Be Your Everything

At 8am, bright and early, Alice was awake, showered, and eating her breakfast. Her new security wasn’t actually due to arrive until 10, but Alice had woken at 6 and not been able to fall back to sleep. Harry was still dead to the world in his own room, leaving Alice to her thoughts. This wasn’t the best idea, she knew, so she switched the TV on (to the cartoon channel – news channels weren’t her thing at the moment) and sat with her plate of toast and cup of tea. SpongeBob seemed to be the only thing on, and even though she didn’t enjoy it as much as she could something else, it would do.
An hour later and Alice felt like she was about to throw up. The magnitude of her situation was beginning to sink in – her step dad was literally out to murder her. That wasn’t exactly an everyday problem, and her mind was buzzing with possibilities. For someone else the thought that a police officer was going to be standing guard outside their house would make them feel safer, but for Alice the only thing it made her do, was imagine all the ways Rick might try and get at her.
“Al, what are you doing?” Harry asked, using the nickname he had suddenly decided to call her. He was watching as she paced back and forth from the window to the door, hands clasped over her stomach.
“Mm?” she looked up, and he saw that her eyes were clouded over. She was obviously anxious about something, though he couldn’t for the life of him work it out. He had only just woken up and his brain was fuzzy with sleep.
“What are you doing?” he repeated, clearer this time.
“Erm...” she looked around as if she didn’t know where she was. “I’m not sure.”
“Are you alright?”
Shaking her head, she sunk into the couch and buried her head in her hands. “I’m so messed up!”
Harry frowned and sat down next to her, slinging an arm around her shoulders. “Why do you say that?”
“Everything about me is f**ked up!”
“Al, that’s not true-“
“My mother is dead, thanks to my raging psycho killer stepfather. What about that isn’t f**ked up?”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t, but that doesn’t mean you are f**ked up.”
“I don’t need your sympathy,” she whispered, never looking at him. “I need all this to end.”

“You’ll hardly know I’m here,” Michael, their new ‘security guard’ smiled warmly as he neared the front door. He was to start work immediately.
Alice was happy with everything the man had said – he seemed nice enough. As the door closed she felt a pair of long arms wrap around her waist and a chin rest on her shoulder.
“Do you feel better?” Harry murmured into her ear.
She nodded, “He’s a great guy as far as I can tell.”
“So you don’t mind that he’ll be out there all day?”
“No. Now I’m worried about meeting the night guard. Night guards are always weird people.”
He chuckled and spun her around to face him. “He’ll be a good guy, just like this one! You worry way too much.”
“You’re telling me.” Alice sighed with a smile. She knew exactly how much she let her thoughts influence her feelings. It was something she’d been working on, but it was taking a lot more effort to control than she had ever thought it would. Harry opened his mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by Alice’s phone ringing. “I should answer that.” She grinned and raced to the kitchen bench, where the device was sitting.
“Hullo?” she spoke into the receiver.
“Aly, it’s Dani.”
Alice actually smiled at the nickname. She had two of those now. It made her feel a little more accepted – a little more at home. “Dani, hi. What’s up?”
“Well, seeing as we never got to catch up the other night I was wondering if you wanted to come round sometime soon. Just the two of us. We could have a movie night?”
“That sounds really great. Did you have any day in mind? I haven’t exactly got much planned.”
Dani giggled. “No, I suppose you don’t. How does tomorrow night sound? Liam’s going out with a mate he hasn’t seen in a while so I’ll be all alone anyway.”
“Well we can’t have that! It’s a date.”
“Oh, don’t tell Liam that!” she laughed. “Alright. I’ll come and pick you up at around 3?”
“Sure. See you then!”
After saying goodbye, Alice hung up and turned to face Harry, who was leaning on the back of the couch with his arms crossed. “Sounds like you’re heading out tomorrow afternoon.”
“It does sound like that, doesn’t it?”
He grinned. “Good! You’ve been a right bore lately; it’s about time you got out.”
Her mouth fell open and she stared. “Rude!”
“As much as I’d like to say I’m kidding, I’m totally not.”
“You’re a bad person.”
“Now you’re being rude!”
“You started this,” Alice laughed and shook her head. “But I guess I can let this go if you can.”
“I’ll never let this go!” He yelled dramatically and fell backwards onto the couch, legs sticking up in the air. Then he fell backwards onto the floor, narrowly missing the coffee table.
“Mental, you are. Honestly.”
“But I did make you laugh. And that’s what matters to me.” He poked his head up and smiled cheekily at her.
“Don’t be a suck up.” She crossed her arms and tried to go to her room, only to be pulled back.
“Why not? Can’t I flatter you? Is that a bad thing? Should I just say you have gross breath and messy hair?”
“I do?!” she sprinted into the bathroom and checked her hair, only to find it perfectly flat on her head. “Oh, that was mean.”
“I was joking! It’s not my fault you took it seriously.”
“And what about my breath? Please tell me you were joking about that. I can’t stand having bad breath.”
Chuckling, he pulled her into a hug. “Your breath is fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Do you want me to test it?”
Alice could see him smirking in the mirror and she giggled. “Yes.”
He spun her around and, before she could even comprehend what was happening, he was kissing her. Hands on her back, he pulled her as close as he possibly could, he let his lips explore hers. In no time at all her had her backed against the wall, gently gripping the back of her neck. There was no hesitation from either of them until Alice pulled away hastily, putting a hand on his chest as a barrier between the two.
“Sorry. I just-“
“It’s fine,” Harry smiled, cupping her cheek. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”
Her body relaxed a little and she brought him into a hug, burying her face in his fresh-smelling shirt. “Thank you.”