I wake up the next morning far too early for my liking. Ty and Car are both still asleep, so I decide to take a shower before they get up. I let the hot water pour over me for a few minutes while I stand still, just letting my mind go blank. This past week has been such a blur and I feel like my mind has been racing since the moment my mother died.

After what was probably the longest shower of my life, I wrap my hair in a towel and wrap another around my body. My friends are still sleeping like rocks, so I silently walk to my closet and get dressed. Back in the bathroom I put some anti-frizz gel in my hair and decide to just let it dry naturally today. I can't be bothered to put much effort into my appearance. My stomach growls, reminding me that I need to eat breakfast. Ty and Caroline are still sleeping, so I decide to go attempt to make us all some pancakes. After I've found everything I need I mix the batter together and pour some into the now hot pan. Hopefully Anne is home as well; she's done a lot for me, and as small as this gesture is it would be nice to do something in return.

My mom creeps back into my thoughts as I continue to prepare the pancakes. I wonder if this is really where she wanted me to stay. Maybe she meant to keep Anne as my legal guardian. Maybe this wasn't some sort of forgotten mistake. My mother wasn't irresponsible and the will was changed to accommodate the perks of her promotion years ago, so she would have had to have changed it at some point after she lost touch with Anne. Maybe she really did want me to live here. I guess that means I should try and makes this work. It's only for a year and half, right? Then I'm eighteen and I can start my own life. For now, even though she's not here anymore, my mom would still be the one making the decisions.

I hear feet walking towards me, and I happily spin around expecting to see Tyler or Caroline finally awake. I freeze in my spot when I see a very tired-looking Harry walking towards me while rubbing his eyes.

"Mum, are you making-" he stops short when he looks up at me, both of us just staring in silence. His expression goes from sleepy to confused. He's still only wearing his boxers. What? Why is he staring at me like that? "Well if it isn't Adison Jones."

I stare at him like an idiot for a minute before pulling myself together and responding. "You know who I am?"

"Uh, yeah. We go to school together," he says plainly, like it's the most obvious thing in the world. I thought he would says something about us being kids, but he doesn't. I turn back to my pancakes in an attempt to ignore the silence while he pours himself a glass of juice. I can feel him watching me while I tend to the fluffy patties, but I don't look at him. I feel slightly uncomfortable with how little clothing he's wearing. After about ten minutes I start feeling completely awkward, so I turn and set the plate holding my stack of pancakes on the island.

"You can umm...you can have some. Help yourself."

"Thanks." He takes a plate from the stack I already took out earlier and puts three pancakes on it. He drenches them in syrup and sits at the peninsula to eat them. We sit in silence again while he eats and I cook. There's something about him that puts me on edge. He makes me feel so...weird. This boy exudes a confidence I couldn't even dream of possessing. I let out a silent sigh of relief when I hear Tyler and Caroline's voices coming down the hall.

"Who's here?" Harry asks. He sounds like he's speaking more to himself than to me. He turns around and watches as my friends emerge, Tyler holding Caroline in a headlock.

"Let go of me!" she squeals, squirming around in his grasp. He laughs and continues walking towards the kitchen, then stops short when he sees me and Harry. He finally releases Caroline and she whacks his arm relatively hard. Her face goes a little bit pale when she also notices Harry.

"Hey Harry," Tyler says. Caroline quickly fixes her hair and wipes under her eyes to try and make herself appear more attractive. Obviously she would want to impress Harry.

"Hey, Ty. Not to be rude, but what the hell are you doing in my house?" His tone is playful, but also confused. He's kind of intimidating, that's for sure.

"Adie invited us over," he says, taking the seat next to him. Car sits next to Tyler and mouths a 'holy shit' to me.

"You two are friends?" he clarifies, pointing between us. He nods as I set the plate of pancakes in front of them. "Now that you mention it, I do see you guys together at school a lot."

"I'm Caroline," Car butts in, leaning forward and looking past Ty. He rolls his eyes at me and I smile, knowing why he's doing it. Car would take any chance to flirt with Harry or one of his infamous friends. She thinks they're all to die for.

"Hi," Harry says simply, giving her a small wave and going back to his pancakes. Ty and Car both start eating as well. An uncomfortable silence fills the room and I attempt to keep myself busy while they eat so I don't feel too weird. Eventually Tyler manages to start a conversation with Harry about football. I don't follow it, but Caroline tries to insert herself a few times. Eventually Harry gets up and puts his plate away.

"Thanks for breakfast," he says simply as he walks back towards his room. Caroline watches him go, quickly spinning back around to look at me when he's gone.

"Holy shit! Ad, he's so hot! You're so luck! Did you see the ass on that boy? My goodness and he's got the nicest abs-"

"I'm still here," Tyler says, covering her hand with his mouth. She rolls her eyes as he removes it.

"I can't believe you know him," she continues. "Why didn't you introduce me?"

"Did you not hear the part where we were eight years old?"

"Details. Did you get a good look at him? I would be all over that if I was you."

"But you're not, so you can't. It would be weird, Car, we live in the same house. Plus, he barely even notices me."

"Are you kidding? He was watching you the whole time!"

"He probably just feels weird because there's a stranger living in his house."

