A Moment in the Crowd

Chapter 47: Motel 6

Lily:

"He just showed up, and I don't know what was wrong with him but that boy looked like crap I'm telling you. He hadn't slept in over 24 hours and he thinks he can go after you. Lily, I'd really like to know what is going on."

My mother is frantically attempting to explain what's just happened at the house, and her voice booms into the speeding car that I've been driving on and off for the past day. 

"Ugh, and I thought I was being dramatic. I told him we couldn't be together, Mom. I can't do it, with the press and the media and all that shit. I can't handle it and you know I like my life to be considered private. He clearly didn't take it so well..."

I can hear her sigh from the other end of the line. We wrap up the conversation and soon the line goes dead. I'm left to the beat up rental of a car that I used pretty much all of my savings for, and the silence consumes me. All I can hear now is the beating of my own heart, ringing incessantly in my ears. 

If I thought Harry was going to overreact, I didn't think it would be this big. I thought he might just vent to his own family or something, but he should never have left to come all this way.

I park mindlessly into the empty lot next to a beat up motel. I use the spare change and money that I brought along with me for the night. When I jiggle the lock on the door to the room, I'm left to a creaking and empty double bed, with carpeted flooring and ancient looking walls. Surprisingly, it's more accommodating than the motel I stayed in last night.

I throw my suitcase, stuffed with random articles of clothing, onto the mattress and it creaks under the weight. I throw myself onto it next, and it squeaks as if it might break any second. Great.

My mind hasn't been functioning properly for the past day. All I could think to do was get out of that house, surrounded by my family, and memories of Harry being in it only a few short months earlier. I couldn't wrap my mind around what I'd said to him, and despite hoping he wouldn't contact me, I still checked my phone every few hours while on the road just in case. I didn't know what else to think or do, it all just happened in a blurr of frustration and emotional drainage. I haven't felt this confused and frustrated in years, and I can barely remember the last time I let someone get to me like this. In fact, I'm pretty sure no one has.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I expect it to be my mother. I don't bother looking to see if it is, I just answer right away. The name on the screen doesn't flash "Mom" though, and it's too late to hang up.

"Lily? Where are you? Please tell me where you are, and I'll be there." Harry's voice is frantic, tired, exhausted, and so desperate. I've never heard anyone sound the way he does.

"Harry, why are you in Canada? Why did you leave?" 

But he disregards my questions immediately.

"It doesn't matter, I just need you to tell me where you are. Please, that's all I need." Is he really begging? What has gotten into my mind that the low rumbling voice of Harry Styles is begging to know my location.

"Fuck, I'm at Motel 6 just outside of New York City." I tell him, and before I can process my own thoughts, he's muttering things on the other end before it goes dead.

I guess I'm stuck here for a few more hours. It takes just over 8 hours to drive from my home to New York, but I ended up stopping so many times along the way for a break. The exhaustion caught up to me somewhere after the four hour mark.

It isn't long until the same exhaustion that I felt creeping up on me in the car ride consumes my body, and I'm too drained to fight it. Fully clothed, suitcase still laying on the bed, I drift off into a deep yet restless sleep. 

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Author's Note: Sorry for the short chapter, also the lack of updating. I had exams, but now that I'm done I will be able to focus on finishing AMITC and I'll be publishing the first chapter of The Saint's Lips the second I'm done! Hope you enjoy this anyway, I kind of wish I could have made it a little better but oh well. This was my first attempt at fanfiction so yeah. Enjoy! :)