Twenty-five chapters! This is amazing! I never thought I'd make it this far! It is your support that has kept me writing and I owe you the world for it! <3
--------------------------
"We have to get out of here," Stephanie says, "immediately."
I drag behind as Stephanie pulls me towards the door. I don't know why Stephanie looks so scared. Harry knows that I took his phone. So what? I'll just give it back and everything will be okay.
"Stephanie," I say, "why are you freaking out?"
"I don't know. I just have a bad feeling. What we need to now is turn in Harry's phone to the Lost and Found center and say we found it somewhere."
"But Harry probably already knows. But that's good, right? Because now Niall knows I'm still bitter about the whole thing."
She opens the front door of the Starbucks. People are noticing our distress gaining us many stares.
We exit the building only to find Harry waiting outside the Starbucks glaring at us with his hands in his pockets.
"I thought I'd find you here," Harry grins.
Stephanie is shaking nervously. I've never seen her like this before.
"Harry, it was a joke," Stephanie says, "She didn't mean it, I promise."
"Was that all you did with my phone?" Harry says, "What were you even trying to accomplish?"
"Nothing," Stephanie says and hands Harry his phone, "here's your phone back."
"I trusted you Emily," he says shifting his eyes to me.
"Harry..."
"I asked if you had my phone, and you said no. You lied to me," he says looking at the ground.
"Harry, I know, I'm sorry," I respond, "I shouldn't have taken your phone. I'm sorry, I'm really-"
"I don't like being betrayed Emily."
I stare at Harry in silence.
"You're just like everyone else Emily," Harry says, "you're nice and sweet on the outside, but really you're just a manipulative liar."
"Harry," I say, "it was just your phone. And I didn't do anything except text Niall to see how he felt about me. No harm done."
"Why should I believe you?" Harry responds, "you've lied to me this whole time and-"
"Are you serious?!" I yell, "You've lied to me this whole time! You used me! You used me to fall in love with that boy who just wanted me for sex! How do you think that makes me feel! You deserve much worse than me taking your phone! You can't call me manipulative when that's all you and Niall have done to me! You forced yourself into my home for god's sakes!"
Harry clenches his jaw. He's digging in his fingernails.
"Emily," Stephanie says, "we really need to go. Class is starting soon and-"
"I'll see you two later," Harry interrupts without eye contact, "bye."
Harry turns on his heels and walks away from us. Stephanie stares at me in shock until Harry is out of our sight.
"I can't believe you said that to him Emily," Stephanie says.
"He needed to hear it, hopefully he leaves me alone and-"
"Emily, you don't get it!"
"What?"
"I'm so stupid for letting you do that. I wasn't thinking straight. I'm so stupid. Why would I let you-"
"Stephanie calm down! It's just a phone!"
"It's not just a damn phone Emily! You're on Harry's bad side!"
"Okay...and?"
"Harry's literally insane! He's crazy! He burned a fucking house down! A girl who dated him turned up missing! Does that not scare you at all?!"
"But Niall likes me so I'm sure Harry won't do anything crazy."
"You don't know if Niall still likes you! He may have moved on!"
"Stephanie! Don't say that!"
"Emily! I'm just being real!"
"I'm walking away!"
"Okay, but sleep with one eye open!"
Frustrated, Stephanie and I pace away from each other.
This is all too stressful for me. Harry is a bit odd, but he wouldn't do anything crazy. Stephanie is just overreacting.
I'm walking to my next class. It's the class I have with Louis. I silently pray to myself for no more drama, but I doubt my prayers will be answered.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Louis is sitting next to me in class. He hasn't said a word to me.
I keep glancing at him, I'm not sure why, but I'm waiting for him to say something to me. I feel bad about the whole 'rape' thing, but then again, I really don't because it was very misleading. No means no. I doesn't matter if he's 'known for his hugs.'
I never realized how attractive he is. His hair is the perfect shade of brown. It looks so soft. And his body is so freaking hot. He's so muscular, his arms are so wide, his chest so thick, and his butt is so large.
Louis turns his head to look at me.
"You might want to keep your voice down," Louis whispers.
Shit! I said that out loud!
"I...I..." I stammer.
