barista / h.s

17

B O N U S ~ C H A P T E R
(If you prefer to think that Sydney and Harry live happily ever after, then you shouldn't read the rest of the extra chapters.)

Harry had seen Sydney in the crowd, and he had never found himself more driven during a performance. She kept waving to him and every single time he waved back; no matter if he was singing or not.

He took as much time out of the concert as possible to sit by her, and during the last song he mouthed a sad "goodbye" before jumping down beneath the stage to signify the end of the concert.

Harry was taking a wee in the port-a-potty, while Elise and Sydney were probably leaving the stadium at the moment.

"Oh, spaces between us." He hummed to himself. "Keep getting deeper..."

When he was finished he zipped up his pants and hopped out of the toilet. He never liked those; Americans were funny with how they used the toilet. You'd think there'd be one backstage.

"Good job, lads!" Paul's voice boomed, and he gave Harry a bone crushing hug. He groaned from being squeezed so tightly.

"You can let go now." Harry said faintly, his lungs too crushed for him to say anything distinct. Paul let go and Harry wiped his dark skinny jeans off.

Paul just shrugged and tussled Harry's unruly curls. "You all did good, except for you Harry."

He scoffed. "Yeah, yeah." He was well aware that his voice cracked during eighteen, but that was only because he was lost in Sydney's eyes and not the song. In fact, he wondered if he could call her.

"Our next stop is Nashville, so get your rest. The tour bus should be here soon, then we're on our way to LP Field."

"Liam Payne Field!" They could hear Liam call from somewhere down the hall. Harry rolled his eyes with a small smile.

"Ill get my things," he said.

• •

They were all packed into the tour bus, darkness engulfing the night sky. It was about midnight and Sydney hadn't responded to his text asking if she was doing okay. He tried not to worry too much and crammed himself into his bed.

"Are you asleep yet?" said Louis as the bus hit the thousandth bump so far. Harry sighed and looked down at the bunk below him.

"No, Lou." He answered. "I can't get sleep."

"Me either." He admitted, and looked worried for once. "I just have the feeling something is wrong."

Harry's heart pounded against his chest. Heart palpitations. Was he having another panic attack?

With the negating thoughts filling his brain at an impressive rate, he wasn't sure he'd make it through the night without the reassurance that Sydney was safe and sound in bed.

"Maybe I should call her." Harry said, breathing in uneven and shaky spells. His anxiety was getting the best of him.

Louis nodded. "I really think you should call Gemma."

"Gemma?" He raised an eyebrow. Would Gemma really be awake this time of night, and why call her of all people?

He didn't want to fight, so he pulled out his phone and dialed for Gemma. She answered right away, and that only worried Harry more.

"Gemma!" He shouted before she could say a word into the phone, and with that he woke up almost everyone else on the bus. Zayn groaned and turned over in bed with a sniffle, a sign of his cold. Niall and Liam sat upright and gave Harry a nasty glare.

"Harry..." Gemma sounded very tired and distraught. "I was about to ask you where Sydney is. She told me she was coming to my dorm after the concert."

Harry shook his head. This couldn't be happening. "I'm sure she's just running late." He lied to himself. "Stay on the phone with me and drive to the stadium, please?"

He could almost hear Gemma nod. If anyone knew his sister well, it was him. He heard the sound of clothes shuffling and then the fumbling of keys, and then Gemma said "I'm leaving now."

Harry was a sweaty mess by now, already coming up with terrible scenarios of what could have happened. A car crash, a shooting. The list was endless and each possibility took his breath away.

How could he be so attached to a girl he used to just know as his barista? What happened? What clicked?

When did he consider himself in love?

He could hear her car start and then the engine idling, before roaring to life. "I'm driving down 5th street to get there."

"I have no idea around this city." Harry said and Louis laughed underneath him. "Just tell me what you see."

After a while, Gemma gasped and there was no response.

"Gemma?" Harry asked, his voice shaking. "Gemma, are you there? Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah." She answered, but she did not sound it. "Outside of the stadium's parking lot there are loads of police cars and an ambulance. And there's a navy blue Honda slammed into another car."

Harry's heart shattered.

Literally shattered.

He had no control on his body anymore, and the phone slipped from his grasp. His jaw hung low without the capability to move it. He was in pure and utter shock, and pure and utter heartbreak.

He knew that he couldn't tell himself that this was just a coincidence. That some navy blue Honda, the same car as Sydney's, was in a crash but it wasn't her.

He couldn't lie to himself and say she was safe.

He watched emotionless as Louis picked up the phone and finished the conversation in his honor. "What's going on?" He asked first, his expression troubled. Maybe Harry wasn't the only one who cared about Sydney. He was too selfish to see that.

"Do you know if she's okay?" He asked moments later, and then it looked as if his life left him as well. He seemed pale as a ghost, transparent as glass.

And that's when he dropped the phone too.

Sydney, his first true love and first and last barista, was dead.

And he wouldn't be able to to back and see her, because he was on tour.

Who knew when he waved goodbye to her playfully onstage, that would be the last time he saw her alive?

Her wide smile, dimples and engraved smile that never left her face-- that was all fading at the moment. He could imagine her walking onto the tour bus, telling him she staged her death. But somehow he knew it would not happen.

Harry Style's luck had finally run thin. And he hurt all the people he loved and cared about in the process of losing it.

• • • •

shorhsirhsihsithsithsirshitshitshitSHIT

will this be rated pg 13 for that ^

comment if you cried! :((((

if you didn't then id like to see you survive the epilogue !! i can't believe this story is almost over :(

- Alex