The day was impossibly bright and sunny, not only for Bristol, but also for what had happened the night before; there was no way the weather could be reflecting the events of the previous night. At least, Kathryn didn’t believe that to be the case as she walked down Coronation Road.
Well, honestly, it was nearly a run, but she didn’t care how ridiculous she could have looked. The only thing that mattered was getting to her best friend’s apartment and making sure she and her friend’s little brother were alright. She had known the name that had been said so many times on the news reports earlier that morning, but she was still hoping that it was some kind of coincidence, that it was someone else with the exact same name. Of course, in the pit of her stomach, she continued to tell herself that Bristol wasn’t that big and that a coincidence like that would be rare, if not entirely miraculous.
She finally reached the neat little apartment houses that lined the road on her right side, the first one belonging to someone she had known since they had both attended primary school. She didn’t hesitate the push the garden gate aside, and she hurried up the short walk before reaching the door and knocking, though she tried not to seem too panicked as she did so. She knew that she would probably have to be the calming, steady force in this situation.
Only a minute or so passed before she saw her friend’s face in the window, and as soon as the door was opened, Kathryn was inside, a flurry of brunette hair and casual clothes.
“Sophie, I rushed over as soon as I heard the news,” she said, only slightly out of breath from the brisk walk. Her flat at Chalcroft House was a bit of a way, but it hadn’t mattered to her, of course. After all, she had made the walk several times before, and this time was the most important of them.
The two girls embraced each other in a hug before Sophie pulled away and Kathryn was able to see her face, her eyes bloodshot and puffy, her face stained with tears that had stopped falling quite some time before. She had known that her friend would be upset, but she had no way of knowing about all of the complications of the incident.
“Kat, you should, ah, know something,” Sophie said, her voice trembling. Without another word, she grabbed her friend’s hand and led her to the door to one of the bedrooms before pushing it open nearly silently.
It was Harry’s bedroom, Kathryn knew; she had only been inside it a few times before, but she remembered what it looked like. Not heavily furnished, though there were plenty of posters and other things on the walls, along with several pictures of Harry and Louis together, grinning at a camera in different spots in Bristol. But there was one thing about the room that was different from how it had always been in the past: Harry, lying on the bed, completely still and silent as if he was simply a statue of himself.
“Soph, what- I mean, is he- is he okay?” Kathryn asked, concerned about the boy who normally talked your ears off if you allowed him to do so.
“What? Oh, um, well, you see, I’m not too sure,” Sophie replied, shifting around on her feet uncomfortably. “Zayn told me that the paramedics claimed he would be alright after a bit of time, but, I just don’t know. I want to believe what they say, but I, uh, don’t know if I can.” Her voice had grown noticeably softer as she had spoken, until her voice was hardly a whisper through the last few words.
Kathryn looked again to the bed, Harry’s gaze still trained on the ceiling, almost as if he had fallen asleep with his eyes open. She had never seen him, or anyone else, in such a state, to be so withdrawn and disconnected from one’s surroundings as he obviously was. That, or he simply didn’t care, though she doubted that the latter was actually true.
Sleeping was out of the question; he had done enough of that during the early hours of the morning, though he couldn’t say that it had been particularly peaceful. Josh, with one hand grasping a mug of tea and his chin resting on the other as he leaned against the kitchen counter, stared across the small, modest flat, wondering what he could possibly due to occupy his mind. After all, there was no way he was going to allow it to just wander, considering that he knew exactly where it would go if he did.
Setting the mug on the counter, he headed for the door, wondering if anyone else would be around. As much as he hated to admit it, social interaction could be the best thing going for all of them at that point; if they simply stayed hidden away in their respective flats, they would inevitably have to face what had happened, and they would have to do it alone, with no support from any of the others.
Once outside, the chill breeze grabbed at him with its cool tendrils, though the sun that slanted across the balcony was warm and pleasant. Sticking to the sunnier patches, Josh let his feet carry him to the stairs and, after that, the third floor, two floors down from where his own flat was. Niall and Louis both lived on this level, and he figured that seeing either of them would be better than no one, even with Louis being in such an emotional state and Niall being completely hung over from the night before.
He did, in fact, run into someone, but it wasn’t anyone that he was familiar with. It was a girl, and a rather pretty one at that, her facial features refined, with dark auburn hair cropped short around her narrow face. She seemed somewhat petite, but at the same time, she held an air of confidence that struck him as strange from someone so slight of stature. He was usually polite, though, especially to girls. Especially to attractive girls.
“Afternoon,” he said, nodding in her direction. He had never been much good at starting conversations, feeling awkward as he said the single word that seemed to fall flat. But what did he care? He was only trying to make casual conversation, wasn’t he?
She stopped when she heard his voice, looking him up and down as if inspecting him quickly. Her eyes didn’t seem to linger over any particular feature, sweeping over his entirety rather quickly, and he suddenly found himself quite taken aback by her brash nature.
“Well, your hair is certainly more normal than those other two boys had.”
Josh could feel his eyes widen at what he had just heard, wondering if he could have possibly imagined the words that had come from her mouth. But no, he was quite sure that she had, in fact, spoken of the normality of his hair. “Wha- I mean, I don’t-“ he stuttered, unable to make sense of the sudden strangeness of the situation.
Then, she looked a bit annoyed and said, “Oh, come on. Your hair. It’s not a bright red ball of fluff or an overrated black quiff, now is it?” She rolled her eyes before adding, “It’s a decent brunette at least, if not a bit boring. Good for you, though.”
