Always, Alice

Christmas Eve

Once they had finished their performance Alice decided to pop outside for some fresh air. She knew she needed a breather if she was to survive the rest of the evening - especially at the rate they were inhaling their drinks.

She stepped outside, the loud music and voices suddenly dimmed in the cold of the night. Snow was still falling heavily now, would it ever stop snowing this year? Upon checking her phone she realized it was after 8pm and the worried feeling she had felt earlier suddenly returned. Harry had said he would be there by now. Alice tried to look on the not so morbid side of things as she usually did - perhaps his flight had been delayed, maybe there had been delays once he had landed at his mums, maybe he was so happy to see his family he had simply forgotten to drop her a message. However, with the snow still falling heavily - she couldn't help but start to feel uneasy.

Alice clicked on 'H', deciding to phone him to put her mind at ease, just hearing his voice would settle her building nerves. However, without even a ring, the line cut off. She checked her signal, moving further out into the open and tried again - same thing. The muffled voices from the pub became louder for a second, someone else coming outside.

'Hey,' she heard from behind her as Hayley burst through the door. 'Niall's on drinks duty, pretty sure he might come back with three Guinness though cause he wasn't listening to a word I was saying,' she chuckled, her blonde ponytail swaying as she wrapped her arms around Alice. 'You okay? Any word from Harry?'.

'No not yet, it's getting quite late. It just beeps out when I call,' Alice said, nerves floating through her voice. She couldn't help it, she was officially worried about him now, it wasn't like Harry to not be in touch.

'Maybe he just got so excited to see his family, maybe he forgot to charge his phone or something, I'm sure he's fine honey. Come inside it's freezing out here,'. Hayley began to walk back inside.

'Yeah I hope-' as Alice was talking her phone suddenly lit up, an unknown number which was strange. She lifted the phone to her ear quicker than lightning, 'Hello?' she said hurriedly.

'Hey,' she heard Harry's deep voice reply from the other end of the line. He sounded tired, a bit drowsey even but relief flooded through her body at the sound of his voice - just knowing that he was there was enough to make her heart return to a normal pace.

'Oh thank god, I was getting worried you hadn't called, you made it there okay?'. She heard Harry start to chuckle on the other end of the line and her brow furrowed in confusion.

'Not exactly, I'm actually currently on my way back home,' he said slowly.

'What?' said Alice, excited for a moment before it dawned on her that something might be wrong.

'Well, the snow was a bit wild, I - I kinda wrote off my car,' he said, 'But I'm totally okay don't worry,' he added as Alice gasped down the line.

'Harry! Are you hurt - wait, how are you getting home?' she said quickly, Hayley turning on her heels and heading inside to get Niall, she knew something was up.

'A few bumps and bruises, maybe a concussion but I'm grand, I promise.' his voice was dipping in and out of signal, perhaps he was traveling.

'Shit, where are you?' Alice heard Harry laugh again, she rarely used curse words and knew Harry found it funny when she did.

'One of the police officers - Andy, he's running me home from the hospital, let me borrow his phone too, mines a wreck,' he said sadly, almost seeming more sad about his phone than the car.

'I'll meet you at yours okay? I'll head now, we all will,' she said, the alcohol she'd had seemed to disappear from her system, the fog lifting from her brain and red alert setting in.