Stay With Me || H.S

34

[Harry]

The second we walk into the kitchen I find my mother a little more well dressed than usual.

"Harry - Lana" she looks up from her book and takes a sip of her wine. No trace of resentment for my rushing out and not coming home last night.

"Hi Anne" Lana greets her, before my mum wraps her in a hug.

"I trust your evening was fun" My mum raises her brows at us both, causing me to shift on my heels.

"Yeah sorry I-"

She interrupts, "It's fine Harry" her eyes glow as she smiles up at me and I relax slightly, but the feeling doesn't last long. Instead it's replaced by thefeeling of guilt for planning on shattering her happiness. I look at the smile on her face and think, How the hell am I going to break that smile?

Lana squeezes my hand as if she can read my thoughts before she excuses herself.

"I'm gonna check on my mom" she places a quick kiss on my cheek before running off.

I stand not sure of what to say or do as my mum goes back to reading at the counter.

"So.. um.. why so dressed up?" I clear my throat and take a step towards her.

She folds the corner of the page she's on and sets her book down.

"Well I was gonna go to dinner with Lacey - you know the woman who lived next door to us in our old house?" she raises her brows at me over the rim of her wine glass.

"Yeah I remember" I sigh, "She used to be my babysitter when you and da-" I stop myself, rubbing my neck and staring down at the marble counter.

"Right" her tone shifts slightly but she quickly recovers, "Well we were going to have a girls dinner thing - just us two but she called to cancel - said something about a cold" she shrugs, standing and collecting her purse from the counter along with her book.

"Oh that sucks" my eyes go back and forth between the counter and my mothers gaze.

"Yeah - it sucks" she laughs and turns to leave.

"Mum" I call to her and she stops before getting to the door way.

"Hmm?" she turns.

"Maybe I can - I dunno we -" I stutter to find the words. My hands deep in the pockets of my jeans, looking to go deeper.

"Oh" she half laughs, "You want to be my Lacey for the evening?" she actually giggles, and when I look up and hold her stare for more than a few seconds, I see a glow in her cheeks that I know is going to make this evening harder than I thought.

[Lana]

As I make my way to my mothers room I run into Gemma, whose smile looks like it's been torn right off her face at the sight of me.

She's still pissed at me for what happened back in LA, and I don't blame her, I still feel like it's my fault. But if Harry can look at me and not find an ounce of any of what happened being my fault, why can't she?

Granted of course Harry is my boyfriend and he's a bit biased then.

"Lana" she sighs as we both come to a stop by my mothers bedroom door. I have noticed the liking Gemma has taken to her, and it gives me a pang of hope that maybe she can learn to like me at least a quarter of the same amount she likes my mom.

"Hey Gemma" I offer her a smile, trying to fight back my eye roll. I hate playing nice when the other person is clearly hell bent on being bitchy to me. I've just always hated being the one to fix things that I shouldn't even stress so much about.