She sighs and lets it go, much to my excitement. I know that's not the last I'm going to hear of that, that's for sure. Anne finally comes out of her room while I'm starting to eat my own breakfast and Ty and Car have moved to the living room to watch TV. I think they're more at home here than I am

"Good morning, you three. Smells lovely."

"Help yourself," I tell her, handing her a plate.

"Don't mind if I do."

"Anne, can I ask you something?"

"Of course. What's on you mind?"

"Your pool...it's november and it's still open. How does that work?"

She laughs and sits next to me. "It's a special kind of system. It's heated all year. It's only a few degrees cooler than the hot tub. We don't get a very long summer here, so I figured what's the point of having a pool if you don't use it? So I keep it open all year."

"That's cool, I've never seen that before." We eat in silence for a few minutes before she speaks up again.

"Adie, I know you're going through a lot right now. I realize this is a strange environment for you and you're still grieving and you need someone you know and trust. So whenever you feel like you need one of your friends or both," she says, motioning behind her to Tyler and Caroline, "feel free to have them here."

I give her a grateful smile. "Thanks Anne." It really does seem like she cares about me, like she's trying hard to make sure I feel comfortable here. Maybe this won't be so bad after all.

---

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Car asks for the zillionth time as she steps out the front door.

"Yes, I'm sure. Ty is still here anyway. Go to work, I'll be fine." I give her a reassuring smile, the best I can manage, and she hugs me before flitting down the steps to her car. She waves one more time before climbing in and driving off. I rejoin Tyler in my bedroom where he's doing something on my iPad and laying on my bed.

"She's going to be obsessed with him," he says without looking up from the screen. I lay on my back next to him.

"I know."

We lay in silence for a while and I resort to twirling my ring around. I have one more day before I go back to school. I'm probably so behind. I really just don't feel like going back at all. I don't want to be around those people. Ty and Caroline are the only ones that really know me. Tyler actually gets what I'm going through; his Dad died when he was ten. He and I have always had more in common and me and Car. He just knows me so well; he knows when to ask me about something and when I want to talk, and he can also tell when I want to be left alone. Or when I just need him here without saying anything. Like right now.

"Ty?"

"Yeah."

I lay on my side and prop my head up on my hand, looking past him out the window. "Do you think I could be happy here?"

He sighs and sets the tablet down beside him, then mimics my position to make me look at him.

"I really do. Anne seems really great, Ad. I can see why your mom chose her even if they didn't talk anymore."

I swallow the lump in my throat at the mention of my mother. "What do you mean?"

"She's a lot like your mum. I mean I don't know her very well, but she's got that caring spirit that your mother did. You can tell she really cares about people, especially you. When she was telling all those stories about you last night she was telling them like you were her actual kid. I can see that she cares about you."

"You got all that after like a minute?" I tease, poking his stomach. An unwelcome tear rolls down my cheek and Tyler wipes it away for me. "Is it betraying my mom to start calling this home? She's not with me, how can this be home?" I ask, voice barely a whisper.

He lays on his back and pulls me up against him. I rest my head on his chest while the tears continue to fall and he rubs my back in comfort. "It's what she wanted, Ad. She chose this to be your home. Your mum was brilliant and you were the most important thing in the world to her; she wouldn't have made this decision lightly. She always knew what was best. Give it a shot. If you're miserable, you know you can always live with me. My mom adores you anyway."

I laugh through my tears and nod my head in response, not trusting my voice while crying. We lay there in silence for a bit while I continue to cry. Eventually it exhausts me and my eyelids droop closed.

Harry's POV

Fuck I'm hung over. It's times like these when I promise myself I'll never drink again. How did I even get home? Thankfully my mum didn't seem to notice anything. Then I wake up and there's a random girl from my school cooking in my kitchen. What the hell is happening? Then I remembered my mum telling me that Adison would be moving in with us. I wonder if she remembers me from when we were young. Obviously she knows who I am now, everyone at our school does. I'm not being cocky, it's just a fact. But I remember us being like...best friends as kids. Then our moms stopped talking and so did we. I remember when we started high school I wanted to be friends with her again, but she intimidated me. She had...matured a lot faster than the other girls our age and she was so beautiful that it scared me.

I didn't even realize that Tyler is friends with her. That could have been my in with her ages ago. We've played football together since freshmen year. Adison pretty much kept to herself these few years; other than Ty and that blonde chick she doesn't talk to a lot of people. She's not a loser; if she was my friends would have done something to her by now. She's just...quiet. Reserved. It's different.

I grab fresh clothes so I can shower; I don't have my own bathroom. Everyone else does, but not me. I could have taken the room Adison is in right now, but that would kind of be like sharing a room with Gemma and when we moved into this house I really hated the idea. So now I have to use the bathroom down the hall. When I exit my room I do a double take; Adison's door is open and she's lying on her bed. With Tyler. They're...cuddling. I thought they were just friends? Doesn't really look like it now.

Notes

so i decided i am going to do some stuff in harry's pov, but when i do it'll be short and i wont do it very often. itll just be a small look into what he's thinking.

let me know what you think so far :)

vote and subscribe!! get those numbers up :)