pt 2 of the double update! make sure you read 29 first!!
Harry Styles
I stare up at the townhouse filled with people coming in and out. The music is loud, the lights flashing in strobe. Hood up, eyes preserved—I try to configure what to do or what to tell the guys. If I tell them what happened, they'll know I told her where we lived. They'll freak. But the place is already destroyed so they're going to find out eventually.
I also don't want to go into this party, too much risk.
Every window I could see bodies all canned together like sardines. Halfway up the building is a terrace with a pool, more people all standing around and drinking. To find any of the guys in here will be impossible.
"Fuck me..." I run up the front steps.
Through the crowded threshold, the air becomes ten degrees thicker in heat. Smoke, sweat, nauseating colognes and perfumes—I forget what it's like to be at a party like this. The lights aggressively flash, neon colours and glitter everywhere. Dressed in all black myself, I am completely shadowed to all of it.
First level of the townhouse is packed like no other, an open room with a DJ and a makeshift dance floor. I step up the flight of stairs, giving me more height to look over the room. I can't even count the amount of heads, but nothing tells me that any of them are here.
I rush up the staircase to the second floor, realizing there's four different floors. Second floor is more open concept, a kitchen in the distance but a large room before it. People stand on tables and couches, dancing with the rest of the room. I spot Scarlett first, standing on the table and moving to the music. I then catch Dez under a blue strobe light. Despite noticing them, I find no one I'm actually looking for. But they can't be far.
As I see a hallway with multiple closed doors, it starts to click.
I push my way across the room but something in my head tells me something isn't right. The prevailing thought makes me stop in the middle of the room. Subconsciously, I turn my head back. But I see no one but strangers dancing. I shake off the discomforting feeling and continue to the hallway of doors.
First closed door, I welcome myself through it and lucky enough I find Niall with someone on a bed. Both on their knees, they pause their heated make out upon my arrival.
"Sorry to interrupt—"
"Dude!" Niall shouts.
The person he's with leaps off of the bed and runs out of the room in embarrassment. I step out of the way.
"What are you doing here?"
"We have a problem."
He gets off the bed and grabs his shirt, hair sweaty beneath his backwards hat.
"And it couldn't wait like ten more minutes?"
At least he's humble.
"No." I flick the light on and shut the door to be in private. "Aven found the necklace."
His eyes go wide.
"How?"
I pull it out of my sweater pocket. "But I got it back again."
"Wait...no but how? It was hidden safe in our apartment how would she..."
I blankly stare as his confusion flips to anger—piecing it together.
"You told her where we live!"
"She found it herself." I clarify.
"And how is that possible after we've been very careful with being incognito for all this time, Harry!"
"It doesn't matter. The point is—"
"The point is we have to relocate now! If she knows, then Malikai knows."
"She won't tell him."
He starts laughing in delusion.
"You're fucked, kid."
"She's known for a while and has yet to say anything. I trust her."
"Yeah? And you think we do? You think I do?"
"You once did."
"Aven. I trusted Aven. Not Mariana."
"She will always be Aven."
"Whatever. What's you're plan now? You have the necklace, but where are you going to keep it? She robbed the place to get it, so if we go home we're fucked. She'll rob us again or just send Malikai's men to finish the job for her. So, what's your plan?" He spills in a condescending off tone.
"I have to find somewhere to hide this that isn't our apartment."
He rolls his eyes, stepping past me towards the door.
"Let me know how that goes."
Aggression gets the best of me as I pin him against the wall. My head runs hot.
"Do I need to remind you that this necklace thing was your fucking idea! Stop being a dick."
He smirks and harshly shoves me back by the chest, I shudder and let go.
"Has she been at our apartment with you before tonight? Yes or no?" He challenges, expression on his face already knowing the answer.
I breathe.
"Exactly. So if you were honest about that, I wouldn't of taken the necklace to begin with. Because now we're really all at risk, and that's your fucking fault. Not mine." He turns around and opens the door. "I'll go make sure to tell Liam and Louis they need to pack their shit and be ready to hit the road again."
He slams the door behind him.
He's pissed. Liam and Louis will be pissed. Aven's pissed. Things keep getting worse, but at least I have this necklace. I can't forget the goal of all of this. I know I should've told them about the first time Aven turned up at our apartment, but I can't have everyone pack up and leave New York. I trust that Malikai won't find us.
I swing open the door and step back into the crowded hallway, my head turns to the open bathroom at the end of the hall. Needing to collect myself, I rush inside. I lock the door behind me, tossing my head back against the surface and shutting my eyes. The music muffles.
"Fuck!" I bang the back of my head.
