Page 101 of House of Bass

“Luke paints too, not as much as he used to but back then it was a shared enjoyment. When he sat in his art room, I was there with him too. He used to call me his favourite protegee.” Harley noted the wistfulness in her voice, her eyes remembering a lost time as she stared at the wall. “Anyways, This house was the first to witness my first stroke of paint, so I figured why not? I was seventeen when I did it. The whole thing took me months but I’m really proud of how good it turned out.”

“You should be,” Harley said and brazenly kissed her on the lips, softly and slowly. Her hands settled on her bum and squeezed it. Careful not to let it go too far, she lifted her head, “We should go before people start looking for us.”

Scar pouted then bit her jaw affectionately. “Let me get dressed.”

They walked down together, hands held, and the second they were within sight were met with whistles and jeers from their friends at the bottom of the stairs. Partygoers littered around were looking up at them in curiosity but scattered away from a single look from Lucas.

“Do they know they’re in each other’s clothes?” Bloss said, grinning widely.

“Considering how long they spent up there…” Annabel replied, a similar smirk on her face.

Posy and Amb had joined the group, the former shaking her head with no malice as she pulled her to the side. “You’re never going to listen to a word I say about staying away, are you?”

Harley shook her head in reply. “I don’t care what the old man thinks, I have seen first hand what letting him control you does. I won’t let him.”

She nodded, accepting that. “Good for you, it’s about fucking time someone did that.”

Scarlett and Bloss were whispering into each other's ears when Jeremiah asked the former, a playful smirk dangled over his lips. “Does this mean you’re no longer going to bite our heads off when we talk to you?”

She narrowed her eyes and gave a cute growl that was all teeth. “Fuck off.”

Then Amb looked to Harley, a cheeky glimmer in his eye “Harley, we can’t thank you enough for taming our grim reaper.” This led to Scarlett chasing them about, before the two boys tag teamed and carried her into the living room as she yelled at them both to put her down.

Harley laughed at their antics as Annabel came up to her, pulling her into a hug and whispered in her ear, “I’m happy for you, you deserve this.”

“Thank you,” she replied, and she meant it from the very depth of her heart, which she was coming to find out existed.

Lucas walked up to her as everyone else chattered away, his face the picture of stone.“Don’t fuck this up again or you’ll have me to deal with.”

“Not going to happen.” She stood her ground, looking him in the eye without blinking away.

He nodded, then a slow smile crept out, “Welcome to the family.”

Harley wasn't sure she’d ever truly feel comfortable around him considering what he did and represented but this felt like a truce, so she took it for what it was.

Later that night it was just the eight of them left, they cut the party short and they spent the rest of their time congregating in the living room, talking until the sun rose. Scar sat on her lap on one of the small armchairs, while Jere and Ambrose each took a bean bag. Bloss and Lucas sat on opposite ends of the couch, while Posy sat on the floor with Annabel beside her. She was happy to see her beaming and getting along with everyone; their outing had helped her after all.

Harley couldn’t believe that mere months ago she had almost no one in her life and now she couldn’t picture it without the people in front of her.

✧✧✧

Over the next couple weeks, she and Scarlett had spent their time even more attached at the hip than normal. They had sex in any empty room they could find; TUL, the Cafe, her room, Luke’s place. Annabel had been out of the house a lot because of the showcase, which was tonight. And where they were headed.

After that night, Scarlett and Annabel had called a truce and were willing to be copacetic for her sake but it didn't mean her girlfriend would want to attend a ballet recital. She laughed internally remembering their conversation earlier.

“I’ll make it up to you, I promise.” Harley begged leaning over the till desk at the empty cafe as Scar did idle work about.

“I hate ballet and your sister, why would I go?”

“Because you love me?”

“I only ever attended those other events because I wanted to see you and I needed a decent excuse.”

“Aw you really love me, does this mean you’ll go?”

She glared at her from across the room, and Harley knew she’d have to say something that’d swing the scale on her side. “No sex.” She watches as Scarlett's whole body froze then slowly turned around.

“What did you say to me?”