Harry Styles
It's been a week.
A week of silence. Not just from Calum but from Delilah too.
After I got the phone call from her, I was confused as to why she was calling me right after she had just left. When I answered, my heart sunk into my literal asshole.
Hearing his name leave her mouth and then hearing his voice was something that irked me in a way I can't describe. When the phone call ended abruptly I was already in my car and halfway to her apartment, going way over the speed limit.
Walking into her apartment and hearing her screams is something I won't ever be able to get out of my head.
I felt like time stopped as I walked in and pulled Calum off of her. One minute I threw him down and the next minute he was purple in the face, it was all a blur.
But he didn't die like I thought he did. He managed to sneak out and we haven't heard anything from him since.
Delilah isn't doing too good, I had her come stay with me instead of at her place since he managed to find out where she lived. She also hasn't been to work since that night since he knows where it is as well. She had her coworker, can't remember his name for the life of me, take over for her until she can go back. If she ever does, that is.
She hasn't talked. She just sits on my couch and stares at the wall or sleeps in my bed. She has barely eaten unless I force her to. She won't take a shower unless I'm with her and even then she won't wash herself, I've had to do it.
I don't mind doing these things for her but it's hard when she doesn't talk to me and tell me what's on her mind.
Christmas was just a few days ago and I bought her a gift, but she wouldn't even look at me or speak to me when I tried to give it to her.
I even had Zayn come to try and talk to her since he does it so easily and even then, she was mute.
She doesn't look me in the eyes anymore.
I miss her brown eyes meeting mine. I miss hearing her raspy voice, like the kind that pisses some people off because they just want you to clear your throat to rid of it except that's how she sounds all of the time. I love it.
I have met with the guys a couple times throughout the week just making a plan on how we're going to search for this bastard. We went to his house a couple days ago and the entire place is empty, he moved. No trace of him anywhere.
I had to contact Luca to tell him we won't be able to do a mission for the rest of week and to tell him to keep an eye out for Calum in case he tries to get into contact with him. Luca knew we let him go since he never told us to exactly kill him in the first place, just find answers.
He's being very lenient on this situation and I don't know why, I assumed he would tell just us to go and leave Delilah to fend for herself a few hours, but he didn't. He actually said to come back whenever it all dies down. Odd.
Once I do find Calum though, he's fucking dead. I plan on making it a very slow and painful death.
The guys are on their way to my house right now to do some more planning. We do it in my living room since every time they come, Delilah is asleep in my room.
He cut her up pretty bad, she had to get stitches on her neck and some on her cheek since it went pretty deep. I had to lie for her at the hospital and say she was attacked by a damn dog.
I hear a knock on my door, causing me to get up and open it. Being met with the guys I open it fully for them to step inside and we all make our way to my couch.
"Is she asleep?" Zayn looks at my bedroom door, double checking.
I nod, "Yeah. She hasn't woken up at all today." I put my lips in a line and run my hands through my long hair. I need a haircut, this shit is too hard to manage at this point.
"So what is the plan now? We have been to his house and found nothing. Do we think he's living in a motel or with somebody else?" Niall questions while standing up and walking to my kitchen to grab a water bottle.
"He could be staying with whoever he's working with. The hard part is that we don't know who it is or what they are doing." Louis states while rubbing his hands on his jeans with nerves.
"I have an idea, but you might not like it." Zayn speaks, looking directly at me.
I narrow my eyes and urge him on. "We should ask her friends if they know anything. He got in contact with Lennon before, who's to say he wouldn't again?" He continues.
I look at the floor with my hands clasped together on my lap and think about the option, "It might not be a bad idea. But Delilah can't know we are doing that." I say.
"I can't know you're doing what?" A voice speaks. I turn my head to the left where the raspy voice was and see Delilah standing behind us with her arms crossed and wearing my t shirt.
I clear my throat and stand up, "Erm, nothing. We are just—planning some stuff."
