"We've been searching for ages, where the hell could he be?" Harry was growing extremely worried.
Him and Zayn had been searching everywhere for Louis without any luck. They tried calling on his phone, only to get no reply at all. Not for the texts, nor the phone calls. They went to everyone's houses and work place that Louis knew of, but Louis wasn't there at all. They tried the mall, the local parks, all the places they could think of, Louis wasn't anywhere to be found.
Zayn had called Paul to tell him about this and Paul had said he'll be searching for him. And here Harry and Zayn were carpooling and looking everywhere they could. They had skipped the lunch time but weren't getting hungry at all. Only concerns they owned at the point were all about Louis.
"I have no idea." Zayn parked his car at the side of the road.
Zayn was wondering where Louis could've been. He never knew Louis was wanting to leave. And if so, where did he go? Louis didn't have anywhere to be. Zayn and Louis had spent their almost entire lives together and knew everything about each other.
Apparently not, Zayn guessed.
Harry was looking at his lap, remembering everything that has ever happened in his life with Louis around. And he couldn't believe how terribly ungrateful he had acted towards the guy. He couldn't believe how he threw everything Louis had ever done to him, for him, out the window. He now realized what would he feel like without having Louis in his life. Incomplete.
His eyes started filling up with tears and he kept cursing himself in his head. It was all his fault that Louis had lied to everyone and gone. Louis had literally disappeared. They didn't receive a call or text from Paul saying that he had found him either.
Harry went from spending most of the time and sharing things with Louis for almost a decade to losing him completely in just a night.
He could've said something. He could've done something yesterday night. He should've done something last night. He literally had Louis break and scream out what he felt and what Harry did was just broke him even more. Louis looked in so much pain the other night and Harry didn't do anything about it.
Now Harry was the one in pain. He literally was feeling like his chest was closing in and his heart getting suffocated. He was blinking fast to not let the tears drop. He was trying to silently get his breathing to stable down because it was getting heavier.
Zayn was looking out of his window all this time, here and there, in some silent hope of magically having his eyes drop onto Louis. He sighed after about five minutes of hopeless eye wandering. He looked at his lap, his arms were crossed in front of his chest. He pinched his nose, immensely distressed about his best friend.
He looked out again in same hopes but immediately turned his face to Harry when he heard a low sniffle. Harry had his face turned to his side, away from Zayn, elbow on the car door and fist loosely over his mouth, his index finger was reaching his eye and rubbed it before he closed his fist again. Zayn didn't miss how his finger became wet after that.
Zayn knew having Louis gone out of the blue was painful for himself and all the while thinking about Louis and himself, he completely forgot how Harry would be feeling. The boy had the person who practically saved his life in every way vanished like this. Even though Harry went away for two months himself, now was when he was feeling alone without Louis. And Zayn could see. You always realize what you had when you lose it.
He knew he was hard on Harry earlier that day and now he felt bad about it. Sure it had been hours passed but now was when he actually thought about it. He didn't know what happened at Harry's house last night and he wanted to but he didn't know if he should ask about it at the moment.
Harry was obviously crying right in front of him. He wanted to approach him but he didn't know how to. So he decided to just let the silence continue. He turned his face to view out of his window. After a while, he heard Harry speak.
"I'm sorry." Harry had whispered.
Zayn turned his face to him with a confused face. "What?"
Harry lightly sighed, still in the same position as he was before, and repeated his words. "I'm sorry."
"What for?"
"Louis."
Zayn stayed silent, just looked at the back of Harry's head. He knew what Harry meant very well and as he thought about it, he knew it might've been because of Harry that Louis left like he did, but he needed to get Harry up as well. Of course, he had a negative feeling towards him due to the given fact but he couldn't deny the love he had grown for the younger boy over the years. He was practically like a family member for him.
"Harry?"
Harry swallowed and blinked rapidly, trying not to let a sob out. "Hm?"
Zayn sighed. "Harry, I'm sorry for going out on you like that earlier today. I just lost it and you didn't deserve that."
Harry snorted and smiled a sad smile, pitying himself. "Yeah, right. I did deserve that."
"Harry-"
"And you know it too." Harry firmly stated, even though his voice was shaky at the end, his intention was firmly put down and Zayn understood that clearly. He wasn't stupid.
Zayn stayed quiet and so did Harry. Zayn wanted to drive a bit more to try and find Louis but he knew it was going to useless. He didn't want it to be but he knew it was.
He bit the inside of his cheek, praying for Louis to be okay. His phone rang all of a sudden. He saw the caller name and immediately pressed answer after seeing that it was Paul.
"You found Louis?" Zayn asked immediately, it made Harry turn his head to face Zayn so quick that he almost got a whiplash.
