Illicit [Harry Styles]

Chapter 76

It took me at least two hours to fall asleep. Eventually I was so drained that I just drifted off. I don't remember what I was thinking about before I went to sleep, but it definitely wasn't the same as the first thing that popped into my head when I woke. There was a blissful few minutes when I hadn't yet remembered the events of the night before, and I wish I could've lived in that moment forever. All of a sudden the pain came flooding back and it was all I felt. The loss totally consumed me.

I could hear voices downstairs, one was my mum's, but the other I wasn't sure about at first. I tried to listen hard and that's when it came to me - it was Louise, Harry's mum.

I leapt out of bed and hurriedly went down the stairs, feebly turning the corner to find my mum comforting Louise on the sofa. She wasn't crying, but she did seem like she was having to try awfully hard not to. My attention turned to the back doors as Harry's dad, Ian, marched in, his phone to his ear.

"Thanks for nothing," he hissed, hanging up the call and running his hands through his dark hair in an exasperated manner. 

"What did they say?" Louise asked, looking hopefully at her husband from beside my mum.

"Because of his history and the nature of the crime, they're not giving him bail. He'll be waiting for his trial in a prison cell."

"What? No!" She yowled, "When's the trial?"

"They can't say yet, it's never normally straight away." Ian sat down at the dining table with his body facing Louise, looking stressed with a hand massaging his forehead.

"Is he in prison now?" I found myself asking, quietly. I was concerned about how Harry would behave in prison. He's different now, would he be scared and obedient, or would he find himself having to adapt back into his old ways to survive?

All heads raised to meet my gaze at the bottom of the stairs. "Not yet, they'll be transporting him today," Ian advised.

"Jess..." my mum cooed, "How are you feeling? Any better?"

"Do you know anything? Did he do this?" I ignored my mum, directing my question towards Louise.

"I was hoping you did," she replied, sounding worried. "He tells you everything, Jess, we're none the wiser."

"Is it bad?" I asked Ian, "How long is he looking at?"

"It could be anywhere from one to ten years... Excluding the one year automatically added on for breaching his suspended sentence." 

I couldn't even feel anymore hurt, I just felt mentally exhausted. I was just so disappointed that everything that'd happened was for nothing, and we were back to square one. I couldn't help but ask, "Why does Zayn have such a big problem with Harry?"

Everyone in the room looked confused in response.

"Well it has to be Zayn that reported it, doesn't it? Both charges are relating to him and his family."

"I didn't know that was the case," Ian mused, with the same crease in-between his brows that I've seen from Harry as he looked at me.

So no one knew. Was there another big secret Harry had been hiding from me? There had to be some reason why him and Zayn didn't get on. 

"Can we speak to him?"

"Not today, Jess. He's getting sent to prison - there'll be a lot going on in terms of checking him in, so to speak. We'll be able to go and see him during visiting hours tomorrow."

I just couldn't wait that long. Not knowing the ins and outs of all this made me so anxious; I couldn't imagine spending all day just waiting. 

"Why don't you go into school?" Louise suggested kindly. Until now, none of us had even considered that today was Tuesday and I was supposed to be at sixth form for nine AM - it must've been past ten now.