pt 1 of double update
pt 2 at 6:30 est!
Harry Styles
"Where do you want it?"
"Chest."
Dez starts spreading some of the glitter across Scarlett's chest, a joint sitting between her lips as she does it. The six of us all sit staggered within the back room of the bar. The aggressive blue lights devouring every surface while the music stays muffled behind the swinging door.
"Not too much, I want to look subtle." Scarlett adds.
"Subtle? I can see your thong." Niall says from his seat on the couch next to me, looking up at Scarlett and Dez dress themselves in glitter.
"Are you going to point out my thong every time you see my thong?"
"Yeah, what's with that?" I agree with Scarlett, blowing smoke and passing the joint to Dez.
"It's because he wants to fuck you, Scar." Liam chuckles, sitting on the ground and rolling more joints on the glass coffee table full of cups, bottles, ashtrays, and cards.
"I already have." Niall grins.
"Jesus, Niall..." Louis rolls his eyes.
"Gross." Dez shakes her head.
"What?" He looks at us with an defensive expression. "It's no secret."
"You don't need to speak every thought that crosses your mind." I add.
"I don't mean it in a bad way! Scarlett, didn't we have a good time?" He looks at Scarlett who is taking a pull from the communal joint.
She passes it to Louis before blowing.
"We did it once to get it out of our system." She shrugs. "He asked me to marry him after."
Everyone pauses what they're doing and turn to Niall.
"She's paraphrasing." He defends, scratching the back of his neck. "It wasn't like a marry me marry me, just like a: hell yeah let's get married because that sex was so good, marry me. Right?"
"Don't look at me like I know what you mean." Liam shakes his head from the floor.
"I kind of get what you mean..." I shrug.
"Yeah! See. Harry gets it. He's married."
"You're gonna use Harry as a prime example?" Scarlett says with sarcasm.
"What is that suppose to m—"
"Liam, make the joints tighter." Niall inspects the one in his hand.
"You come do this then."
Niall puckers a kiss as a response, casually leaned back with his arms along the back of the couch.
"Okay, so whose next?" Scarlett holds out the glitter.
"No one, we're staying on the down low." Liam says in concentration.
"Exactly, you'll be the one ones there without it. So you may as well blend in."
"Don't you guys need to go soon? It's already midnight." I check the time.
Niall passes me the joint again.
"It's only going to start getting good now. Are you sure you don't want to come? Just for a little bit?" Dez reassures.
Scarlett crouches behind Liam on the floor and starts putting stuff on his face. He slightly shrugs her off but eventfully gives up when she continues to be persistent with it.
I shake my head while taking a shallow suck from the joint, letting the smoke just fill my lungs enough." No, I'll drop you guys off though."
"Styles, it could be fun." Niall nudges my arm, taking the joint back.
"Could be. But if you all go to jail, you're going to need someone to break you out. Plus I'm watching the phones tonight for Mei, remember?"
"Fair enough." Liam nods and hands me a small slip of paper. "Here's the address in case you change your mind. We have our phones."
I nod and tuck it in my sweater pocket.
"Alright, who's next?" Dez asks with the glitter.
Niall opens up his arms in welcome.
"I'm all yours, baby." He keeps the joint at the corner of his mouth.
"I'm going to pull the car up, be ready in ten minutes." I nod.
Leaving the bar run by Dez' coworkers tonight, I get across the street and head through the side door of the restaurant, grabbing the car keys. Everyone is ready and standing on the curb with their red solo cups, crowding in the small car the second I pull up. With one person too many to fit, Scarlett lays across Niall, Dez, and Liam.
"Liam, move!"
"Scarlett!"
Everyone squirms besides Louis in the passenger seat.
"Everyone good back there?" I turn my head back at all of them arguing while trying not to spill their drinks.
"Tell Scarlett to sit in the trunk or something..." Niall fidgets in his seat, getting Scarlett's legs kicking around.
"Fuck you, Niall!"
"Louis, switch with me." Dez reaches forward and pats his shoulder in mercy.
"I'm good." He shakes his head in decline.
"Why the fuck do you get shotgun?" Niall adds.
I step on the gas and rev off down the street, knowing the seating plan won't get any better. To drown out the arguing, I crank up the radio. I speed through the streets to get them to the party quicker. I don't want to miss a potential call from Aven. I can't stop thinking about her and how shitty this all is.
The backseat stops arguing and adverts to singing along to the radio, cussing at me when I made a sharp turn that spills some fireball. I can tell when Dez and Scarlett are drunk; Scarlett laughs too loud and Dez stops caring about everything. A cigarette gets passed around, someones fingers holding it between my lips once in a while. It's menthol, so it's probably Scarlett's.
Once the car pulls up to the crowded townhouse, I realize how big this party actually is. The place is huge and you can see the strobe lights on each floor. There's even a terrace with a pool.
"Okay, get out." I put the car in park. "And don't call me to pick you up."
Rambunctious behaviour, everyone leaps up and out of the car. The music being heard from the street.
"Thanks, Harry!" Scarlett says.
"Thanks!" Dez adds.
Once the doors shut, I watch them all hurry into the crowded house, Scarlett already dancing her way in. Someone will get arrested tonight, this is a horrible idea.
But who am I to judge?
I speed off down the street again, sitting along in the car now opposed to the maximum capacity it was at. I turn off the radio and sit in my thoughts, thinking about Aven. I keep replaying our conversation yesterday, and how horrible it ended. I just hope she's okay. All I can do is sit in my room tonight and hope she calls.
