Limerence • h.s.

34.

"I need to help Niall with some shit," I say loud enough for her to hear over the sound of the shower. She peeks her head around the frosted glass, into the opening at the end of the long shower. 

"Okay, will you be long?"

I shake my head, fastening the belt on my jeans. "No."

She says nothing, returning to her shower. I run my fingers through my hair, looking at myself in the mirror for a brief moment. I look crazed. I'm out the door quickly, ensuring it shuts completely behind me before I'm walking down the hallway. 

My hands shake, so I rest them in my pockets. I need him to give me something. If Louis has nothing for me, there's no telling what I'll do. If I have to take matters into my own hands, then that is what I will do. As long as she doesn't have to see him again.

My fist connects with his door, and he opens it seconds later. "Hey," I walk past him, cutting him off.

"What do we know?" I ask, heading for the other side of the room. The sight of Louis, with so much computer equipment, makes me freeze. Niall places his hand on my shoulder as he walks by. "Louis is here, by the way."

"Harry, my best mate. How are you?"

I scowl with thinned eyes, walking over to see what he has pulled up on his screen. "What are you doing here?" I see the video paused on her back on one screen, likely on her way to get ice. The other monitor shows a street, all but abandoned.

"Figured we could dissect this shit together, I could help."

I look at him, one arm on the back of his chair, while my other hand lies flat over his desk. "Okay, thanks."

Louis and I have known each other for most of our lives, but I can't remember a time in the last five years that I've trusted him the way I used to. Getting involved with Micheal and his business at the ripe age of 20 altered who we were before. Louis went behind the scenes, and I rarely saw him. Then all of a sudden my talent was a scapegoat and I was on my own all of the time. Louis and Niall never used to work with me, but here we are. 

He just nods, looking back at the monitor and clicking a bunch of shit. The video of the street starts playing, and I watch intently. Nothing happens for a few moments, and then out of nowhere, a man in a black hoodie appears, rounding a corner into an alley.

He clicks some more, switching the view. I can't make out the guy's face, his head is down as he walks the short length of the alleyway. There's a car at the end, backed in out of sight. I know that's where he's headed, so I stare at it. Trying to get anything from it.

Just as I'm about to sigh, my jaw tense, he lifts his head to look around. He's unlocking the old-style vehicle, and for the smallest second his face is in view.

"Run it back, let me see his face."

Louis does as I say, Niall looking at the same thing as he leans over Louis' other side. He clips and zooms in, doing something to make it look as clear as possible even up close. It's still a little grainy, but as he pauses on the exact frame where his face lifts up, my grip on the desk tightens.

It's him.

"Perfect, show me the plate."

Louis and Niall share a look, and I sigh. "Do it, now."

Louis lets the video play, zoomed out as normal now. He leans back in his chair, giving me more room to look. The sight of the car pulling out and the back of it coming into the frame, with no plates, has me picking up something off the desk and launching it at the wall.

"What the fuck!"

"Fuck!" I yell, ignoring Louis. My hands shake again and I lean into the wall, fuming.