Dad makes the best bacon.

I open the door to find Josh sitting on the table playing with his toy cars, my dad in front of the stove flipping pancakes, and my mother typing away on her laptop. Josh is the first to see me.

"Layne!" He exclaims, throwing his arms in the air.

The light from the morning sun is causing me to squint my eyes and makes me want to go back to my cave of a bedroom. I lift my arms tiredly and softly cheer, "Josh!"

He keeps his arms up in hopes that I'll pick him up – which I do. He just looks too adorable in his Paw Patrol pyjamas not to. As soon as my hands are under his arms, he wraps himself around me like a koala and snuggles into my neck. I hold him close, placing my arm under his butt and rubbing his back with my free hand.

"Layne," my dad says, "there is some bacon ready over here if you want some."

My mouth instantly starts salivating and I slowly walk over to the plate. Josh perks up and looks at where we're going. He whips his head back to me and a mischievous look fills his eye, "Can I have some?"

I giggle at his reaction and grab a piece for him. Before I hand it over, I hold it out of his reach and ask, "What do we say?"

He blushes, "please."

I smile and hand him the bacon, "yes, you can have some bacon."

"Yay!" He cheers and takes the piece from me.

He's so cute.

I turn us around to sit at the kitchen table, but before I can pull the chair out my mom stops typing and directs her attention to me. "Will you go wake Zoë up? She needs to get ready." Her arms reach out to take Josh and I hand him off to her.

"Yeah, sure." I say and pop the last piece of bacon into my mouth.

She thanks me and goes back to typing on her computer. Josh doesn't look the slightest bit bothered, he's very fascinated with his bacon.