Lush Expiration | Harry Styles AU | BOOK 3 ✓

02

Vicky West

I felt it.

Breathing became outrageously hard when Louis parked the car in front of Harry's house. All I could do was stare, and feel my heart beat at a rapid pace. Sweat appeared on my forehead, and my eyes couldn't move away from the front door. Maybe, just maybe, the door would be opened and he'd stand there. Looking at me lovingly and opening his arms widely.

If he wanted to hold you, he wouldn't have left in the first place. I knew that in the back of my mind, I had already given up on this fairy-tale; the happy ending, the romantic moments together and the undying love. Our love had died.

''Louis,'' I breathed out. ''I don't know if I can do this?'' I asked worriedly.

He took my hand, and pressed a light kiss on it. ''You can, Vicks. I know you've got the urge to flee, but we own the key. We need to do this. Perhaps we even may find something that could show us where he is.'' He assured me, but I started to doubt if Harry really left something behind. Harry disappeared for a reason; not to be found.

Louis knew I had to take a couple of minutes before leaving the car. Inside, I felt protected and as if there was nothing that could possibly hurt me. I was determined to avoid extreme pain at all cost. Louis looked at me for a couple of seconds, and slowly but surely I looked back. I nodded my head carefully, and the decision was made; we were going inside.

Standing in front of his door with the keys, didn't make me step back. I put the key into the keyhole and unlocked the door. I pressed the buttons for the alarm, so that Louis and I could walk in without any trouble. When I was done and stared into the hallway, all I could remember was coming home with Harry

In my mind, I pictured him walking over to me. His hands holding the mail he just received and pushing his hair back while standing in front of me. His cheek flustered because of all the hard work he had been doing. Then he'd kiss me gently on the lips, telling me dinner was almost ready and that he had made some tea for me already. Something that was enormously sweet, and a routine I had become quite used to.

But, he wasn't here to walk up to me. On the contrary, it was painfully silent inside. I could feel that there hadn't been someone around for a long time. Well, not Harry. I glanced at Louis who was looking around and suggested that we should part ways for a bit. Firstly, I didn't want to split up but we had to walk through this house on our own and let it all sink in. He was gone.

From the day I stepped into his house, I noticed how organized all of his rooms were. Whereas, his office at the Moulin Rouge was an utter disaster. But I kept moving through the house and staring at a couple of pictures Harry had put on the wall. I never anticipated that I'd feel everything coming over me again. Even so, walking around in a place I spent a majority of my time years ago was harder than I thought. I heard Louis' actions vanishing in the distance as I opened the door to his office here at home. I decided to shut the door behind me, and see if there was anything I could possibly find.

Paperwork was neatly put on the right side of the desk. His pen laid next to the white papers; ready to sign the business opportunities that he received. It seemed that as if everything was untouched. I moved his brown leather chair from the desk and sat down. My eyes were moving from the paperwork to the picture frames on his left. My hand grabbed one of them and I took a closer look. This was a picture which was taken a couple of weeks before we went to Texas. He had his arm wrapped around me, and Louis decided to photobomb. I snickered softly and reminisced over the moments we were spending our time together. We had it all, and now everything was destroyed because of a simple conflict in the past.

Texas, 2015

''What's going on?'' I questioned Harry and Jane as I stepped outside. Their eyes focused on me when I walked over to the both of them. However, I still kept my distance safely. ''Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?!'' I shouted frustratingly.