The rest of the guys stand up as well at her arrival, "Hey Lilah. I missed you." Niall changes the subject while giving her a look of sorrow.
She just stares at him, not responding. He drops his head to break the contact and I speak up, "Listen, we are going to have to leave soon. If you don't want to be alone then one of us can stay here with you."
"Where are you going?" She asks. God I missed that voice.
I conjure up a lie, "On a run. It won't be too long."
"You're lying." She narrows her eyes at me.
Louis nudges me, "Dude, just tell her." He whispers.
"Erm, we're going to go see Lennon to ask her questions about, you know—" I stop myself from continuing since I have yet to speak his name in front of her.
She nods and turns back around to my bedroom, "D-Do you want one of us to stay back with you?" I question from the abruptness.
She doesn't respond and closes my bedroom door. I turn to the rest of the guys to see them with confused faces.
"Has she been like that all week?" Liam asks.
"Pretty much. Except that was the first time she actually spoke in a week."
They widen their eyes, "Come on, let's get this over with." I sigh, grab my keys and we all pile into my car.
After a short drive, I pull into her lot and park the car. We all get out and walk up to her door.
I knock on it and after waiting for about a minute, she opens the door.
Once she notices all of us are here she furrows her eyebrows, "What are you doing here?"
I push the door open with my hand, causing her to take a step back, and we all walk into her apartment.
"We have a few questions for you, so why don't you take a seat." I wave my hand to her couch and she scoffs, "Yeah right. You need to leave."
I cross my arms and we all stand still. She looks at each of us and rolls her eyes, giving in to the fact that we aren't leaving anytime soon.
After we all take a seat on her couch she speaks up first, "Is this about Delilah?"
"Not technically. We're here to talk to you about your new friend Calum." I make clear.
"What about him?"
"He broke into Delilah's house a week ago after her party. Tried to kill her," She widens her eyes and cuts me off, "What?! W-Why?"
"I was going to get there if you'd let me finish." I say sternly. She sinks back and shuts up, "He had a motive. We have yet to figure out exactly what it is and that's why we are here, to see if you know anything."
"I-I don't know anything. I had no idea that happened. Why do you think that I would know?" She questions with shock.
"Well I wouldn't necessarily give you best friend of the year award," She glares at me but I continue, "so you might have something to do with it. Or at least know something, like his whereabouts."
"He got in contact with you at your job, he told you about us and Delilah. Has he contacted you since you last saw us on her birthday?" Zayn questions, coming off calm.
Lennon shakes her head, "No he hasn't. Is Delilah okay?"
"What do you care?" I jump in with anger coating my voice. Zayn widens his eyes at me telling me to shut up.
This isn't good cop bad cop, asshole.
"I do care about her. That's why I did what I did at her party. I don't trust you guys and probably never will, but if you are keeping her safe then I won't interfere with that since she said this was her decision."
"She's fine, just shaken up. Do you have any clue where he could be? Did he ever mention where he was staying?" Zayn questions.
"He never told me anything. He just came to talk about you guys and Delilah," She looks down at her phone and furrows her eyebrows, "But I do have a phone number that he gave me in case I needed to reach out." She holds up her phone.
"Okay that can work. Give it to me." I reach my hand out for her phone and she opens it up and goes to her contacts. She hands it to me and I type the number into my phone to save it.
We all stand up and make our way to her door silently.
"Can you tell her that I'm sorry? For everything." She crosses her arms and looks at the floor with regret.
I scoff, "Yeah, I'll send your condolences." I force open her door and step out. I hear Zayn mutter a sorry but I'm too far away to give a shit.
We get in my car and I drive out of Lennon's lot and to my house.
Once we arrive, I tell them to meet here again tomorrow to figure out what to do with his number and they go their separate ways and leave. I walk into my house and go straight for my bedroom.
Once I open the door, I see Delilah curled up into a ball with her eyes open and staring at the wall ahead of her.