I pull back into the alleyway of Mei's restaurant, getting out and locking the car. I head in through the side door, walking through the back of the kitchen and through the inventory room to our apartment door. As I'm about to unlock the door, I realize it's open ajar. I stop in my tracks, turning my head back to make sure I'm alone.
I look back down at the door, opening it up to the pitch black staircase that goes down to our basement apartment. I didn't shut off the lights when I left, I never do because we have no windows down there.
And I don't have a gun on me, great.
Cautiously, I start walking down the rickety steps, entering the dark. Once at the bottom, I blindly reach for the switch and flick it on. The cold buzzing lights fill the apartment—an apartment that's flipped upside down.
Couch cushions all over the floor, table kicked over, kitchen cabinets open, broken dishes, broken equipment, furniture all shifted, bedroom doors wide open—everything is demolished. My first thought is we were robbed but who would rob this dump? But then, it clicks as I remember the situation I'm in and who specifically would want to rob me.
"Oh fuck!" I immediately run to the bathroom for the necklace we hid inside the back of the toilet tank. But the second I'm in there, I see the porcelain lid is shattered on the floor with no necklace to be seen.
Aven.
She had to have done this in the past twenty minutes when I dropped everyone off at the party. Meaning she was watching me from afar and waiting for us to leave to search the place.
"Dammit!" I kick the tin garbage can.
The guys are going to kill me if they find out she knows where we live. I never told them about the time she showed up here. If I did, we would have to run again.
I rub my head in stress, sitting on the edge of the tub. The place wasn't like this when I came down to grab my keys, and this is a lot of damage to do in the span of twenty minutes. If she was just here, she couldn't be far.
I hear a familiar creak from a wooden step.
My head shoots up from my palms as I register the noise and realize I'm still not alone in this apartment. The second I step back into the living room, I see Aven booking it up the stairs.
"You've got to be kidding me!" I run after her, weaving around all the discarded glass and furniture.
The necklace is dangling in her hand, dripping wet.
Halfway up the steps behind her, she pushes the steel door open to Mei's inventory room. She tries to slam it closed behind her but is a second too late as I body it back open. Once I'm through the threshold, she stands across the small room with her gun aimed up in my direction. I stop my chase, staring at her staring at me with her chest rising up and down.
"Don't be an idiot, Harry." She keeps her finger on the trigger, tucking the necklace inside her long leather coat.
"What are you gonna do? Shoot me?" I call bluff.
She clenches her jaw and pulls the trigger. The bullet nearly skimming the side of my head but missing and hitting the door behind me. I have to admit, I'm a little shocked she had the balls to do it.
"Jesus Aven!"
She runs out the side door the moment I'm caught off guard. I race after her again, catching up this time right as she gets to the front of my car, I nail her from behind and flip her around on the hood. I knock the gun out from her hand as it slips down under the vehicle. She thrashes as my hands try to keep her controlled on the exterior of the vehicle.
"Listen to me! You need to understand what we're trying to d—"
She bags me with her stiletto—a feeling I will never get used to. I loosen my grip in pain as she squirms away between me and the car, running out of the alley as I'm holding my dick to make sure it didn't fall off.
"I'm getting really sick of you doing that!" I shout in frustration, my voice echoes the alley.
I hobble past the car and out on the street, watching her run around the block and out of my sight. She still has the necklace in her coat, and I can't let her get away.
From the direction she went, I remember something from before. She doesn't have a car close by because she doesn't want it to be tracked. She's going to take the subway to her car, I know it. And if I remember correctly, I remember what station that will be at.
"I'll have to race you there..." I mumble to myself.
I run back over to the car, unlocking the drivers door and getting in. Within seconds I'm backing out on the street and stepping on the gas. White knuckling the wheel, I nearly double the speed limit in hope I won't run into any cops. Which can be tough in New York. But I can't let her reach her car first. I need to beat the subway.
Block after block I use spotty memory to direct me where that subway station once was, the station she left her car parked last time. I could be completely wrong with all of this, but I don't have much of a choice.
After ten minutes of cutting through alleyways and mounting sidewalks— I arrive to the road where there's a subway exit. And close by, sits an expensive black car with tinted windows. I beat her to it. I pull over across the street, leaving the engine running as I get out and run over to her empty car. I crouch down behind it, waiting patiently.
No more than a few short minutes, I hear her stilettos tapping up the concrete steps of the subway. I stay kneeled on the passengers side of the car, listening to her steps get closer to the drivers door. Staying low, I hurry around the back of the car. She unlocks it with a fob.
Right as she gets to the door, I spring up and pin her front against the side of the exterior. I contort her arms behind her back, knowing she doesn't have her gun anymore. She flinches and squirms in my grip, cussing at me to let her go. I keep her cemented against the car, holding her wrists behind her back with one hand.
"I'm sorry." I kiss the side of her head and grab the necklace out of her jacket pocket at the same time.
The second I have it, I let her go and sprint across the street. I hear her chase me for a second, but an oncoming taxi down the street separates us right on time. I get back in my car and rip down the road and out of her sight. Looking down at the necklace in my hand, I realize I have no idea where to go from here. If I go home, she'll just follow me there. Or maybe she won't. But I can't risk it right now. I need to tell the guys what happened even if they kill me hiding this from them.
I guess I'm going to the party after all.
//
part two up in 30!