Daddy issues // Harry Styles

Chapter 24

Except for Julianne, your best friend, but even her you kept at arm's length. She didn't make it a secret of what her opinion on all this was. She thought you were crazy, and wrong, and crazy wrong. Harry had visited the office, even got in touch with her and desperately pleased for her to tell him where you were. All she did was tell him you were alright, but that you didn't want him to keep trying to find you. Which, paradoxically- is exactly what you'd have wanted her to tell him, but you still felt hurt that she told him that. If that made any sense? To you it did. That was the truth of it.

"Ok, employee of the month. I got this. You can clock out before he finds something else for you to do" Nancy chimed, snapping you out of your reverie once more "You're really jumpy these days, aren't ya? Ever since that irish bloke came about here last week..."

You rolled your eyes, taking your apron off

"What? C'mon. You left with him all teary eyed... And ever since, you've been zoning out constantly. Did he break up with you? Is that what's been bugging you?"

You sighed "No. Nothing's bugging me"

"Oh, please. Girl, if it's any consolation. I've seen a car parked across the road for a few days now. I think he's working up his courage to come talk to you. It's always ever here when you're here, during my shifts I never see it. I only see it when we swap"

You froze at that "Wh... what? What kind of car?"

"It's not the one he came in last week, so maybe it's not him at all and it's just a coincidence, or maybe he's got a friend to keep an eye on you or something? Or maybe it's a stalker?" she laughed and you squinted at her not knowing what was so funny about the latter option "Oh shit, do you think it's a sick perv from the diner stalking you? I never really thought about it that way!"

"Nancy! What kind of car?"

"I don't know the make of it. All I know is it's not the same as the one the irish dude drove last week, it's not as nice as that one"

Your blood froze in your veins and you could feel yourself go all pale

"Shit, Y/N. Are you ok? I was only kidding about the stalker, I'm sure it's nothing! Look, I'll keep an eye on the car and tell you if I really think something suspicious is going on, ok?"

"Yeah, yeah... I'll, uhm" you cleared your throat "I'll just use the backdoor tonight, just to be safe, ok? See you tomorrow" you smiled awkwardly at Nancy, knowing full well you'd not be seeing her the next day, and grabbed your tote bag, leaving the way you said you would.

You rushed through the backalley, patting yourself on the back for never driving in to work (mainly for financial reasons) making sure you couldn't be spotted from the front and took a considerable detour to your apartment complex that reminded you of cheap motels you'd only previously seen in movies. You fumbled with your keys unlocking your flat with shaky hands and immediately fished out your suitcase from underneath the bed, tossing it open over your bedding.

You pushed your hair out of your face and tried to calm down a bit, but you just couldn't stop shaking.

You couldn't risk it, you couldn't let this all go to waste for nothing. Darn it to hell, and darn Niall for being a lying piece of shit and telling Harry where you were!

Before you knew it, you were grabbing what little clothes you had out of the dresser and throwing them in the suitcase, hangers and all. You threw all your lingerie over top, making sure to fish out of a sock all the cash you'd saved up and hide it in your bra. It wasn't much, unfortunately, with the lousy jobs you'd had there were never any means to save up much, but it should be enough to get you to wherever you'd land next and buy you a few days at a cheap motel until you find another waitressing job.