"Oh. No." Zayn lowered his excitement, if you can call it that.
"No, I guess we'll keep looking in a while. We just stopped somewhere." Zayn said after a pause and also before one. Harry was sitting on his seat, his nose red, eyes clearer than before, biting the nail of the thumb of his right hand as the left hand clenched and unclenched the cloth of his pant, eye brows frowned in anticipation.
"We might not be home for a few more hours, I guess. I don't know." Zayn shrugged. And after a little pause, he nodded and said, "Okay, then. Bye."
He ended the call and looked at Harry who was looking at him with so much hope in his eyes that it hurt him to say. "No luck."
Harry's eyes dropped and he then looked out of the car. "This is all my fault."
"Harry, don't-"
"It is. Don't try to make me think it isn't 'cause it definitely is. I know it. I'm very sure."
"How can you say that?"
"I told you he came over last night?" Zayn nodded. "Well he told me exactly what you did this morning."
Zayn frowned his brows. "What did he say?"
"He... he told me that... he said he loves m-me." Harry's eyes watered again. "And I... I told him that he was lying. That he didn't really love me. I told him it couldn't be true. And he- I can't believe I put him through that. He looked in so much pain and I only- it's all my f-fau-fault."
He ended up sobbing. He rested his elbows on knees and head in his hands, sobbing out. Literally having his shoulders shake.
This Zayn didn't know of. He didn't know Louis had told Harry all of this.
"He said that I want nothing to do with him anymore." Harry spoke. "He thinks like that and I don't know what to do. I don't want that. I want to tell him that but I can't now!"
"But you left and didn't contact him for a couple of months."
"I was stupid. I was an idiot for doing that. He didn't deserve that. A guy like him deserves everything good which I can't be."
"Harry, why would you think like that?"
"Have I ever made him happy? Never."
"Yes, you have. Just by being with him, living with him, talking to him, you were making him very happy. I have known he loves you since before he told me. I see how he lit up just talking about you or by being around you. It's a wonder how you couldn't see it."
"I had a husband. How did he go through that?" Harry asked, worried about the answer.
Zayn sighed. "He was devastated, to say the least. He didn't eat properly, didn't talk much. He locked himself up away from everyone. But then he saw how happy you were with him and he wanted you to have happiness so he decided to suck it up and be happy for you. He didn't want to ruin your happiness by sulking about it in front of you."
"Quite an actor, he is then." Harry said, sadly. "Why does he want me of everyone? I don't understand. I can't give anything to him."
"He never wanted anything from you. Just you." Zayn said with full belief that what he said was a hundred percent true.
Harry stayed quiet, just sitting on his seat looking at his shoes. After a while, plus his eyes started piling up with tears again, he choked out. "I miss him."
Zayn's heart warmed up after haring this.
"I miss him so much. I want him to be here. Why did he leave? He shouldn't have left like this. I miss him! I can't live without him in my life! Please, Louis, come back! Please come back!" Harry started sobbing, forgetting that Zayn was sitting beside him.
Zayn unbuckled his seatbelt and reached for Harry, wrapping his arms around him. Harry went limp and fell to Zayn's chest, still crying. "I made a huge mistake, Zayn. I need to tell him I don't hate him. I need to apologize to him. I need to take back everything I said to him. I hurt him so much that he left. I hate myself."
Zayn kept rubbing Harry's back and at that moment it was like Harry was seventeen and Zayn was his only source of protection. Zayn felt it like he needed to make him feel better again but the only problem was that he didn't know how to.
"Harry, we'll find him. Don't worry, we'll look for him and we'll find him. I promise."
Harry shook his head. "No, no, he's gone. He left. We can't find him."
"We will. I miss him too. We won't give up till we do, alright? That's my promise."
They stayed like that and Harry was the first one to pull away. His face looked pale and his eyes were bloodshot. His nose was red as well and his cheeks were damp.
"Can you drop me off at my place, please?"
"Harry-"
"Please?"
"How about I take you back my place? We'll eat something, you can rest and we'll go looking for Louis again. How about that?"
Harry stayed still and nodded after a while, but only so lightly it could've gone missed. Zayn buckled up again and drove off. They reached the house and Zayn parked his car outside the garage when he saw something. Him and Harry both had their eyes widened at seeing the car parked a few houses away, behind some truck. They looked at each other and before Zayn knew it, Harry was sprinting to the door, unlocking it with the key he had just stolen from Zayn's hand, and was rushing inside.
"Louis?!"
~
AN
This is what a cliffhanger is, isn't it? Yikessss!!!!! What do you think of this? Any opinions on this chapter? Please vote and comment here and also thank you so much for checking out Forced Vows. I love the response I got there :) I love you all and thanks again. Vote and Comment pleeeeeeease! byeee. x