Shaking his head, he tried to make sense of things before asking, “So you’re saying that you saw two guys matching those descriptions?”
“Yeah, they were headed for some flat around here, though I can’t say whose. Anyway, the one with the bloody awful quiff got a call and hurried off somewhere else, leaving carrot-top to fend for himself, as it would seem.”
Josh knew immediately that she meant Ed and Zayn, though whether they were coming to visit Louis or Niall, he wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter, though; he probably needed to simply find Ed and accompany him to whichever flat he was planning to go to. After all, social interaction was all that he was seeking at that point.
As he began to walk away, he heard the girl call to him, “I’m Alice, by the way. And you owe me!”
Zayn hurried down the sidewalk, continuously running his fingers through his hair, his nerves absolutely shot. He felt as if he’d just been here, and, in a way, he had; he had dropped Harry at his apartment on Coronation fewer than 24 hours before, though for some reason, it felt like it had been ages already. In his mind, he kept going over the call he’d received that had prompted him to leave Ed to talk to Louis on his own at Little Cross House. Sophie hadn’t sounded particularly panicked, but she hadn’t sounded great either. Perhaps something had happened with Harry? But why would she have called him for that?
His nerves completely shot, he reached the apartment and fumbled with the doorbell, aware of how tense he was, especially through his shoulder. He ran his fingers through his hair once more, his hair moving up into the quiff almost naturally, likely from him styling it that way all the time. Just as he dropped his arm to his side once more, the door opened, quite suddenly, and he squinted against the too-bright sunlight to make out the person who had answered the doorbell.
With the door only slightly ajar, a single sliver of sunlight slanted across Sophie’s body, never reaching her face as it crossed her shoulder and disappeared behind her. But even without the light, Zayn could see her eyes, red from crying, crying too much, upset by both losses. He knew what she must think, that her brother was beyond saving.
Suddenly, he felt the intense urge to go to her, to comfort her in the most intimate way possible. Something in his mind was buzzing, like a loose wire, something that had been there for a while, ever since Ed had introduced him to Sophie. It was louder now, pushing its way to the front of his consciousness and making him pay attention to it. This buzz, this tingle of sorts, made him want thing and one person, and from the look in her eyes, he knew that it was what Sophie wanted as well.
Without a word between the two of them, he crossed the threshold and shut the door behind him, not able to hear if it slammed or not. All he could focus on was her, her lips as he met them with his own, her hips as he grabbed them, somewhat roughly, with his hands and pushed their bodies closer together. The kisses were frantic, desperate, as if the two were forcing themselves closer to each other. Zayn couldn’t think straight, but he found himself moving her backward toward the living room, even as they stayed less than millimeters apart, and then he was running on simply instinct as he pulled his shirt over his head. Her tank top and shorts followed quickly, and then his pants, and then, and then, and then…
“Oh, hello, mate.” Ed waved casually, really only raising his hand, as Josh approached him, looking more than a little bit puzzled. “You alright there?”
“Uh, yeah, I’m fine, I s’pose,” Josh said, glancing over his shoulder as if he expected to see someone following him, though Ed couldn’t imagine why. When he turned back around, he asked, “You seen some girl, dark red hair, ‘round here?”
Ed thought for a moment before remembering someone who fit that description, though it was vague. “Yeah, as a matter of fact, saw a girl like that just before Zayn took off. She gave us some rather vulgar looks, like she’d want to do things to us, if you know what I mean.” Ever the joker, Ed almost felt as if it was his responsibility to keep the mood in many situations lighter than it would be otherwise.
“That’s strange, because I ran into her, and she called you a carrot-top and said that Zayn’s hair was an overrated quiff. Didn’t seem like she wanted to do anything but dye your hair and give him a proper cut, if you ask me,” Josh said, a small grin lighting on his face, if only for a few moments. And even though it was brief, Ed noticed it and took note of it, realizing that a bit of humor could take anyone’s mind off of the unthinkable.
Then, pulled back to the situation at hand, Ed said, “So, Zayn and I were going to see Louis, actually. You seen him since, uh, you know-“
Josh shook his head, saving Ed from having to come up with something to fill the blank in with that he was obviously trying to avoid. “Nah, I’ve only been to see Niall, and that was brief. For all I know, Louis hasn’t left his flat since I brought him back last night.”
“Suppose we should go and see him, yeah?” Ed said, pointing to the door behind him with his thumb. Coincidentally, he had been just about to knock on the door to Louis’s flat when Josh had approached with his vexed expression.
Josh nodded, but before Ed could move toward the door, he added, “Just be easy, alright? What I mean to say is, be careful of what you say. I don’t doubt he’s still in an emotionally state, and there’s no telling what simple statement or words could set him to sobbing.”
“You know, I’m not going to cry anymore at this point,” Louis said, holding the door open in front of them.
Ed jumped at the unexpected sound of his friend’s voice before turning and looking Louis up and down, his normally slim, graceful stature seeming exceptionally frail at the moment. And though he claimed he wouldn’t cry, Ed wasn’t so sure; he could see how red and puffy Louis’s eyes were, and his cheeks were so obviously stained from the crying he had done earlier.
“Well, quit staring at me and get in here, the both of you,” he said, a bit of his normal sass present in his tone. “Just because I can’t really leave doesn’t mean I have to be isolated, and the one thing I desire right now is human interaction.”
But despite his words, Ed could see it in his eyes that the one thing Louis truly craved was Harry, and Harry only.