Adorable Excerpt

When he woke, Harmon was sitting on the couch with a notebook in hand, she was writing pretty intensely. He didn’t want to disturb her so he just laid there for a while. The urge to get up and relieve his bladder was becoming more and more urgent. Finally after a good half hour and no sign that Harmon was ever going to stop writing and notice he was awake, he stretched and rolled off the mattress and on to the floor, intentionally of course. When Elijah stood, Harmon snapped out of her very concentrated writing state. He said nothing to her, just headed straight to the bathroom… He had a bladder full and had no time to stop and chat about it… After pissing, he allowed his eyes to wander around the bathroom. He locked eyes with his reflection. Bed head! He tried to fix it with water but nothing was working. He needed a hair cut… really bad! He made the mental note to go get one as soon as possible. Elijah spun around checking himself out one more time before grabbing the door knob… stuck? How could it be stuck? He tried twisting the stupid gold ball one way, then the other… He tried to jiggle it and pull and push… nothing was working… Harmon, still sitting on the couch, heard his failed attempts. She came in the room and tried opening the door from the outside… nothing. The two of them gave up after almost an hour… Harmon, luckily, didn’t need to use the bathroom… but Elijah wanted out and to see her nonetheless. Harmon gave up and slid down the door, back pressed firmly against the hollow wood.

“No use! You are trapped here forever.” She joked.

Elijah smiled, he didn’t mind if he was trapped there in Winters forever, just as long as he could get out of the bathroom and hold her.

“but… what about Irving? Who will feed him? who will love him?”

“who will know who Irving is!” she paused… “wait… who is Irving?”

“Who is Irving? Irving is my snake. I gave P.J my house key so he could go feed him once a week…” he tried the door again, still stuck.

He got tired of standing, so he too slid down the door. When he sat, he felt something hit his hand. A note.

“Top drawer in the back, it’s a pen… use it.”

He reached around in the top drawer for it… first time he came out with a tampon… threw it back in the drawer and fished around again. PEN! Finally…

Elijah picked up the paper and wrote back. “This could be interesting.”

He slid the paper back under the door and Harmon picked it up.

“I’m going to write a word. You write the word that first comes to your mind when you read it…” she left a huge space on the page and then wrote “Olive.” She slid the paper to Elijah.

“Olive?” he said out loud. “alright… hmm”

He scribbled “juice” down on the page and pushed the paper back to her.

She smiled and wrote “apple” and slid it back.

Elijah didn’t read it. He unfolded the sheet of paper and drew a picture. There was a wall and two hearts on either side… under it he wrote “if I can’t hold you, you’re too far away.”

His heart was beating hard against the inside of his chest. There is nothing to hide, he thought to himself before slipping the drawing under the door back at her.

Harmon sat there on the floor looking at the drawing and the words. This was so unrealistic. She couldn’t help but to just sit there and take it all in. After this long, here she was… sitting on the ground outside the bathroom with a boy that was so in love with her on the other side of the door… and she couldn’t think. She remembered there was a way to get him out of the bathroom. Standing on her tip toes, she reached to get the tiny key that would unlock the door… She placed the small piece of metal in the tiny hole in the door knob and it clicked into place. Silly boy never thought to check the lock. Elijah heard the door handle start to move around and he stood up and backed away, careful not to get hit with the door if it were to open. Harmon shoved her shoulder into the door and it gave way. She tripped, not exactly expecting the door to open as easily as it did. When the door opened, there they were, face to face. Harmon let go of the key and wrapped her arms around his torso. He was warm, nice contrast to her freezing hands.