Until Harry(56)

I winced. “Sorry about that, I went AWOL.”

“It’s okay. Daven’s friend said he saw Kale bring you upstairs, so I left with Daven because I knew you would be safe with him.”

Safe. Yeah.

“Yeah,” I murmured. “I was with Kale.”

“Wait,” she said, her voice suddenly more alert. “You were with Kale? Like with him?”

“Yeah,” I said, and burst into tears.

“Oh, babe, no,” Lavender whispered.

“It was perfect,” I cried, “but he just woke up and freaked out on me. He said he didn’t remember us having sex and that he saw me as a sister. He regrets having sex with me, Lav. He regrets me.”

“Where are you? I’m getting dressed and coming right over.”

I wiped my face and took a few deep breaths to calm myself down.

“No, it’s too early.” I sniffled. “Stay with Daven, I’m going to go ho-home. My dad will be gone to work, and my mum will be asleep. I’ll sneak in and get into bed, and when she wakes up, I’ll just say I came home early from your house.”

“Are you sure?” Lavender asked. “I don’t care about the time. I’ll come to you right now if you need me to.”

I heard a voice grumble, “Is she okay? Does she need me to pick her up?”

I was surprised that Daven was even the slightest bit concerned; he never usually showed any emotion of any kind towards me. We would either fight over his fights with Lavender or ignore one another. There was no in-between with us.

“She’s fine – go back to sleep.”

I jerked my head when I heard movement upstairs in the house, and I was terrified it was Kale coming down the stairs so he could go to his parents’ house. I did not want to see him, so I focused on my phone.

“I have to go, Lav.”

“I’ll swing by yours on my way home in a few hours, okay?”

I nodded. “’Kay.”

“Love you, babe. Hang in there,” Lavender said.

I sniffled. “I will. Love you too.”

I hung up and pocketed my phone. I hated wearing Kale’s fleece jumper, but I folded my arms together and snuggled into the heat that it offered me as I opened the hall door of the house and stepped outside into the freezing morning air.

My attire was a really bad fucking idea.

I felt my teeth chatter as I walked down the never-ending driveway of the party house and headed in the direction of the village. My house was only fifteen minutes away, and because I briskly walked the entire way, I got there pretty fast.

I took off Lavender’s wedged heels and held them in my hand as I walked up the driveway. I got my key out of my back pocket and held my breath as I approached the hall door. I put the key into the lock, turned it and gently nudged open the door. I silently stepped inside my house and carefully closed the door behind me, relocking it and then hanging the key on the rack.

I quickly entered the alarm code when the warning sound began to beep. Once that was done, I crept up the stairs and cursed God himself when that stupid loose floorboard next to my bedroom creaked as I stood on it.

I froze to the spot for a solid minute, and when I heard no movement coming from my parents’ room, I stepped off the stupid noisy floorboard and escaped into the safety of my bedroom, where I gently closed the door behind me. I tiptoed over to my dresser, opened the first drawer and shoved Lavender’s heels inside. I rid myself of her clothes and Kale’s jumper and shoved them into the drawer too.

I washed my face clean of make-up, and brushed my hair out before plaiting it back out of my face. I climbed into my bed, where I lay for ages, staring at the glow-up stickers on my ceiling, wondering if my entire night was a dream – or a nightmare.



“Lane, darling?” I heard my mother’s voice shout later that morning as I got out of the shower. I had scrubbed myself raw, trying to take away some of the pain I felt by replacing it with a physical one.

My mother had come into my room at ten in the morning to collect my dirty washing from my hamper, and got the fright of her life when she found me asleep in bed. Her scream woke me up and nearly gave me a heart attack. I told her I’d come home at 9 a.m., but because she’d still been in bed, I’d gone back to bed too. She didn’t suspect a thing about what I had really been up to; she was more concerned about how she didn’t hear me come in.

I opened my door and replied to her with a loud “Yeah?”

“Can you come down here?”

I pressed my forehead against my bedroom door and sighed. “Sure. Give me a second to get dressed.”

I entered my room, got dried and changed into clothes before heading downstairs.