Ok so theres actually drama in this chapter and tbh I listened to this song on repeat while proof reading it and it fit well so I would highly recommend
✺ K A T E ' S ✺ P O V ✺
On Monday morning when I make it to Harry's class, I sit down in my usual spot and impatiently tap my foot as I wait. He hasn't spoken to me once since I left his apartment and I'm at a loss of how to feel about it all.
When he does finally walk in, it's only a minute before class is due to start. He looks flustered yet flawless as he sets his items down and finds his papers in his bag to begin the lecture.
His class drones on for nearly two hours before he finally dismisses us. He seems oddly cheery and I find it somewhat refreshing to see him happy, but also selfishly slightly concerned he's not upset at all about our small argument from yesterday. I stop by his desk on my way out once everyone has left. He's leaned against it with his hip and his phone is in his hands, but he's yet to acknowledge me. The second the final student leaves the lecture hall though, his phone is in his pocket and his eyes are on me.
"Hey baby." He greets sweetly, opening his arms to me. Even though part of me still wants to be upset, I go against it entirely. I all but leap into his arms and am grinning the second my head is against his chest and he's holding me by the waist. Even just one night of us not being on the best of terms has had my heart aching for hours, but it's completely disappeared now in his presence.
"You seemed distracted today in class. I hope you got your journal entry in and didn't let what's on your mind take away from the lecture." He speaks in a low voice with his head ducked down by mine. The rhythm of his words match the motion of his hand rubbing my back and it makes it hard for me to even respond.
"It didn't. I still got my work done, Professor." I tease back, finally turning to look at him with a cheesy grin.
"That's my girl." He chuckles alongside me and kisses my forehead. The second the words leave his lips though, I can tell he regrets them slightly. His body goes partially rigid and him rubbing my back slows down to almost a stop. Instead of asking him about it though, I only lay my head back against his chest again. He picks up on it just as quickly and I feel the exhale in his body as he sighs contently.
"When's your next class?" He eventually speaks up again. I pry my eyes open one more time and lift his arm from my side to check his watch.
"I've got about an hour. I was going to get some food when I left here."
"An hour, huh?" He answers back, which I nod back to. I look up to meet his eyes again and see the gears turning in his mind. I can't deny he looks handsome today and that part of me wants to just entirely forget about yesterday morning at his apartment just so that I can be okay with him again.
"Go somewhere with me." He finally states. My eyebrows furrow in confusion as I stare back at him, but he doesn't seem to be offering any further explanation.
"Now? But I don't have that long before my next class..."
"Don't be so lame. We can both skip. I wanna make yesterday up to you." His teeth sink into his bottom lip in the most seductive movement he can seem to muster. It gets to me exactly how he intends though and I'm left gulping at the thought.
"Okay." I quickly nod my head in return of his offer. Sex is the only thing that's tied us together the best since the first day we met, so if it will work this out, then I'm happy to try.
It doesn't take us long to make it out to his car in the parking lot after he packs up his things. He says he'll come back later to finish up his work so I don't question it when the only thing he takes with him is his wallet and keys. He holds my hand on the way out of his lecture hall, but stops as soon as we make it outside. He doesn't seem as worried for once though and walks in step beside me across campus until we reach his car in the parking lot.
Harry seems to have everything planned out further than I expect. It doesn't take us long to drive to our destination and I'm pleasantly surprised when we end up in a somewhat deserted lookout spot nearly twenty minutes outside of Chicago. Part of me wonders why we didn't just go back to one of our apartments, but another part of me is constantly reminding myself to relax and be spontaneous for a change.
We find ourselves in the backseat of his car no less than five minutes after we've parked. There's no one around which doesn't stop me from straddling his lap with confidence as soon as we're seated.
"I should have just given this to you yesterday. I'm sorry it took me a day to do it." Harry finally speaks up as I'm unbuttoning his shirt. Our lips have met in multiple kisses already and I'm too deep into my thoughts about him to care about what happened yesterday.
"Don't be sorry. I should have been more understanding yesterday too. Let's make it up to each other though." I prompt back, dipping down to press my lips to his neck as I finally get his shirt undone.
"Mmm fuck, okay." His hands grab my hips once again and I grin as he lifts me from his lap and instead sets me down beside him in the seat. My legs are pried apart and his body moves between them instead while he busies himself pinning me against the window. I'm still attempting to kiss his neck but my mind is wandering endlessly as he's undoing the button of my jeans. His hips are pressed against mine and rutting in a slow motion that has me at a loss for words. I'm just beginning to loll my head back in satisfaction when a different sensation is felt against my leg, but I recognize it immediately.
"If you're going to be interrupted while this happens you might as well move that over a little bit." I tease him, referring to his phone vibrating against my leg in the front pocket of his jeans. He chuckles and shakes his head at me, but doesn't move to answer his phone.
"It's probably just a friend. I'm still getting belated birthday wishes." He shrugs it off and I nod, not caring enough to actually wonder about who's calling him. All I care about is the adrenaline rushing through me from having him undressing me in the back of his car.
