chapter thirty-seven

N.J.H.
Never alone. The word never meant more to me than they do now. I lay with Harry in silence, the way we had been for over ten hours. It's weird, the situation we're in. I never thought I'd be involved in such an insane caper.

"You okay?"

For the fifteenth time, I answer,

"Yep, peachy."

It seems like our conversation has transitioned to monotone,

"When's Louis coming?"

"A few minutes. He and Zayn just wanted to get food."

"Okay."

He gets up, leaving me to sink into the mattress. I hear him shut the door to the bathroom and I sigh, dragging my hands across my eyes. This is killing the two of us, and I can feel our relationship draining away along with our happiness. I close my eyes, feeling them ache as I only let my ears function. I bite my lip harshly, trying to stop the tears from escaping my eyes.

"Niall?"

I open my eyes quickly, looking at Harry, Louis and Zayn. I guess they came while I was trying to calm myself.

"Yeah?"

Louis looks at me, hurt by what he saw,

"Guys what's going on?"

Harry and I barely hear his question, as we only look at each other.

"Let me heart up some hot water first," he advises. I nod, and he takes my hand, leading me out of our bedroom.

•

"Louis, we think that Stan was lead on to attack you."

He sets his mug down, licking his lips nervously as his fingers fold in. I see Zayn reach for his hand almost immediately, and suddenly reassurance sinks in. I know Louis is in good hands for now.

"What do you mean?"

"At your party, there was a girl. Her name was Gwen. She was on her phone, and she was using it so secretively, so I grabbed it, just to see if she was doing something bad. Stan was texting her, and someone is paying him, her and three others to attack you guys."

"As in, Niall too?" Louis asks.

"I'm not sure..." I hear Harry murmur, "I mean--"

"I can't believe this is happening," he whispers, gripping his lip with his top teeth. I reach over to take his hand, but he whips it away from me,

"No you don't get it..."

Tears fall rapidly from his eyes and my mood goes from neutral to extremely worried. What we thought was going on, obviously isn't the truth.

"I was talking to him..." He sobs. The three of us practically fall out of our chairs at Louis' sudden admission. He covers his face with his hands and cries into them,

"Please don't be mad I me I swear I didn't know this was gonna happen I swear I-I--"

"Louis--Lou!" Zayn tries to calm him down, as his sobs make the rest of our voices inaudible. I hold my head as Harry wraps his arms around me. We both watch him try to calm down my best friend as he cries himself to insanity.

"When were you talking to him?" he tries again as soon as he has Louis crying quietly into his shoulder.

"Bef-f-ore I met you," Louis whimpers, "Niall was out and I was really depressed and for some reason my first instinct was to call him and--I'm sorry!"

"Louis it's okay," Zayn tells him again, "Louis, Louis baby we just need to know what he said."

"I told him I was feeling down and he was all sympathetic and shit and he asked me for my address so he could come over and I didn't even fucking think about if he could come back to hurt me."

"God," Zayn sighs, taking a lap around the kitchen, "this is so bad. So basically, Stan, Gwen, and three other people can kill us or something?"

"We're not sure what they're capable of," Harry explains, caressing the skin on my shoulders, "I hope it's not much."

"Are we going to the feds?"

"Not an option," I take over, "They'll lay low until the police think nothing's wrong."

"Plus," Harry mentions, "Stan is already in jail. They'll assume he's innocent."

"Okay, here's the first question; how did Stan get a cell phone in jail?"

"That's something we'll need to figure out," Harry answers, "I hate to sound cheesy and truthful, but we're all in this together. We got in it together, and we're gonna get out of it together.

"I think it's just me they're after anyway," Louis confesses, pressing the pads of his fingers against his forehead. Zayn rubs his shoulders and kisses his head before he gets off of the stool and walks away.

"I need some air..."

Zayn follows him out the door, leaving Harry and I alone in the kitchen. Once the back door shuts I depart as well, taking off upstairs. My head pounds and I don't want anyone to see me cry.

"Niall!"

Fuck. Of course Harry's gonna follow me.

"Niall please don't cry; you know I hate that."

"Doesn't fucking matter right now." I wail, hugging myself into a pitiful ball. I give up, crying my eyes out and feeling the pain seep into my veins. Harry lands on top of where I lay on the bed, hugging me tightly.

"I suppose you should let it all out..." he breathes into my ear. In response, I just cry harder. We sit there for what seems like days, my body shuddering as sobs leave my mouth. The stress of the entire thing had caught up to me, and I was just happy Harry was letting me have my moment.

It's scary, the fact that all our lives have been threatened by a single phone call Louis made out of depression. That I was so busy, he had to go to Stan.

"I'm such a terrible friend," I sniff after a while. The two of us had switched positions, me draped across his torso and him stroking my spine.

"Babe it's not your fault," he tells me quietly.

"Yes it is. God knows what the hell I was doing--I could've helped him. He wouldn't have felt compelled to go to Stan and everything would be okay."

"I only think this would've sped up the process," he explains, "I think it still would have happened."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Stan got a hint. Someone would have given it to him at some point. Louis just gave him that head start."

I nod and he slides down the bed, pushing our lips together,

"Don't worry. We're gonna get out of this."

He kisses me again and wraps his arms around my lower back, engulfing me in his embrace. I breathe steadily, inhaling his expensive cologne and exclusive smell. His lips taste like sugar, anything but bitter. My left leg wraps around his body as he hoist me up to align with his face. Harry kisses me harder and I kiss back with the same force as we seem to battle it out.

Our lips detach and he kisses my forehead,

"Better?"

I hesitate before answering a quick,

"Yes. Much better."

"Good," he smiles, "What do you want for breakfast?"

"Huh?" I look at the clock, "It's four in the afternoon babe."

"We didn't have breakfast!" He exclaims, "I refuse to skip a meal!"

"Fine fine," I giggle, "can I have some... waffles?"

"Belgian?"

"You know me so well!" I applaud him, "Wow, you remembered."

"Yep," he chuckles, "Wasn't that hard though. You reblogged entire posts about Belgian waffles."

"Wait--" I blush profoundly, "you follow me on Tumblr?"

"You gave it to me..." he laughs again, "silly goose, you forgot?"

"I want your phone now," I demand, giggling quietly as I wipe my tear stained cheeks a little, "You're a jerk and I'm making you unfollow me."

a little on the shorter side, just cause i had to get something out.updates will resume (but not as rapid fire as they were previously; school starts soon and sadly schoolwork comes first)