Louis turns away and starts laughing to himself.
"Something funny Tomlinson?" the teacher says.
"Nothing," Louis rolls his eyes.
~~~~~~~~~~
I'm walking down the hallway after class. I have an hour break until math. Yesterday, during that break I...never mind.
Someone taps my shoulders and I turn around.
Louis is staring at me while he stands inches in front of me.
"I would like to apologize." he says.
"Thanks," I respond.
"I really am sorry."
"It's okay."
"Really?"
"I guess," I say.
There is a long moment of silence.
"What are you going to do for the next hour?"
"I'm going to the cafeteria to eat lunch."
"I know this great sushi place downtown," he says.
"I'll just stay on campus today, but thank you."
"Come on, please, lunch on me," he says with a smile, "I want to make it up to you."
Louis is being very persuasive, but I can't because I remember Stephanie has a crush on him. That's girl code, right?
"Can Stephanie come along?"
A pause.
"Uh...yeah...sure, of course."
"Do you not like her?"
"She hates me."
"Why would she hate you?"
"It's a long story."
~~~~~~~~~~
I'm eating sushi in a modern restaurant at a tall table with Louis on the other side. My curiosity got the best of me once again. I used to not care about stuff like this.
"Stephanie definitely doesn't hate you," I say.
"What I did is unforgivable Emily," Louis responds.
"I'm sure it can't be that bad."
"It's not, but I still feel so bad about it."
"Okay, just tell me what it is," I say.
"I'll say it simply because I know you said that you don't like it complicated."
"Um...okay."
Louis takes a deep breath.
"I had the biggest crush on Stephanie in high school."
"You did?! You're kidding!"
"Yeah, I did. I loved her, I really did. She's so beautiful. Her shiny black hair and bright skin. Her incandescent brown eyes. Her personality outweighed her looks too. She was the first girl who I ever had a crush on. The first girl I've ever fallen in love with, but I threw it all away."
A tear runs down Louis' cheek and crashed on the table.
"Wait...I don't mean to be rude...but I thought you were a...let's say...um...a promiscuous man..."
"Who told you that?"
"Um...Niall did..."
"That lying little shit. Let me warn you now, maybe somebody already has, but don't believe anything that piece of shit tells you because he never tells the truth."
"So you, Zayn, and Liam didn't bring tons of girls back home to have sex with?"
"No way! And how could we with our parents at home? Harry was pretty much to himself most of the time, girls hated Liam because he's such an asshole, Zayn's just too fucking nice, and I guess I was crushing on Stephanie too hard. Niall though, he did some crazy shit back in the day."
I swallow hard, "like what?" I say.
"Are you sure you want to know Emily?"
"Um, no, I mean, yeah...I guess, sure," I hesitate.
"He would coordinate these huge parties on Saturday nights. He told mum and dad that he had a weekend study group, but he went to this abandoned warehouse outside of town. We never snitched on him."
"Okay..."
"I heard they were a lot of fun, but those parties weren't your normal parties."
"What kind of parties were they?"
"Ready?"
"Yes."
"They were orgies."
I almost throw up the sushi I just ate.
"You mean...like...drinking orgies...or like....sex orgies..."
"Both, but mostly sex."
I close my eyes.
"I heard that one time at one of his parties," Louis says, "one girl had a dick in all three ho-"
"Stop!" I scream, "I don't want to hear about that!"
"I'm sorry Emily, I just wanted you to know the truth about him before he comes running back to you begging for forgiveness with all kinds of lies that will sound convincing, but they are most likely not true. He's done that to so many girls, it's insane. Niall has a dark, evil personality that he tries to hide with that fake smile and dyed blonde hair."
"Then why are you okay with him dating your sister?" I return.
"Melissa needs a deceitful guy to get a taste of her own medicine."
"But I feel so bad."
"Why?" he responds.
"Because of me, Niall ended up in the hospital with two casts on his legs."
Louis bursts into laughter.
"Those casts were fake."
"What?!"
"Yeah, I saw him this morning and he was walking perfectly fine."
"But...why...what?"
"A sympathy act. Oh the lad. The lengths he goes to win a girl's heart are crazy. He wanted you to feel bad for him to try to win you back, which I guess worked."