We get back into a rhythm of kissing while continuing to make out for a few more minutes. Both of our shirts have disappeared by now and I'm almost positive I already have a hickey on my chest before Harry's even got my bra off. Neither of us seem to be holding back in the slightest and our typical interactions with each other are coming out naturally as we giggle through kisses and caress each other in any way we can. Before I know it though, we're being interrupted once again as his phone begins ringing in his pocket and draws my attention away from him.
"Fucking Christ," he mutters, pulling away from me to dig the device out. He looks down at the screen and stares at it for a few seconds without any clear emotion. I lean forward along with him in attempt to see who's been trying to reach him, but he's too quick. He ends the call in record time and leans forward to set his phone in the drivers seat so that it's out of sight.
"My friends are adamant." He chuckles stiffly, seemingly more uncomfortable now than he was a moment ago.
"Who was it?" I wonder aloud. He shakes his head and leans in to kiss me once more, silencing me completely.
"Don't worry about it." He mumbles back. His kissing moves down my neck and I whine under his touch as his hand slips into my pants. I'm at a loss for words as soon as he does it.
"Yanno, I've really got to make yesterday up to you. I say it's about time we test out your flexibility." He prompts me as he moves down my body as his fingers undo the button of my jeans. I nod back at him, not caring about whatever it is he means and instead just curious about how we'll do it. He grins at me as he lifts my hips from the seat and slides my jeans, along with my panties down my legs. My clothes end up somewhere in the front seat and I'm left completely bare to him as he eyes me curiously.
"You're so beautiful." He mutters out, running his gaze down my body. Blush heats up on my cheeks as I bite down on my lip. He doesn't say anything else before grabbing both of my legs and lifting them into the air. My eyes widen from his bold actions, but snap shut seconds later when he's leaned down before me and has got his mouth between my legs. Every previous doubt I've had for the day between our argument yesterday to the mysterious person calling him is immediately erased. I think he knows exactly what he does to me, but I can't bring myself to try to stop any of it.
Nearly a half hour later we're both worn out and cuddling to the best of our ability in his cramped backseat. Our sweaty bodies are pressed together and I feel as though I'm still catching my breath while Harry's dozing off with his head laying on my shoulder. I've been running my fingers through his hair for minutes while he's calmed himself down from everything we accomplished in the short period of time we were on top of each other. I take the time that he's laying against me and utilize it to stare out the window and admire the view before us. I can still see the tall buildings of Chicago in the distance but it's nice for a change to be away from the buzz of the city.
"Hey," Harry manages to speak up just as soon as I've thought he was asleep. He turns his head up a few inches to look at me and tiredly pries his eyes open.
"I'm so in love with you." He grumbles out lowly, shifting in his position in the seat. My entire body goes rigid from his words and the rest of the world is blocked out until all I can hear in my body is the sound of my own heartbeat. I've been waiting for months to just hear him say he loves me, but it's an entirely new level to have him blatantly state that he's in love with me.
When I finally manage to gather myself once again, I can't help the wide smile split on my lips. I'm staring down at him with pure adoration for the man below me. He knows he's got me in every way he can, and I think he likes having the advantage of knowing I'm wrapped around his finger. I don't mind though. I somewhat like it too.
"I'm... I'm really in love with you too." I finally manage to answer back. My body feels much lighter now that we've exchanged the words.
"Good. That's good." He grins even wider while sitting up from my chest. He scoots himself over to the other side of the seat and I take the advantage to lean forward and grab his shirt off of the ground. It slips onto my shoulders easily and I only do up two of the buttons in the front to keep it on my body. Harry watches in admiration, but as soon as I'm done, he's pulling me over to him once again so that I can lean on his side while he leans against the window. Not another word is shared between us for minutes and I once again lose myself in the rhythm of rubbing my hand up and down his side while he dozes off for a nap. I continue to admire the scenery outside the window to occupy myself, but the silence in the car is almost deafening.
Not even a few minutes later, our silence is interrupted once again. His phone is buzzing in the front seat and it gets on my nerves that whoever is calling him is extremely persistent. With a quick glance up at Harry to see if he's going to answer the phone, I take note of his eyes being shut and his chest slowly rising and falling to the rhythm of his deep breathing as he sleeps. I consider waking him up to tell him his phone is ringing again, but decide against it. He could use the nap and maybe I could just turn the device off so that we'll stop being bothered.
As slowly and as quietly as I can, I move away from his side and lean forward. His phone is laying face down on the seat and has now stopped ringing. My adrenaline rushes slightly as I grab what seems to be like a forbidden device since Harry always seems to be so secretive around me when he's on his phone.
The screen lights up as soon as I turn it towards me. He has multiple missed notifications, one of them being a text from someone that has my heart racing in my chest.
Alayna.
Isn't that his ex wife's name? As far as I know she passed away months ago so unless she's texting him from the grave, there's something that he's not telling me. As my heart continues to race in my chest I notice has has multiple missed calls from a blocked number, along with another unread text message.
"I wouldn't be looking at that if I were you." His low voice startles me just as my eyes begin to scan his phone screen. I jump back in surprise and gasp as I notice now he's wide awake and staring at me with an angry blaze in his green eyes.
