[ 50 ] 2014

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"Your cousin is a real meanie. Should I give her a little scare?"

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Harley and Rory arrived at their grandparents's house about an hour and a half after Saris and Ever left the cafe. Since Saris was solely interested on making Harley's life more difficult, she had her close up shop and sweet up the whole place before being able to leave. Her cousin Rory stayed behind to help her and the two walked back home together.

When they walked past the front door, they could see into the kitchen from one of the doorways and their grandmother was washing dishes. Rory complained under her breath, "I can't believe they had dinner without us."

Instead of going into the kitchen for dinner, they decided to wait. They went to the livingroom to avoid their grandmother's scolding. There they saw Kieran Quinn, their grandfather, who was flipping through a book of photographs. He looked up when he heard the two girls' footsteps and smiled at them. "Girls, its great to see you. How was everything at the cafe?" Frowning slightly, he told them, "Sorry we had to eat dinner without you. Rory, you know your grandmother has to eat at very specific times because of her diabetes."

Rory nodded. "Yes grandpa. And everything was fine."

"What have you got there?" Harley asked, gesturing to the photo book on his lap.

He looked down at it fondly. "Just looking at some pictures of your dad and his siblings when they were growing up. Your dad sure did like Harleen Davis, but she didn't like him." He chuckled at the memory. Harley sat down on the couch across from him. She knew a story was coming. Rory sat down next to Harley, she always liked hearing family stories because they were always interesting.

Pointing at one of the pictures in the book, he pulled it out for the girls to see. In it were two families. One was the blonde Quinns, all of them blonde. The others were the Davis'. There was Thomas Davis with his auburn blonde hair, like her mother's, and Hayley Davis with her dark brown hair. With them were all their children; Harleen with all her brothers, and Aaron with his siblings. 

"The Davis family moved next door when Harleen wasn't even born yet." Harley's grandfather explained. "Thomas quickly became my best friend. Ava and Hayley got along, but they weren't very close."

He gave a brief pause and then continued. "Aaron was born before Harleen, he's three years older than her. But he liked her from the start. Harleen hated Aaron though, and it was all because we once sent them to a store on the street corner. Aaron's older brother went with them. Harleen was five, Aaron was eight. He and his siblings played a prank on little Harleen, they left her at the supermarket. When they returned for her, she was crying, and she hated Aaron from that day on."

Harley laughed at that. It sounded like something her mother would do. 

Harleen was sweet, but sometimes it was hard for her to forget and forgive things.

"They saw each other all the time growing up." He continued with a smile. Then he grabbed another picture from the album. It looked like a birthday party and the two families were celebrating it together. In the picture, she was immediately able to spot her mother. Harleen a blonde haired young woman smiling wide into the camera on one end, her father Aaron was at the other end, with his siblings smiling as well. "One of Harleen's older brothers was dating one of my daughters. Aaron and Harleen went to the same high school. But Aaron was already a senior when Harleen was a freshman. That was when he was totally in love with her. He tried to hard to get her attention all the time, but she never gave in."

"Harley looks a lot like Aunt Harleen in that picture." Rory commented. 

"Yeah," Her grandfather nodded in agreement. "She got her looks from her mum."

"Then Uncle Aaron went off to study at the University." Rory said, continuing the story. It seemed she had already heard it before. 

"He went to the University of Melbourne to study business management." Their grandfather informed them matter-of-factly. It was evident that he was very proud of his son's achievements. "When he came back, Harleen was already going out with a boy named Arthur. He was one of those badboys with a motorcycle, leather jacket, bandana around his head, and tattoos on his arms, and a strange attitude. He never really talked to anyone. He had moved to Perth a bit before Aaron left. Harleen changed a lot because of him. She dyed her hair black, wore dark clothes, her parents didn't like Arthur at all. They wanted her to date Aaron, he was a good boy."

Her grandfather grabbed another photograph. It was from another celebration, but it looked like her grandmother Hayley's house. Arthur and Harleen were smiling wide, embracing each other, smiling into the camera. They looked so in love. Harleen's mother was looking at them with a glare, and Aaron with a frown. Everyone else was obliviously smiling into the camera. 

"Hayley didn't like Arthur, she thought he wasn't good enough for her only daughter." Kieran Quinn explained. "Then he had to leave Perth because his adoptive mother was ill and Hayley told her daughter that Arthur left a message saying he was breaking up with her. Harleen was devastated, she really loved that boy. Aaron took it as his chance, and they fell in love. That I know of, Arthur and Harleen never saw each other again."

Moments later, Ava Quinn walked into the livingroom, drying her hands off with a towel. Her face brightened with a genuine smile when she saw Rory was back, but she completely ignored Harley.

"Rory, sweetie," She said sweetly, "I left your dinner in the fridge."

"What about Harley?" Rory looked to her cousin.

Harley got up from her seat on the couch and shook her head. "That's okay. I'm not very hungry."

"She's not hungry." Ava Quinn repeated with a shrug of her shoulders.

Cutting the distance between her and her grandfather, she gave him a warm hug, "Goodnight grandfather."

"Goodnight, darling." He told her.

When they pulled away, she waved at her cousin, and then even offered an awkward wave for her grandmother. "Goodnight Rory, goodnight grandmother."

Rory was the only one who replied.

Harley went up to her room and plopped down on her bed. For the millionth time that day, she checked her cellphone for any message from Calum. Still, she had none. She let out a sigh and flipped her phone over, setting it down on the mattress on its front.

"Are you still worried about Calum?" Ashton asked her, startling her.

Her blue eyes looked up to meet his hazel ones. "Yeah." She admitted.

"I can go check on him." He suggested.

But Harley quickly shook her head. "No. You'll just make him more upset. I don't want to hurt him any more than he is now."

"Is there anything I can do?" He asked her. "I just want to help, doll."

The blue eyed girl rolled over on her bed to make space for him. Patting the mattress beneath her, she told him, "You can come over here and cuddle with me. I've probably had the roughest day of my life today."

Ashton happily obliged. 

He laid down next to Harley and pulled her into his arms, now with more confidence, since things seemed to be more official between them. She immediately closed her eyes and buried her face into his chest. Harley thought of how different it was to embrace Ashton. With him, there was a certain slightly cold feeling radiating off him, unlike with a regular person, whose heat she would feel radiating off them. 

Nuzzling his face into her hair, he made another offer in his efforts to make her feel better. "Your cousin is a real meanie. Should I give her a little scare?"

"Don't." Harley giggled. "She might somehow find a way to blame it on me."

"Well, the offer is open in case you change your mind, doll." He shrugged his shoulders.

Harley shook her head and snuggled closer to him. She didn't feel so tired until she got into her bed. It was a matter of minutes before she completely drifted off to sleep.

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finally a hashton moment!

no question of the day, i just want to announce that the poll from the previous post is not closed, and here are the results. THE NAMES WILL ONLY BE CHANGED IN THE HARD COPY, they will remain the same on wattpad. this is only for those of you who would like to have a hard copy if you dont win the contest.

you dont have to buy it, i wont force you ^.^

but here are the winners:

ashton will be named asher idleson.

calum will be named cameron hazard.

luke will be named levi henderson.

michael will be named mason cadwell.

niall will be named nathan hartfield.

so there you have it. THANK you for voting. again, THE NAMES WILL ONLY CHANGE IN THE HARD COPY, for those of you who chose to purchase one. thank you so much for your love and support. oh, and phantasm will be up for publishing once it reached 500K reads, thats my goal, and we're so close, and im very excited.

im SOOOO excited for this. thank you, i cannot thank you enough.

blessings, peace, and love for everyone!

-clary xx