"He's going to kill me. I will be dead and I will only be one day from going to Europe. One day! I'm too young to die, Harry. I don't want to do this." I exclaimed and hugged Harry who sat next to me on the bed close and he hid me in his long arms. I could barely breathe, but I couldn't breathe correctly before either, so I was okay with that.
"Don't worry, Issy. Nothing will happen." He calmed me down and stroke my hair. I talked about it as a joke, but I was really scared to death.
My pulse was going crazy and I felt like I was having a fever. For every second that went by, I felt the invisible weights on my shoulders get even heavier. He could be anywhere.
"I'm sorry for asking, but why are you so scared of him? What is he going to do?" Liam asked me from the side of the room. Harry, Liam and Louis was going to go out and 'explore the city' (their words, not mine) and buy a pair of new shoes to Harry, since we got mobbed the last time we were about to do that. They wanted me to come with them, but I said there was no way I would go anywhere in Birmingham.
"When we were together, he would... Hurt me sometimes, both physically and by words. He always apologized afterwards and promised he would never do it again, but he always did, and I always believed him. When I finally had enough and left him to live with my parents again, he would threaten me with all kinds of things. Mostly, it was texts or phonecalls where he said he would beat me up and stuff, and he never did anything, but he's capable of many things. I was really afraid of all of his friends and they were doing a lot of criminal stuff. Ryan promised he didn't had anything to do with it, but I don't know. At least he does now."
The three of them looked a bit shocked, but what did they expect? Why would I else be this afraid? I imagined him jumping up from behind me or something. He knew I was here, and I was scared to death.
"But it's okay. I'll stay here until the show and then we will be in Europe by tomorrow, right? You can go shopping, it's okay." I told them, faking a smile. I didn't want them to be scared to, or feel sorry for me. Most certainly, I didn't want them to believe I was weak and couldn't handle it. Yes, I was scared like hell, but I could take it. I didn't need them to babysit and comfort me.
"Are you sure? I can stay and watch a movie with you if that would help." Harry offered. I smiled at him and shook my head. Harrs was, no doubt, the nicest person I knew. I would never see him as anything but a friend, but the girl that gets to date Harry, is one lucky bastard.
"That's not necessary. I'll just stay at the hotel. I'll call if I need you." I promised. After making sure that I wasn't that scared and that I could handle it, they finally left me and went out.
I looked around in my hotel room. Now what? I had much time before I had to leave to the arena, and the hotel was a safe place, right? I left my hotel room in my black sweatpants, a white T-shirt and my super-soft socks. I sneaked past the others' rooms and took the elevator down to the lobby.
This was the most fancy hotel this far and when I looked into the hotel restaurant when we arrived I had seen people playing live music. A piano was the first thing I knew would calm me down.
The door to the hotel restaurant was unlocked and there were only a few guests inside, eating a late breakfast. I was only going to play for a little while, and no one could tell me no, could they? I was way better than the guy who played before.
I sat down and ignored the angry gaze I got from one man in the corner. I didn't need to look at him for long to understand his hangover. Not my problem, I thought.
I didn't think, I just played what came into my mind and kept going. I was playing for a while, letting the music take over and relax me. When I played, it felt like I could do whatever I wanted. If I wanted to give the poor man in the corner a massive headache, I could. It looked like he had fallen asleep with his face against the table.
"It's good." I heard from behind me. I didn't need to turn around. His accent was strong enough. I kept playing, not wanting to stop. Not wanting to meet his eyes that would distract me just like they always did. Not wanting to think about why it would distract me so much. The music helped to calm me down, and even if I still had all kinds of flashbacks about my drunken ex coming home and screaming at me, it was soothing to play.
"I'd never heard you play like this before. Only with chords and on a keyboard. They said you were good, but that's an understatement. You're brilliant!" Zayn said and walked around the piano to lean against it, just above my sight, as he kept listening. His underarms rested against the piano and he leaned slightly forward. His tattoos were clearly visible at his arms. Not that his arms distracted me or anything. Why would they?
His presence really shouldn't be disturbing or affect me, but it did. I was so aware of him standing there, looking, no, staring, at me. I played three notes wrong in a row and took out my frustration on the piano by smashing the palms of my hands right down. The hangover-man in the corner groaned painfully and left the restaurant, leaving me and Zayn completely alone with an angry glare I couldn't care less about.