"Hey." I announce my arrival and throw my keys on my dresser. "I'm going to take a shower, do you want to join me?"
I stare at her awaiting an answer. Once I get nothing I accept it and go to the bathroom.
I turn the water on the highest heat setting and undress. Stepping into the scolding water I wash my hair and body. Once I'm finished, I wrap a towel around myself and go to my bedroom.
Making my way to my closet, I flick the switch on and unwrap my towel. Changing into a black hoodie and grey sweatpants, I exit my closet and wring the towel through my hair.
As I finish, I look at Delilah to see her in the exact same position.
"What do you say we go for a drive, huh?" I sit down by her legs on the bed. No response.
"Come on, it would be nice. You can even play some of your music." I place my hand on her leg and shake it a bit. She flinches from the action, causing me to take my hand off and furrow my eyebrows. "Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you. I would never."
She just shuts her eyes at my comment and ignores me.
Running out of patience, I slap my hand on the bed and stand up, "Damnit Delilah! Can you fucking speak to me?! I get that what you're going through is fucking traumatic but when you don't talk to me about it, it gets kind of hard for me to understand it more!"
She opens her eyes and turns her head to meet my eyes, for the first time in a long time. Yet still no response.
I huff a breath, "I'm really fucking trying here can't you see that? But I'm done with the goddamn silent treatment."
"What do you want me to say?" She finally speaks.
"I want you to tell me what's going on in your fucking head. I want you to scream at me if you have to, I want you to fucking cry! You haven't cried once since it happened." I hold my hands up at my sides, just wanting answers.
"Did you know he abused me?" She abruptly asks.
"Yes I know what he did to you that night."
"No. Not just that night." She shakes her head, still laying in the same position but with her head turned to me.
I furrow my eyebrows, "What are you saying?"
"The last half of our relationship, it was something different almost every day. He got pretty creative." She huffs out a breathy laugh.
I sit down on the bed by her legs again and clench my jaw, "Why didn't you tell me? Why did you want us to let him go?"
"Because I endured so much during our relationship which caused me to be scared of him. As soon as I looked into his eyes in that basement, every single memory of him hitting me or screaming at me or worse came back. I didn't want you to let him go, hell I wanted to kill him myself, but that's the effect from the cause." She averts her eyes to stare at the ceiling.
I sigh, "Jesus, Delilah." I'm at a loss for words now.
"I'm so tired of crying. I'm tired of eating. I'm tired of showering and I'm tired of talking." She says calmly, her chest rising up and down slowly.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath to take in all of the information. How does one react in this situation? Does she want to be comforted or left alone?
Once I open my eyes, I look at her to see her eyes glued to the ceiling. "You didn't deserve any of that. Just know none of it was your fault no matter what he or anyone else tells you." She meets my eyes as I finish talking and nods.
"I can assure you that once I get my hands on that bastard, he will regret ever crossing us and ever meeting you." I make clear.
We sit in silence for a couple minutes, not a word spoken and only the sound of our breathing echoing off the walls.
Delilah sits up from the bed and stands up causing me to look at her in confusion. She goes to the closet and puts on a pair of my sweatpants and changes out of my t shirt and into a hoodie.
"What are you doing?" I stand up from the bed and walk up to her.
"How about that drive?" She repeats the question I asked her earlier.
I smile down at her, "Come on." I nod to my door and we exit my house and into my car.
We spent the rest of the evening driving around aimlessly in my car and blasting her music that she praises so much, forgetting about everything else that's going on in our world.
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To clear up any confusion that some of u may have, Calum is not played by Calum
Hood and he is not in the cast list bc he is clearly a pos and you guys can imagine him however u like! I just thought of the name randomly and didn't make the connection to Calum from 5sos until way after he was already written in. but do not fear, more characters will be added soon that u will def know *wink*
Also this chapter made me lowk sad to write that I don't feel it needs a meme for this one <3