"But then why was I interrogated if it was fake?"
"Was it Steph's dad?"
"Uh...yeah, but I escaped because I didn't want to tell him that it was Zayn," I say.
"Clark and Corinne probably thought it was real, but then afterwards Niall probably said some shit like 'oh I was just trying the fake casts on for fun' and then Clark stopped. I mean, wouldn't Clark have found you by now if it was a serious case? It's not like you fled the country."
"Holy shit...you're right."
"Niall is quite the character," Louis laughs.
"I fell for Niall's tricks. I'm so stupid."
"It's okay Emily," he forces a smile, "I just hope you've learned from your mistakes. Stay away from him."
"I will. I don't want to talk about Niall anymore, back to Stephanie."
"Oh yeah, so I would always see her at our family barbecues, but I was always too afraid to say anything to her. She was so quiet. She would always be either walking alone through a garden or immersed into a book. I was infatuated by her grace and her elegance."
"That's beautiful," I say.
"I've always wanted to tell her that I love literature, but I was always afraid."
"So what happened? Did you ever make a move?"
"It was year eleven of high school. A Labor Day barbecue at my house. She was so beautiful that day. She was wearing a bright yellow sundress with a bow in her hair to match. After the barbecue started, she disappeared. I looked for her. I searched high and low, exploring our gardens and forests trying to find her."
"Did you find her?" I say.
"She was underneath a tree reading a book. I asked her what she was reading. She was reading Pablo Neruda. I told her that I love his poetry and that he's an amazing poet. She asked what my favorite words of his were."
"What did you say?"
"Don't leave me, even for an hour, because then the little drops of anguish will all run together, the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift into me, choking my lost heart."
"Louis...that's beautiful."
"Then I said the cliché 'do you want to go out sometime?' and she just laughed and said yes."
"Then what happened?"
"I invited her to go see a movie with me. I was so damn nervous. I didn't want to fuck anything up. But I did," Louis says while the tone in his voice drops.
"What did you do?" I say.
"I didn't go."
"What?"
Louis buries his face in his hands.
"I didn't show up to the one chance I had."
"Why didn't you go? What happened?"
"I chickened out," he cries, "she went there alone and waited for me, but I never went. I was so scared."
"Did you talk to her after?"
"I tried, but she wouldn't talk to me. She told me that I used her, that she was a joke to me. But that's not true! It definitely wasn't true!"
"I know it's not true," I say.
"After that, whenever we would come into contact with each other, it would only be friendly remarks in passing. I've never been with anyone. She probably has, but I don't know, I still have a fire burning inside me for her. I miss that girl who wore the sundresses in the summer and read the same poetry as me. I miss her so much."
"Louis, but she-"
"When college started, Steph became a completely different person. She started wearing different clothes, started showing more skin, and it was shocking to see her like that. It made me think that she was even farther from how she used to be, so she is probably farther from having feelings for me, but I still have feelings for her.
"But Louis!" I yell, "She likes you! She told me that! Her eyes always light up when someone mentions your name! There still could be something between you two!"
"You're kidding."
"No I'm not! You need to talk to her immediately. She still has feelings for you. I'm serious."
A pause.
"Oh my god! Really?! I definitely will! This is amazing!" Louis beams.
I smile at Louis. It makes me so happy that love still exists in the world. I'll never find love.
"I have to go use the loo," he says, "I'll be right back."
"Okay, I'll be here."
Louis stands from the table and walks to the bathroom. I'm so happy for Stephanie. This is so good for her. Maybe she'll stop pretending to be a wild girl, if she knows that there's an amazing guy who truly loves her.
I'm looking around this restaurant. There are several couples enjoying their lunch together. It makes me a little sad because I may never have that.
I look at the door of the sushi place. There is a sculpture of two fish intertwined creating a heart shape hanging above the door. There is so much love in the air it's overwhelming.
The door opens. I look down to who is entering. It's rude to stare at people, but I'm bored and curious.
I see who enters.
"Oh no," I whisper to myself.
This is not the time. Louis will come out soon. I don't need any more drama. Too late. He speaks.
"Emily, I've come to apologize and to tell you the truth about everything."