I push off the door and step up to the sink, clenching the edge and staring at myself through the mirror. I turn on the tap and splash cold water on my face to calm down. This is wearing me down, fighting with Aven like this. I hate being against her, even if it is for her own happiness in the long run.
I hear an abundance of fists on the door.
"Are you almost done in there?" I hear slurred words from some guy.
I ignore it and keep splashing water on my face.
I hear more pounds.
"Please, man! It will only take a second." He continues.
I turn off the sink and look in the mirror again, my face cooling off from the water. My hood stays up over my head. I don't know what my plan is from this point forward. I can't go home with this necklace, she'll be waiting there for me.
Another round of pounds on the door throw me over the edge with patience.
"Fuck sakes!" I stomp up to the door, whipping it open to find the douchbag on the other side.
But instead I'm faced with Aven standing there with a look of fury in her eyes, holding up the small slip of paper that had this address on it.
"You dropped this."
Her fist flies in my direction, clocking me right in the nose so I stumble back from impact. The step back was enough for her to step into the bathroom and slam the door behind her, locking it. Holding my nose, I look forward at her standing in front of the door with a guarded stance.
"I should've seen that coming."
"Did you think it would be that easy?" She challenges.
"Aven, just hear me ou—"
She throws her fist towards me again. This time I dodge it by catching it in my palm. I twist her arm down behind her back and slam her front into the wall. With strength I didn't realize she has, she pushes back from the wall and twists herself back around. She swings again, I duck. She swings a third, I dodge.
"Aven listen!"
She kicks her leg up and shoves me by the stiletto, forcing me to stumble back so I'm on the opposite side of the small bathroom. Both of us freeze in guarded stance, a distance apart.
"Fine. You wanna play rough? I can be rough."
"Just give me the fucking necklace, Harry!"
She starts running at me, making me also run at her. I bend down in my lead, slamming into her hips and lifting her up off the ground while still treading forward. Her back meets the shower curtain, both of us crashing through the plastic liner and down into the tub. The shower rod rips from the drywall and cracks the top of my head in the process. I cuss at the blinding hit, giving her the opportunity to fight her way on top of me.
In the bathtub, tangling the the plastic liner, she gets on top. I see doubles of her from the possible concussion I just endured. She shoves her hand into my sweater pocket and rips out the necklace. I smack it out of her hand so it flies along the tiled floor. She tries to climb out of the tub to get it, but I sit up and yank her back. She falls flat down on the tub, my body squirming on top and pinning her wrists down above her head. She thrashes and clenches her teeth. I get on all fours above her, my head directly aligned with hers.
Fresh blood trickles down my forehead from the shower rod. The thick line of crimson curves down the side of my nose and into my mouth to taste. She squirms in a fight I try to tame.
"Aven—Aven!" I try to contain her beneath me. "Think of the grand scheme of th—"
Her knee drives up against my groin, absolutely winding me with agony this time. I shudder as she uses my weakening grip as an opportunity to shove me back. I fall flat in the tub, staring up at the ceiling before she's back on top of me yet again. If she keeps hitting me in the dick it's not going to work anymore and then we're both screwed.
Sitting on my hips, she smiles.
"Remember when you almost let me drown?"
She turns on the bathtub facet so ice cold water shoots down on my face. I inhale the water flooding every orifice of my head while I feel her body leave my hips.
Wonderful.
I launch up straight and open one eye to hazily see her crawling out of the bathtub in direction of the necklace near the door. I try to grab her thigh to yank her back but she manages to keep squirming out, her body folds over the edge of the tub. I pull myself up her back so I'm also bent over the tub but on top. I wrap my arm around her throat. One eye open, my sight is all blurry from the water that got lodged in my eyelids. My entire head is drenched.
"You're not...getting the fucking...necklace...Aven!" We both struggle to get out of the now slippery tub.
"Yes...I...am!" She throws her elbow back into my stomach.
She snakes her way out of the cold water tub. Her body crashing to the tiles in attempt to crawl towards the necklace.
I clench my teeth, getting frustrated now. Half my body hanging over the ledge, I clutch her ankle and use it to pull myself out of the bath. I stand up with her ankle still in my hand, sliding her to the other end of the room. She glides across the slippery floor and hits the base of the toilet, furthest from the door now. Half-sopping wet, I turn my back to her and walk towards the necklace by the exit.
I bend down to grab it, but am only welcomed with Aven's entire body jumping onto my from behind. She wraps her arms around my neck and legs around my hips, her running force mixed with the wet ground makes me stumble forward in loss of balance. I barely graze the necklace before my forehead slams against the door instead.
She snakes up my body like she's been trained to do so, getting her legs up on my shoulders and choking me out with them. I stand up straight, my head throbbing as she cuts off my blood flow and air. She brings her arms in a hold around my head too, putting me in a total headlock with all her limbs. Her head nearly touches the ceiling.
