Tortured Love (One direction Fanfic)

Chapter 50

"Hello?" McKenna answered on the third ring. 

"Hi, it's Harry."

"Oh hey, what''s up?" I heard a voice in the background and I could only assume that she was with Niall. 

"Charlie-," I stopped, not wanting to tell McKenna that her best friend had deserted her over the phone. I heard giggles and a muffled, "Niall, stop it. I'm on the phone." This piece of news would certainly ruin her current happiness. It wasn't a hard decision to delay delivering the news until tomorrow, sparing the inevitable heartbreak she would feel until a later time. 

"What about Charlie?" McKenna question, concern lacing her cheery tone. 

"She just asked me to do something at your flat. You mind if I swing by?" 

"I'll be at Niall's all night but feel free to go over. You still have the key, right?" Charlie had given me an extra key in case they'd forgotten theirs. 

"Yeah," I answered, trying to keep venom out of my tone, as I thought back to when she'd given it to me. I despised the fact that I had to suppress the urge to grin like a love sick fool at the fond memory. 

"Great! Help yourself to whatever."

"Thanks. I'll see you later," I grumbled then hung up. I hated myself for this desperate, feeble attempt but I couldn't help it. I was relying on Charlie coming back to the apartment to collect her things before leaving. I wanted a real damn explanation instead of her taking the cowards way out. I needed to see her face as she told me that we were finished instead of leaving me stranded without closure. 

I arrived at the flat amped up and ready for a good yelling match with Charlotte. I wasn't going to let her go like this without a fight. 

I parked the car and went up to her flat. I stuck the brass key into the knob and unlocked the door, almost snapping the key in the process with my roughness. I couldn't help my body's attempt to release some of the pent up rage I felt.

"Charlotte! You better have a damn good explanation for this!" I yelled, storming through the flat. I threw open her bedroom door and was greeted with an empty room and her seemingly untouched belongings. 

"You better be here!" I growled, yanking my fingers through my hair. I searched the entire flat and came to the conclusion that she hadn't been here. My subconscious told me it was stupid to think she would be here in the fist place since this is the first place someone would look as soon as it was discovered that Charlie was missing. But the sliver of hope that she would come here anyways was too much for me to ignore. I had to be certain. 

Now that I was sure, I didn't know what to do with myself. I needed relief from these crushing emotions that were trying to swallow me whole. Never in my life had I felt this magnitude of emotion - pain, anger, and confusion hitting me with a crippling force from all directions at the same time. 

Before setting out in search of the liquor that would provide the comfort I needed, I returned to Charlie's room to double check that she hadn't packed her shit and left already. I yanked open the closet and I couldn't tell if I was glad or not that her clothes were still here. It left the possibility that she would still show up but it also left more uncertainty. In a way, finding an empty room would give an inch of closure. It would say she was gone for good with no intentions of returning and what we had was finished.

The bottles wedged at the back of the closet caught my attention and batrayal hit me as hard as it did the first time, my already weak knees giving out on me.  "They aren't mine,"  and "I am not drinking," replayed over in my head, taunting me. What a load of bullshit.