Dépaysement (h.s)

76

My eyebrows furrow, "Then let's go get him."

They nod, Zayn grabs all the stuff we need to give to him and we exit the apartment, taking the elevator to Niall's floor.

I pound on the door a couple times awaiting someone to open it.

No one does.

I jiggle the doorknob and it opens so I happily walk in, "Nialler where you at?!" I shout looking around his place.

Jade comes into view from the top of the stairs, she walks down a step and sniffles, "What are you guys doing here?"

"Getting Niall, we gotta meet with the PI." Zayn sits on their couch.

"PI? Huh?" She crosses her arms.

Louis nods, "Yeah we hired one to find—" he clears his throat, "Delilah."

Her eyes widen, "Oh Niall didn't tell me that."

"We texted but he never answered, where is he?"

She clears her throat, "I don't know."

My eyebrows furrow, "You don't know where he is?" She shakes her head, "He left two days ago and hasn't come back, we uh—we had an argument."

My lips go flat, "Oh."

"Do you want us to find him?" Zayn queries.

She waves her hand back and forth, "No it's fine, just go deal with your shit and I'll tell him you stopped by if I see him. Let me know how it goes."

Zayn stands as we walk to the door. I nod at her, "See ya."

We drive to a park, thankfully one with no children around, and see him sitting at a bench under an overhang, he stands once he sees us, "Louis, good to see you again." He shakes his hand.

Zayn and I shake hands with him and he introduces himself, "Benjamin Wright, nice to meet you."

He's a middle aged man, probably mid forties. I usually think of PI's on the sort of heavy set side and baldness but he's pretty skinny with a full head of hair, doesn't look legit already.

We sit across from him as he has some folders laid out on the table, "I have all my information here if you'd like to see."

We look over his licenses and insurance, "How long have you been in this business?" I look up at him as he watches us go through his information.

He ruffles his coat and sighs, "About twenty one years I'd say. Officially started when I was twenty five."

"I assume you performed a background check on us." I say.

He laughs, "We all have jobs to do. Unless I'm specifically hired against you, which I don't see happening, then my mouth is shut."

I hand him his folders before clasping my hands together on the table, "Alright you seem legit enough, you need to see any of our information before we get started?" He shakes his head, "Not needed. Only some information of the person I'm really here for."

Zayn hands him a stack of papers that he brought, he typed and printed as much information about Delilah as he could even though I suggested just giving him a picture of her and her name.

Benjamin reads over the paper aloud, "Delilah Lavigne, twenty two years old, birthdate is December 22nd." His eyes lift up to us, "Do you have a photograph?" Zayn points behind a few papers and Benjamin pulls it out, "Alright, and I assume you don't have an address as to where she is?"

We all shake our heads in unison, "Somewhere on the East Coast." Louis speaks.

Benjamin narrows his eyes, "How do you know this for sure?"

We give him the run down, basically just the information given to us through the letter she left.

"You don't believe she's being held captive or in danger?" He questions.

I clear my throat, "We don't know much if I'm honest, so I can't answer that."

He hums, "Well, I will start on the furthest point of the East coast and work my way down."

"Why do you make it sound so simple? It's not that easy, you will come across millions of people. How are you so sure you can find her?" I blurt out.

He places the paper on the table and looks at me with a sigh, "I've been doing this for a very long time. I know what I'm doing and how to do it, I can assure you that I will find your friend. I usually like to give my clients an estimated amount of time and considering this involves me going through several states, let's give it three months."

My eyes widen. Three months? He's assuring me that I will have my girl in the next three months.

"Now let's discuss payment." He continues.

We finish up our meeting and get in the car, "I don't trust that guy." Zayn speaks after buckling.

Louis' eyebrows furrow, "Zayn you don't trust literally anyone. Shut up." Zayn rolls his eyes but does what Louis says—since he's kinda right— and looks out the window the rest of the ride.

I stayed quiet the whole time, I don't know whether to feel uneasy or ecstatic. Anybody who has ever promised me anything either lied or it fell through. I learned not to get excited over anything anymore.

We arrive back at our building and see Niall getting out of his car with a frustrated expression, "Ni!" I shout his name and he looks towards us, "Where were you today?" I ask when we approach.

He shrugs and mutters, "I had things to do."

My eyes narrow, "You had...things to do? What was more important?" I cross my arms.

His eyes roll, "Quite frankly it's not any of your business. I'm gonna go now." He flattens his lips and walks off into the building and elevator.

"Okay, what the fuck was that?" Louis blurts, stunned.

I arch my eyebrows, "He's probably just in a pissy mood from arguing with Jade." But damn was he hostile.

We shrug his behavior off and get to our apartment. For a while we just sat on the couch watching TV while eating takeout that Zayn ordered, I eventually got up and went to my room to shower the day off and climb in bed so I can read her letter for the thousandth time. It never gets old.

I always feel different emotions while doing it, sometimes I'm happy just reading the memories and things she took notice of, or I get angry because it was so abrupt and sudden, no warning or anything. But most of the time I'm just sad. Sad that we didn't have more time, sad that she was so miserable and I didn't even know, she always thought everything was her fault when that wasn't the case. I hate that she didn't tell me most of these things, and I hate that I was usually always wrong about what she felt. I thought I knew her better but I couldn't have been further from the truth.

Once I get her back I swear to never let her go again.

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wtf is up with niall. bitch