-Harry-
••January 25, 2013••
"It's my Mother," Faith said, looking down at her phone. She was instantly pale with utter shock.
"She doesn't know I have this number. Uncle James must have told her." She looked at her phone again, then up at me with a "help me" expression.
"Do you want me to answer it?" I asked, getting up from the leather couch in my flat, extending my hand for the phone, but she just shook her head.
"If you answer it they'll be mad, but if it's me, well, they’re expecting me," she sighed, "Maybe it won’t be so bad."
I opened my mouth to disagree and take the phone but she had already clicked the answer button and pressed the phone to her ear, biting her lower lip.
"Mother?" she started timidly, as she listened to the answer that I couldn't hear at all.
I sat back down, folding my arms, waiting for her to finish so she could tell me what was going on. My right leg bounced in anxiety as I sat there watching her face soften.
What was going on? What was Mrs. Gray telling Faith? I sat there wondering and waiting, watching her occasionally nodding to herself. Though of course the other line couldn't see her nod.
"Tomorrow?" she clarified in a weak voice, speaking for the first time in about three minutes. "That's so soon… You can't someho–" She stopped speaking, listening to the other person looking stricken. I could imagine what was being said.
Was her Mother forcing her back home? Of course she was. If she could get ahold of Faith that was definitely what she would tell her.
"Okay," Faith replied softly before she hung up the phone, letting it drop to the floor as she sat down next to me. She rested her head on my shoulder and shut her eyes before speaking.
"My Mother is coming to England," she explained as tears rolled down her cheeks, silently. "She's taking me back…I can't go back to Uncle James's house now!"
"Do you need a place to stay?" I blurted out without thought.
"I couldn't," she answered quickly, pulling herself up off the couch. "Thank you, but I've already dragged you into too much of my mess." She forced a smile as she picked up her bag and phone that was left on the floor. "Thank you for everything." she said, walking towards the door.
Like she knew where she was going?! I got up, grabbing her hand. "You're staying here, and that's final." I pulled her back into the flat. She didn't argue, she just laughed and followed me back into the flat.
-Harry-
••January 26, 2013••
“You’re really quiet,” I said walking into the small guest room with both of my hands stuffed into my pockets, giving a small smile to Faith, who was sitting on the edge of the bed. “I haven’t met such a quiet girl in years. Most of the girls scream and–,” I stopped myself, seeing how sad she looked. “Never mind."
I sat down in the chair across from the bed. She was obviously still upset about her mother coming to find her. I couldn’t blame her. I knew Mrs. Gray well enough to know that she was freaking scary. I would probably go mental if I had a mother like Faith’s.
“Thank you again for the room,” she murmured, playing with her shoulder length, dark hair.
“It’s cool. Seriously,” I told her for what felt like the hundredth time. “You don’t need to thank me.”
“You’re famous, Harry,” she said. I couldn’t help but feel my cheeks heat up, hearing her saying my name. It was quite adorable, because of her thick Irish accent. It was kind of how Niall said it but cuter.
“I don’t understand why you would just let me stay at your home. I’m just another one of those girls out in the world,” she finished, still twirling her hair.
“You’re kidding right?” I thought back to all the times Niall had talked about her. “You’re special, Faith.” I smiled, taking her hand to make her look up at me. She flinched in surprise. Her eyes were bright but I could see she was scared. She always had that scared look. She tried hard to hide it, but I could always see it.
“Honestly, Harry,” she started, pausing briefly. I couldn’t help but notice that she said my name again. I bit my lip and nodded for her to continue.
“Are you only taking care of me because I’m friends with…used to be friends with Niall?”
My smile dropped as I heard Niall’s name out loud. I hadn’t called him or answered any calls from him. I was just so mad at him earlier. I finally got Faith here, in the same room with Niall, and he was goofing off. I knew it wasn’t like him to just start snogging some girl; there must have been a huge reason for it, but it still made me angry and honestly a bit disappointed.
“Harry?” Her voice broke off my train of thoughts. I blinked and focused on her again.
“I know Shannon,” she suddenly blurted out, pulling her hands out of mine.
“What?!"
“Shannon. She’s my friend–err, she’s paid to be my friend…because I’m not…great,” she explained, turning away. “I’m such a horrible daughter.” A tear rolled down her cheek.
“Mother thinks I can’t make decent friends on my own, I guess. She pays Shannon to be my friend. She keeps me away from Niall, which I guess was a good idea, considering what I saw, and she tries her best. I don’t know…” she mumbled, as I just sat there, unsure what I should do. She was just so broken and unsure of everything. I didn’t know what to say.
Did she want to be away from her mother or not? It was confusing to understand.
I cleared my throat, “You know, I can’t help but notice you seem a little at war with yourself here.”
