Anne

1998

"Darling will you please go check on Harry he's out playing with his bike in the rain again, he's going to get hurt," I told Gemma as I cleaned up the mess I made. Desmond would be home soon and I'll never hear the end of it if the house is a mess.

"Harry! Mum said to come in!" Gemma had just turned seven and was becoming a very smart little girl. She was aware of everything around her and that was beginning to frighten me because even though Harry was without care, his sister knew what the bruises on my arms and face were. She knew why I cried, but if she only knew why I stayed, she would understand it has nothing to do with love.

I picked up Gemma's schoolwork when suddenly the door opened and slammed shut. I froze as I heard him yell. "It smells like shit in here!" I bit my tongue walking into our small sitting room where he stood.

"Desmond, how was your day?" I asked him, taking his jacket.

"Well gee, I work in a factory for twelve hours how do you think it went?" He pushed past me to the kitchen. "Why the hell is the boy covered in mud!" I walked into the kitchen to see Harry covered in mud smiling at me.

"Look, mummy, I'm a monster." He cheered.

Des turned to me with nothing but anger in his eyes. "Is this what I work sixty-five hours a week for, so you can have him out in the mud-"

"Des he is four years old he wanted-" for a second all I could hear was a ringing in my ears from the blow to the face. I had fallen down to the ground. When I looked up his back was to me grabbing Harry by the hair and dragging him to the bathroom. "No! Desmond, he's just a baby for god sake!" I ran after him slapping his back until he let go of him.

My baby laid there crying yet Desmond didn't care, taking me now, dragging me to the bedroom. I knew Gemma would take care of Harry, but who would take care of her?

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Jane

Thanksgiving was a time to be thankful for all your blessings in life. For me, I was blessed to have my family, but right now I wasn't really in a good mood. Olivia had yet to talk to me and Harry was acting strangely. He was so embarrassed the day after his drunken rampage in his apartment. He apologized profusely to Louis and I. I had decided to tell my mom what happened, really needing someone to talk to.

"Honey, that boy is missing a lot of love in his life. But you need to remember that only he can help himself." I completely agreed with her and I even told Harry. He had agreed to begin looking for help, which made me happy.

I decided to try and put all thoughts about everything negative behind me and try to enjoy our dinner. I helped my mom pull the ham out of the oven and went upstairs to change clothes into something nicer for our annual photo. I pulled out my boots and began zipping them up when there was a knock at my door. "Come in."

Harry's head popped in and he smiled. "I just got here, happy...Thanksgiving." I giggled opening my arms for a hug. "You look nice." He kissed my forehead. He wore his usual long sleeve shirt and dark jeans. I guess we were back to this look.

"Thanks you too, how are you feeling?" He sat on the corner of my bed, pulling me to sit on his lap.

"Good, I went to the clinic your mom suggested, and I have an appointment with the therapist." He said shyly.

"I'm very proud of you, I know it's going to help you." I kissed his cheek. "I love you and I want you to be happy." He gave me a small smile leaning his head on my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around him and kissed his forehead.

"I love you." He said simply. "Happy anniversary by the way." He looked up at me. I raised an eyebrow confused.

"Anniversary?" He nodded.

"I asked you to be my girlfriend on your birthday, September twenty-third. It's November twenty-third, happy two months." He smiled pulling a small box out of his back pocket. I smiled taking it from him and opening it. Inside was a small heart-shaped locket.

"It's beautiful." I bit my lip trying to stop myself from getting emotional. "I love it." I pecked his lips and he helped me put it on.

After a few minutes of kisses and 'I love you's,' we went to the dining room where my mom and sister had finished setting the table. Harry helped my mom get the ham onto the table and we all took our seats.

"So hon, you've never celebrated Thanksgiving before?" My mom asked Harry who shook his head causing my mom to put her hand on her chest. "Well in our family we go around the table and we say what we're thankful for and then we eat."

"That sounds lovely." He smiled genuinely.

"Could I start Michelle, I have a lot of things to be thankful for?" Louis asked my mom. She smiled letting him. "I would like to say I'm thankful for my roommate Harry for lending me money, helping me pay rent, and being a good friend. I am also thankful for both Harry and Jane for showing me that a relationship isn't the worst thing." We all laughed and he continued. "I'm thankful also for everyone here for letting me celebrate a holiday with lovely people." We all awed and it was my mom's turn.

