Page 81 of Together in Harmony
Breakfast is here, time to wake the gang and spoil their day before it has even started.
HUGO
Asa has wheeled a cart full of breakfast out onto the roof terrace. Very nice. We definitely worked up an appetite last night.
Me, Lennox and Harmony are all wearing the hotel robes. Harmony’s drags along the ground, she looks all sleepy and adorable. As I’m passing the living area of the suite, the hotel room phone rings.
“Can I speak to Hugo Piper?”
“Who is calling?”
The voice doesn’t answer my question.
“We’d love to get your response to the Big Buzz article,” the voice says. “How long has Mercury Rising been hanging out with Frenzy Towers? Which one of you is dating her?”
“Fuck off,” I shout, slamming the phone down.
Lennox and Harmony are looking at me, puzzled. Asa though, he gives me a look. He knows what this is about, and it’s not good.
“Come and get some coffee,” he says. We follow him outside and sit, waiting for the hammer to drop.
“The tabloids have found out about Harmony hanging with us. And that she is Clash’s estranged daughter.”
“Oh no,” whispers Harmony, her face turning white. “What do they say?”
“Just a load of crap, sweetheart,” says Asa. I’m already pulling out my phone. I’d had it silenced, otherwise I'd have seen the hundreds of texts that have flooded in from just about everyone I know.
Lennox looks at his phone, but after a minute throws it on the table in frustration. “What does it say? You know it takes me forever to read.”
Asa gives us the Cliff notes of the couple of articles he read. When he tells about the insinuation that Lennox, Harmony and Clara were hooking up, I see Lenny’s fists clench.
“Stop,” says Harmony. “I don’t want to hear any more.” Her head slumps down, I cannot bear to see her trying to disappear again.
“Harmony.”
She looks at me.
“If I tell you something, then that means it’s true, correct?”
Harmony nods, but she is still biting her lip. Darling needs to trust me fully.
“I’ll ask again. If I tell you something, then it means it is true…is that correct?”
This time she straightens her spine. “Yes, Hugo,” she says softly.
“Good girl. Now listen to what I am saying, this is not a big deal. We are going to handle it. Do you believe me?”
I can see all kinds of thoughts flitting behind her eyes, but eventually they settle.
She comes over and sits on my lap. “Yes, Hugo.”
We eat breakfast then Harmony goes to shower.
I look at my brothers. “Thoughts?”
“Before she had no one to stick up for her, now she has all of us,” growls Asa. “We just have to make her realize everything is different now.”
“We should go visit the aunts with her,” suggests Lennox.