Faith looked up at me with her huge brown eyes, “Do you think I did wrong by leaving?” she asked in a quiet, squeaky voice.
“Of course not. You need some adventure in your life.” I smiled. She let out a laugh, suddenly falling backwards, onto the bed, spreading out her arms on the red, silky sheets.
My smile grew as I watched Faith giggle with relief on the bed like a little four year old, just enjoying life for a moment without the world to disagree with her.
“I think I’m going to sleep early tonight,” she said, rolling over and shutting her eyes. “Turn the lights off, please?” she requested, as if she knew I was going to say no.
“Sure,” I said, getting up from my chair.
“Good night.” I walked out the door and started pulling it shut when I heard her mumble something in a sleepy tone.
I quickly opened the door wider. “Yes? Did you say something?”
“I really like you. You’re really nice,” she repeated, a little louder.
I smiled, feeling my cheeks heat up as I shut the door, whispering one last good night.
-Zayn-
••January 28, 2013••
“What the hell, mate?!” I yelled, storming into the flat and slamming the door behind myself. “Stop freaking ignoring all my calls!”
“Shh,” Harry replied, putting his finger up to his lips and causing my eyes to immediately widen. He brought her to his own flat?! Wait – of course he did. He’s Harry. I hit my head in annoyance.
“What did you do to her?” I asked, lowering my voice.
“She needed a place to sleep so I let her–”
“You slept with her?!” I blurted out, yelling again.
“No!!” Harry protested, grabbing my arm and pulling me further into the flat. “Shut up, mate. She’s sleeping…in the guest room,” he explained slowly, as if I were an idiot.
"Louis’s here!!" a loud, high pitched voice shouted from behind me.
Harry rolled his eyes as the hyper Doncaster boy ran into the room, pulling both Harry and I into a forced group hug.
"Nice," Louis said, letting out a deep sigh. "Doesn't a hug just mend everything?"
I extricated myself from the hug, receiving shocked looks from both the guys.
"Someone's a bit moody," Louis commented, rubbing his chin. "Something crawled into your boxers again Zayn?" He grinned as he shook his head in disappointment.
"What the hell? No!" I let out a long sigh knowing I was way too stressed right now. "Just a tad bit mad that you ignored me on the phone, Harry," I growled, turning back towards him.
"She saw Niall and that Shannon girl snogging and Shannon is apparently her close friend, so it was super awkward," Harry quickly mumbled. "She's really brittle, and kind, and caring and I know exactly why Niall was so fond of her," he said, smiling goofily to himself.
"Oh my God. What is going on?" Louis asked, but I just ignored him.
"Let's get her out of here," I stated.
"What?!" Harry and Louis cried in sync.
"Her mother is coming to pick her up. She shouldn’t be here–in London. She's ruining Niall. I can't take it," I explained vehemently, but Harry was surprisingly calm. His eyes widened, then he just smiled and nodded. Then he excused himself and walked into one of the rooms.
"Wait, wait, wait," Louis said, as soon as Harry left the room. "Faith's in this house?!" Louis asked with wide eyes.
I nodded slowly as I sat down on the couch, happy that Harry hadn’t put up a fight over Faith. Louis soon joined me on the couch as we waited.
"What’s taking so long? I'm going to go meet her!" Louis announced after a few minutes. He scrambled off the couch and off towards the bedroom Harry had gone into. A few moments later, I heard him shout in surprise.
"Zayn!!" Louis called from inside the room.
I got up from the couch, rubbing my hands on my jeans as I started walking towards towards the room, but before I could get there, there was a loud knock at the front door. I jumped, and for a moment I was torn between answering the door and going to Louis, but another insistent knock sent me running to open the heavy front door.
Mrs. Gray walked in, smiling the smile I had learned to be afraid of.
"Where is my little brat?" she demanded in an icy voice, stalking into the living room with a man closely behind her.
“She should be in the guest bedroom,” I answered her, pointing to the door. She immediately went inside as the man came up to me.
"James Gray, Faith's uncle," he introduced himself, extending his hand. I quickly took it, noticing that it was chilled from the cold night air.
"WHAT?!" Mrs. Gray yelled, from the guest bedroom.
I quickly made my way there and found an unhappy Mrs. Gray standing in the middle of an empty room with her arms crossed.
"Where the hell is my daughter?!" she yelled.
"We don’t know! She’s missing!" Louis cheered, waving his hands up in the air. His grin quickly disappeared under Mrs. Gray’s piercing, angry dark eyes.
"Perhaps she went out that window," James Gray mused, pointing to the window, which was wide open. The curtain flapped ominously in the cold sunny draft.
"This is bad. This is-oh-so-bad," Mrs. Gray muttered under her breath to herself as I just stood there staring at the window in shock.
Harry was gone too which meant…
Harry took Faith and jumped out the window?!