"How do...you know...how to do...this!" I run short of air.
"Just let me have the necklace and I'll stop!"
"Fuck...you!"
I slam her back against a wall, just enough to loosen a fraction of her grip on me. I then take the opportunity by violently doubling over to flip her off my shoulders from the velocity. She tumbles onto her back, her head landing between my feet on the tiles. She pinches her eyes shut in the impact. I pivot and kneel down around her. This time, I bunch her wrist against her chest and pin my knee on top so she can't use them. Then I press her knees down together. With one free hand left, I grab her jaw hard enough that her lips pucker together and she's forced to look up at me. She squirms but I have her deadlocked.
"No no no—" I keep her held down as more blood leaks down my face. "You had your fun..."
The bathroom is filled with the sounds of water hitting a discarded shower curtain. The entire bathroom destroyed as the music stays muffled behind the door.
"Give it to me." She mutters in frustration.
"Then admit you're in danger." I reason.
She stares up at me, clenched jaw, not mustering a single word. I give her five whole seconds to answer. Eventually, she speaks.
"Fuck you."
There's a sadness in me that was hoping she would be honest. She's more brainwashed than I can ever imagine. I have her pinned to the wet floor of a dismantled bathroom. There's blood dripping down my skull, a shower rod ripped out of the wall, water leaking everywhere—yet she won't give up. She's a product of Malikai's manipulation. She's his machine.
I clench my jaw, leaning down so my nose almost touches hers.
"Then you're not getting shit from me, Aven." I mutter between my teeth.
The door suddenly bashes open, ripped off the latches so the whole thing hits the ground. We both turn our heads, a huddle of guys standing there. My face drops, the position we're in suddenly looking very bad out of context.
"What the fuck?" One guys shouts.
Shit.
They all come running in, shoving me off Aven and tacking me to the ground. One grabs me by the collar and throws me up to my feet, pinning me against the wall. I get surrounded by three dudes all shouting at me and shoving me around as if I was attacking her.
Amongst it all, I manage to peak around them to see Aven grabbing the necklace on the floor and stumbling out of the bathroom.
A fist flies towards my face.
Aven Brooks
A crowd of guys come running in, shoving Harry off of me and swarming him. In shock of the situation, I sit up on my elbows and watch him get pinned to the wall. My head turns to the necklace right at the doorway, I take the opportunity to grab it and run.
Rushing out of the bathroom, the strobe lights flash through the hallway, music blaring in my ears so I can't even hear anything else. I shove the necklace in my leather coat, regaining my balance and hurrying into the open-concept main area.
The place is at maximum capacity of people, blue strobe lights flashing with the beat of the music. I start making my way through all the swaying bodies, just barely squeezing. It's impossible to not be pressed against someone. My shoulders slam everyone's in passing, endless bodies slamming by me with drunk steps in all directions. I only see flashes of faces from the strobe lights. Perfumes and colognes mix with the scent of liquor and weed. Glitter, glow in the dark accessories. I'm stuck in a nightmare.
With a sudden uneasy pit in my stomach, my gut tells me to check the necklace in my coat. As I do so, I'm floored to feel both pockets empty. I freeze in my pace, my chest caving in.
No.
In instinct, I turn back around from where I came from. Still standing in the heaping pit of people, I manage to make choppy eye contact from a swarm of bodies away. A familiar face flashes between the strobes, eyes catching mine with no mistake.
Backwards hat, no shirt, sweat coating his skin, glitter under his eyes—Niall holds up my necklace in his hand, waving his tongue back in forth like he's bragging.
I clench my teeth and jumpstart after him, he turns away shoves by anyone in his way. I shove past all the people, trying to reach him but struggle.
A sudden hand grabs my wrist and yanks me to the left, swallowing me up in the bodies some more. I get pulled up on an elevated surface that I'm quick to understand is a coffee table—wedged between two people.
I look up and immediately recognize the face in front of me. The person who owns that bar, Dez, if I remember correctly, presses her body against mine in a sway. Joint dangling between her lips, she burns her eyes into mine, holding my hips and swaying to the music. The air is tight, I stare at the subtle sparkles on her face. She sucks on the joint and slowly blows it to me, the potent smoke slipping past my lips.
I get flipped around to face the other person I'm sandwiched between, staring at Scarlett eye level with me. Heavier eye makeup, more glitter, dark red lipstick. She places her hands against my stomach and starts lowering herself down in rhythm of the music. I watch her crouch to my hips, holding onto me and looking up through her long eyelashes. At the same time, I feel Dez lean into my neck from behind me, breathing against the crook of my shoulder while pressing my backside against her hips. She keeps us swaying to the music. Scarlett leads her way back up, pressing against me again so we all move in unison.