"Well, I'm thankful for my family, my babies that are all grown up. I'm thankful for another year of our library being open, and I'm thankful for our new additions to our family: Harry, Louis, and Niall." The boys all smiled and said thank you to her.

We all went around saying thanks and then we began eating.

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"Would you like a piece of pie Harry?" My mom asked him as he laid with his head on my lap. He groaned trying to get up, holding his stomach. "Oh dear, I think you overdid it." She laughed.

"Boy's first real Thanksgiving, we should have warned him." My dad passed by on his way to the bathroom. Louis walked into the living room taking the piece of the pie.

"You should have warned me that Michelle was such an amazing cook." He sat down on the love seat.

"Oh Louis, I could say the same, that was the best pineapple upside-down cake I've ever had." They began complimenting each other and Phoebe joined in on how good her kale salad was as well.

I looked at Harry who looked like he was deep in thought. "You want to go outside with me for a bit?" I asked him quietly.

"Sure." We stood excusing ourselves to go outside to my front steps. I sat down and he did the same. "You okay?"

"Yeah, it's just stuffy in there from the oven." He nodded. "Did you have a good time?"

"Too good of a time, I think I ate too much." He sighed leaning back on the wall. "So I've been thinking." He stated. "Um, I'm going to invite my aunt and cousin here for Christmas."

"Oh that's great, it's just them?" I asked carefully. I had hoped he would change his mind about his mom, but I doubt it.

"Yeah, well my aunt's husband would probably come to." I nodded sitting back. "Would you want to meet them, if they came?"

"Of course." We sat outside talking for a while. He looked out into the night and frowned. "What?"

He shrugged. "Miss my bike, we could go out for a ride right now." He smiled wide "We could take a trip to San Simeon Creek."

"What's that?" I asked.

"It's a campground, when I moved here I lived there for a few weeks; met some nice people." He smiled. "I was headed towards Los Angeles from Seattle and I had stopped there to rest. This older couple let me stay with them, it was nice. It's only like ten minutes from Moonstone beach." I smiled at the idea of going to the beach in November; There was no need for anything but a blanket and a bonfire. "They were the reason I decided to stay nearby, I would go and visit them, but I just stopped."

"Well we should go, it could be fun seeing your old friends," I suggested. His face lit up and he nodded. "How about this weekend?"

"It's a date, but we'd probably stay overnight." He warned me.

"In a tent?" He shrugged.

"Well, we might be able to borrow Louis' car and sleep in the back." We worked out some details, but eventually, it became cold and we decided to go inside. In the house, my parents began a game of monopoly that would eventually last longer than planned.

At the end of the night when everyone went home I laid in bed when my sister came into the room to borrow some hair ties. "Phoebe?" I asked her. She turned and I let out a deep breath. "Can we talk, sister to sister?"

She squealed, closing the door, and running to jump on my bed. "Yes, what do you want to talk about?"

"Well, before you freak out and make a scene, what was your first time like?" I asked quietly. Her jaw dropped but she composed herself, smiling and then frowned.

"Well..." She dragged on. "I mean I wasn't really ready the first time, it was junior year with that guy Luke. He literally cried after he finished because I began bleeding and he thought he had hurt me. It was cute, but then I realized we had only been doing it for like two minutes." I stared at her for a while, blinking until I fell back on the bed. "Sex didn't get good until I started having sex with Antonio." She said his name with an accent. "He was amazing, he knew what he was doing." She shivered in thought. "Why do you ask?"

I pushed a piece of hair behind my ear. "I think I'm ready, and Harry's never pushed me to do anything, it's usually me, or always me actually. I just want to know if I should expect something odd." She chuckled quietly.

"Jane, if he loves you and you love him, it will be the most perfect experience ever. Just word of advice, wear a condom, lots of foreplay, and see his dick before you guys do it. Believe me, you don't want anything to be a surprise beforehand." She patted my shoulder.

"Does it really hurt?" I asked before she left.

She tapped her jaw with her finger in thought. "For like a minute, some people say it hurts longer and some say nothing at all."

Well, I'll have to wait then.

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Thanks for reading.

-k