"What have the piano done to you?" Zayn smirked. I shrugged.
"I get mad when I can't play."
"I thought it was beautiful." He told me, not ironical this time, and made me move over so that he sat on the piano stool behind me.
He tried playing the intro of "Little Things", and he almost made it, if it weren't for one single note in the end. I giggled at his frown, it was cute. No, not cute. I meant funny. He was so determined to make it. He tried the keys beside to make it right, and I reached forward and pushed down the one he hadn't tried yet. He sighed and did the intro from the beginning.
I raised my eyebrows and nodded, as if to tell him it was good without words, then I played the chords next to him as he continued.
"How come you can play that part?" I asked him.
"I wanted to know how to play something at the piano, and Louis taught me a while ago." He stopped playing.
"But that's all I know. It's nowhere near your talent." He continued.
"Well, I can't sing and I have played for years. It would be horrible if it was different."
He shrugged and wrinkled his nose, as if his singing wasn't a big deal.
"Stop being like that. You're amazing and you know it! Everybody knows it!" I said and nudged him in the side with my elbow. He did a half smile and looked away. He was being way to humble. He was one of the best singers in the entire world. There wasn't one tone he couldn't reach. Sure, I was good at playing the piano or at a keyboard but there were so many people who were way better than me.
"Have you ever been in Europe?" He asked me out of nowhere.
"I have never been anywhere." I said and sighed. All my life, I had never been far outside from London and if it weren't for this tour, I would probably stay there for the rest of my life, never leaving. My life was so boring. The only kind-of-exciting thing that ever happened was my long relationship with my crazy ex-boyfriend who now was being a criminal and threatening people, like me. Wait, that's not a good thing. That's not exciting at all.
"You will love it. So many different and beautiful cities. Paris, Rome, even Stockholm is amazing!" He said and looked out the window, as if he imagined the cities in front of him. I smiled aat the thought of travelling Europe with these guys who now had become my best friends aside of Sam and Chelsea, but the smile faded away quickly.
"If I'll live that long." I mumbled.
His head turned in my direction and he looked at me with a pout. He knew what I meant. Of course he did.
"Nothing will happen, you know. I won't let him get anywhere near you." He promised. I laughed a little at his heroic speaking.
"I know nothing will happen. I'm just being silly and childish." I rolled my eyes and blew a stray of red hair out of my face. It came back and I pulled it behind my ear frustrated.
"But it's nice to know you will go all ninja and save the day if something happens." I joked. "I would do the same, if it turns out that you have a crazy ex-girlfriend. That's what friends are for!" I said, joking.
He had looked amused at me during the conversation until then. His face expression slowly changed, as if he remembered something. He blinked a couple of times and looked away from me. I didn't know what was going on or what I said that made him change that fast, but he kept silent and didn't make an attempt to speak again. What did I say?
"Thank you for making me think of something else." I said. Hoping his sudden mood change was because of some kind of old memory he remembered and that he would get back to normal again. He didn't. He nodded slightly and gave me a fast smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"Sure, I promised Chelsea I would." He said and sighed. "That's what friends are for." He whispered, almost impossible for me to hear and it was clear that I shouldn't have heard it.
"What?"
"Nothing. I should get ready." He said and with those words, he left the first floor and went back to his room. What the hell was that?
The way he said 'I promised Chelsea I would' made me feel bad, but I didn't know how. What did he mean? That if he hadn't promised her that, he wouldn't try and help me think of something else? He didn't care about me. All those sad and self-critical thoughts came over me all at once.
He didn't care. Why would he care about me? I wasn't funny. I wasn't pretty or even interesting. What he did wasn't much, but it helped a lot. I was always so aware of his presense and he made me forget about why I was afraid only by talking to me. But he didn't do it because he wanted to help me. He didn't do it because he cared. He did it because he promised Chelsea he would and now he was done.
I still didn't understand why he changed his mood so fast, though. Why he went from being all happy to completely cold and emotionless? Why would his mood change within seconds and why did he leave me just like that? Was I missing out on something here?
I sighed. I didn't understand anything and I was angry at him just leaving like that more than a few words. I got up and went back to my room to get ready.
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A/N: Hi! I HAD to cut the chapter again. But here is a smaller one and you will get the next one as soon as possible! Thank you! xx Elin