This is a decoy.
They're in on this too.
Word travels fast apparently.
I push my way out between them, stepping off the table and back out in the pit of people. I shove through with more drive, the music and strobes making my head pound at this point. I start turning in circles trying to find Niall, eventually spotting his backwards red hat in the distance.
Bullseye.
I race after him, pushing through people to finally get closer. Once he turns and sees me close on his trail, he tosses the necklace over the crowd. I look up and watch the jewelry fly through the air, landing in the hands of Louis standing on a couch from the other side of the room. A black t-shirt on his body and sweaty strands of hair hanging in his forehead.
You're kidding.
I go to race after him but the second I got halfway to him he tosses it away. The multi-million dollar necklace soars through the air to Liam right near the staircase. The second he retrieves it, he hands it off to Harry who races up the stairs in passing.
"Fuck me!"
Hitting my brink of patience, I start pushing towards the staircase. Passing Liam, I send him daggers and a head shake. With a bottle of vodka in his hand, he takes a long cocky swig, glitter and a dark red kiss print on the corner of his mouth.
I weave through people up the stairs, catching glimpse of Harry between the ascending railings. The stairs zig-zag up three more flights of this townhouse, he goes as high as he can. I manage to keep up in his trail but lose him once he gets to the top floor. My chest starts to feel tight.
The crowds begins to thin out the further I go up. Once I get to the end, there were only a few staggered couples around. I turn in all directions, trying to spot Harry. I trace through tight hallways lined with picture frames, frantically passing a few bedrooms. I open one door to only find a couple fucking, the two of them shouting at me before I close the door and move on to the next. I check every single room with no luck.
But then, I catch a breeze.
At the far end of a vacant bedroom, the window is cracked open to a rusty fire escape. I clench my jaw and race over to it, snaking out the window and stepping onto the rickety platform that goes up and down with metal stairs. The same breeze blows through my hair, and when I look below into an alleyway, I realize how high up I am.
"God..."
A wave of nausea rolls through me as I peel my eyes away from the height and head up the tarnished steps. The fire escape rocks as I hurry, zig-zagging up to the roof that wasn't too far. I don't realize I'm holding my breath until my chest begins to ache. I reach the roof, realizing there's no ledge that barricades the perimeter. The second I step on top, the wind becomes really strong in the open night air. I turn my head to the left, seeing Harry standing right at the edge of the building. He's looking down over the ledge, necklace gripped in his hand.
"Harry!" I shout over the heavy wind.
Has he lost his mind?
He turns his head over his shoulder—hood up, blood stained down his face with a split lip. There's a drained look in his eyes but one still holding onto mischief. He pivots his body to face me, heels right at the tip of the building. One heavy gust of wind and he'll be blown off.
Twenty metres away, I stand in shock.
"Tell me the truth and the necklace is yours!"
"What are you gonna do? Jump?" I call bluff.
He cackles in smirk. "You still scared of heights?"
In one effortless move, he steps backwards off the ledge of the roof and vanishes from my sight with the silent drop.
Gone.
My eyes stretch wide, a gasp escaping my lips the second he disappears over the edge like his life meant absolutely nothing. My legs work before my brain, jumpstarting to the edge of the building.
The second I reach the ledge, I hear the sound of a loud splash followed by cheers. I look down over the building to see a pool nearly twenty feet down on a terrace. My hands clutch the bricks, my eyes shutting for a second. A melancholy relief flows through me as I see him in the water. But that relief is quick to turn to hatred and anger. I open my eyes to see the people around the pool cheering. Harry swims to the edge and pulls himself out with the help of Niall, Louis, Liam, Dez, and Scarlett. They all run back in the building with my necklace in their possession.
I know the quickest way down is to jump just like he did, but I physically can't do it. Even if I know I will be okay by landing in the pool, I can't. It's too high. I can't do it. I won't do it.
I race back to the fire escape, a fury in me. I decide to take it all the way to the bottom, the rusty steel clattering from my heavy steps. Once I reach the bottom, I jump down on top of a dumpster in the alleyway. From dumpster to concrete, I run to the front of the townhouse that was crowded of staggered people having smokes and socializing. I run onto the road, looking back and forth until I catch Harry's car in the distance.
Too far for me to chase, I see everyone cram themselves through every door of the beat up vehicle. Before the last door was even shut, the tires screech through the street and rev down the road. It's quick to illegally turn the corner so other cars around slam their brakes and blare the horns. And just like that, the car disappears from my sight. As did all of them. As did my necklace.
"Fuck!"
//
not the same type of party scene we're used to in this book lol
thank you for your patience<3
I love you so so much
new parts soon!!!