"Harry." I breathe, but before I can say anything, my stomach catches up to me and I throw my head into the trashcan.
Harry throws Niall off of me as I empty myself into this poor little trashcan.
"Harry." I mumble again into the trashcan. His shouting at Niall echoes through the room.
"You little prick!" he yells. I look up and Harry has Niall pinned up against the wall with his fist tight and ready to punch.
I stand up quickly, ignoring my stomach and run over to them, pushing Harry out of the way.
"Let me explain." I breathe slowly, making sure I would not end up throwing up ON either of them.
"Please do Charlotte, explain why the fucking asshole who kidnapped you is in my damn house!" Harry screams into my face, his eyes blackened with blood.
Niall stands behind me, rubbing his neck as I turn to face him.
"Go." I whisper. He doesn't hesitate and slips past me as I watch Harry. His fists stay clenched at his sides but he knows better than to pounce.
"Don't fucking come back." He spits. Niall pauses at the door and then turns around.
Fuck.
"What's funny Harry is how you think you are some heroine just because you had the decency to save one of the girls out of the many girl's lives you have already ruined. In reality, you're still the same douchebag." Niall coos from the door and steps out, slamming the door behind him without another word.
My hands are shaking now but my need to puke has diminished.
"Charlotte." Harry's voice cuts through the thin air between us. I don't look up to him, not after what Niall just said.
"I should go." I whisper.
"Charlie, don't. I get if you want to leave, but I need you to stay here. I need you here."
"Why? So you can soak in all the riotousness you think you have gained just because you changed your mind about making me one of your little prostitutes?" I yell, stepping back from him.
"Charlie that's not..."
"I don't care what Niall did, what he said about you is true." I whisper in horror. Harry's eyes have shifted back to a soft green.
I look back to the doorway, to the rose sprawled out on the floor and a pain stings in my chest.
"I am shitty guy, I already told you that. But I have trying for you Charlie, trying to better. With everything going on, all the bridges I have burned in the past day for you, I just don't care about anything. Anything, except for you."
I shake my head at him, refusing to believe his words even though my heart longs to. Harry quickly runs his hand through his hair and then smashes it against the wall in fury. I am not taken back by his violence; I do not flinch.
"You're so damn frustrating. You know what it is like to go to three different flower shops just to find the reddest roses and to come back here to you and...Niall?" he says in complete disgust.
"Just stop Harry!" I scream and he looks at me.
"Stop thinking that everything you have done has just been erased in my mind because you kissed me. It's not. When I look at you I see everything! I see those poor girls. I see the guy in the coffee shop who looked at me like I was prey because that is what I was wasn't I? I don't care if you say you care for me. You can get me flowers and kiss me under warm water, hell you can even sing to me but that wont ever remove the look you gave me when I was nothing but a part of your little game!" I cry and his face freezes. I am breathing so harshly that I am afraid to move, of falling over. I said it. I said what I was holding in, what I was hiding from myself.
"Fine then. Go. Get the fuck out of here and don't come back if that's how you feel!" Harry yells stepping closer to me.
I stare at him with my eyes widened with tears. He squeezing his head as to block out his thoughts, maybe the same thoughts as my own. "I said leave!" he yells and I step back.
I look to the door and back to him. "Go." He mutters, not even looking up to see my eyes.
"I am already gone." I whisper to myself, stepping out of the door.
~
I take a seat on the couch at the library. Shaking, I pull out the card Niall handed me, staring down at the initials.
G.L.
He's dead.
He's dead.
He's got to be dead.
Then why do I feel like he never died?
Quickly, I run outside into the fog and walk a block down until I reach a payphone. I enter the number before I can change my mind and listen carefully to each ring. My heart is beating so loud that I am almost sure it can be heard through the line.
Six rings later, someone picks up.
"Hello, this is personal business for G.L. Alexa is speaking, how can I help you?" the girl speaks into the phone, her tone uninterested. I can only wonder if she one of those girls.
"I need to speak to Boss, now." I say firmly.
"What's your name? He is extremely busy and..."
"Tell him Charlie Parker is on the line. I am sure he will eagerly dismiss his work." I say. I am hoping I am wrong, I am hoping that this guy isn't who I dread it to be.
"One moment." The girl speaks, clearly annoyed by my persistence.
Seconds later, the breathing on the phone has shifted. I know G.L. has picked up the phone.
"I know who you are." I say quietly.
"Is that so?" he speaks in a harsh tone. The phone drops from my hand at the sound of his voice. I stare out into the street, glimmered with ice on the sides. I look down at the payphone, hanging by the cord and cover my mouth from screaming.
What have I done?
Reopened my living nightmare.
I pick up the phone and hold my breath, afraid of showing him that I am scared.
But I am scared.
I know what he is capable of.
"I want my mom back." I finally say. His immediate chuckle on the other line sends a shiver up my spine.
"She has nothing to do with this." I say calmly and his breathing cuts off.
"She has everything to do with this!" he snaps.
"She has done nothing. It is me you want."
"Why do you say that?" he asks, intrigued.
"Because...because I got away." I say.
"And left a deep wound in my thigh. I am aware." He growls.
"We're just survivors, aren't we Charlotte?" he chuckles and my heart halts.
"Do not call me that."
"I will call you what I wish. Now, you said you wanted your mother. You can have her, but come in. I just want to speak to you, alone."
I can feel him smiling through the phone.
He is going to kill me, to finish me. Just like Ellie.
"If you want to talk, you come to me." I seethe.
"Very well. And I would appreciate if you returned my best associate to work. He always brings in the finest." The sick man says through the phone and I close my eyes in pain.
"You're a monster."
"With reasons."
"Fuck you're reasons." I spit through the phone and he laughs.
"You have grown up, little Charlie." His words sting me mentally and emotionally. The image of him above me comes into my mind. He has his hands wrapped around my neck, a smile on his face. I am shaking my head at the air.
"Seven O'clock at Koffee Kall. Bring my mom." I choke out and hang up quickly, before he can hear my muffled cries.
I should have listened when I was younger. Nothing is impossible.
Nothing.
~
I have smoked a total of three cigarettes in three minutes as I walk to Marson Academy from the library. That's a new record.
I take out a fourth cigarette staring down at it. Oh, hell.
I light it anyway.
I almost make it to the girls' dorms when I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around, taking another hit of my cigarette.
"Zayn." I say.
"Charlie, good to see you." He smiles genuinely. I think about the ride with him and Jo to the hospital and the way he looked at me with lion eyes. Now he seems...calm.
Slowly, I turn away from him and continue down to the girl's dorms to pick up my things but Zayn's words stop me.
"You're playing a dangerous game with an opponent you don't know." He whispers but I hear him clearly. Whipping back around to face him, my eyebrows furrow.
"I am not sure if I want to know how you seem to know everything about me." I huff, crossing my arms and throwing the cigarette on the ground.
"I saw the way Harry looked when he talked about you and I figured that if I stayed like this, I could never have someone like you. Someone that my eyes could light up talking about." He laughs to himself.
His words take me by surprise and I have to bite my lip to keep it from falling open. "Thank you." I smile and he nods, puffing his smoke into O's.
"Zayn?" I say quietly and he looks up.
"Yeah?"
"Tell Harry I am sorry."
Zayn's expression changes to confused but he nods. Then, before he can say something that will only make my heart ache more, I walk away.
Luckily Jo and Dominique aren't in the room when I get inside. I am in no state to explain to them the truth about everything that has happened.
Besides, I wouldn't want to have to tell them that this is a goodbye. Because I know that is what it is.
~
I sit, sipping mocha at the table in the corner of Koffee Kall. Mary isn't here which is good because I wouldn't want her to worry about what was happening.
I stare at the clock across the room; my eyes stone cold.
6:59
I close my eyes and breathe in deeply.
"It's not too late Charlie." I hear Ellie whisper in my head.
"Go, leave!" she yells.
I shake my head, as to make her go away.
"If you don't leave, you will end up like me. Go, Charlie! Run!" she yells, her tiny voice panicked but I stay seated, my feet firm on the ground.
"I am sorry Ellie." I whisper, opening my eyes. I look across at the clock once more watching it hit 12.
7:00
I don't have to look up to the door because I know when I hear the bell that he is here. I can feel him.
Authors Note:
Woo! My first author's note haha. Okay hi guys! Sorry for the long wait but I hope you are enjoying Deception. Where are you all from? Say where you live and how old you are! I would love to get to know my readers:)