"W-what?" My voice comes out shaky. His phone begins vibrating in my hand once again but this time it's another text message. I look down and my heart falls to my knees as soon as I catch a glimpse of the message.
Answer the phone. We're almost to Chicago. -J
It can't be. Harry can't be in contact with whoever it is that's posing as James and trying to get to me. Could it? The same man that has protected me for months and has been my only source of comfort the entire time I've been away from home. He can't be in on whatever sick game it is that's being played with me.
"Harry, who is..."
"Do you trust me?" He cuts me off to ask boldly.
"I-" My heart is racing in my chest as I stare at his green eyes that I've come to know all to well. The same green eyes that have always been my source of comfort whenever I've needed them in the past, but now are acting as some shield behind his intentions that I don't know if I should be fearful of or not.
"Why are you asking?" I attempt to challenge back. I feel frozen in my spot even though everything in my mind is telling me the situation is bad and that I should get out as soon as I can.
"Kate, I need to know. Do you trust me?" He raises his eyebrows at me, waiting upon a response I'm not even sure if I can muster. It seems like an eternity of silence passes between us but its really only a moment.
"I don't know if I do." My voice is low, much lower than it should be when I'm attempting to give off the illusion I could stand up for myself if it came down to it. How could I have let my guard down like this with someone? I knew when I came to Chicago the friends I made I could never be sure about because of what happened with James. Although now I know that my past with James wasn't what it seemed, I still feel as though I can't be sure about anyones intentions with me at any point.
"Harry, what's going on?" I finally manage to ask. He looks down at my hand where I'm still holding his phone, then back up at me.
"There's no time to explain. Even though you aren't sure if you trust me, I'm going to need you to trust me for just a little while so that we can get through this. I love you, remember?" He leans forward in his seat and places his hand on my shoulder, but it awakens my ability to move and I quickly manage to bat his hand off of me. He looks up at me clearly surprised by my abrupt actions. Neither of us say a word to acknowledge it though.
"We need to get out of here. I will explain everything as soon as I can but there's no time right now, baby." He shakes his head and inhales deeply before reaching forward to grab our clothes from the front seat. I lean away to avoid any contact with him while he untangles the clothes that ended up strewn across the car.
"Take me home." I manage to mutter lowly. He only continues attempting to pull his clothes on without bothering to acknowledge my demand.
"Harry, take me home." I finally reach out towards him and grab ahold of the pants he's preparing to pull onto his legs.
"I can't take you home. Not right now, at least." His eyes finally meet mine and for a moment it feels as though my heart stops. He stares at me with a look in his eyes that I've seen many times before.
It's the same look he gave me the first time we hooked up in his apartment. I saw it in his eyes as soon as he finished telling me he wanted nothing more to do with me than sex, but something in his gaze told me that didn't mean all I was to him was a body for his own pleasure. He gave me the same look as well the first time that I told him I loved him officially once we were done fighting about it. I've seen the look in his eyes every time something has gone awry between us but he's desperately begging me to trust him without him needing to say it. I want to trust him, but how could I? After everything we've gone through in the past few months I'm now discovering that he no longer is who he said he was and that there's obvious evidence of him working with whoever has been posing as James. My mind is spinning as I consider trusting the man I love, or running from the man he potentially could be that I've never been exposed to before now.
Without careful consideration of the consequences of the two options, I end up going with the second possibility. My hands shake furiously as my nerves set in once I reach forward and take back my pants that are sitting beside him on the seat. I somehow manage to pull myself together long enough to get the clothing on my legs and up my hips, but not much time is wasted after that.
With every ounce of strength in my body, I thrust myself backwards just as the handle of the door flies up and allows me the ability to exit the car. My body hurtles out the side of the vehicle and I take off running as soon as my bare feet hit the dusty ground below.
"Kate, for fuck sake!" I hear Harry yell angrily from inside the car. My timing was on point and I managed to jump out when he was occupied looping his belt through his pants, but now that my escape is in full swing I'm beginning to realize it didn't slow him down at all.
"C'mon, don't make it go like this. I'll explain everything just give me a chance." He continues to shout from behind me. I ignore him though and continue in a full sprint off towards the dirt road we came up. My pants aren't buttoned and I'm still wearing Harry's shirt, but I do what I can to keep my momentum. Panic is flooding through my body and the adrenaline is beginning to kick in the quicker I move. How did I get to this point in my life?
"Kate, look out!" Harry's voice comes from behind me again and my head whips back to look at him, but the result of it seems to happen in slow motion. My bare foot glides over a jagged rock on the ground below me and my entire body begins falling forward. I can't stop myself or even get enough grip to stop from rolling forward and practically doing a somersault across the dirty ground below me. I can feel the stinging in my lower body from where I'm sure my legs are going to be cut up and bruised from falling over the rocks.
"Fuck, are you alright?" Harry's familiar voice is near me again, but I can't ignore it this time. Between the pain from falling and the frustration from failing on my escape, all I want to do it melt into the earth and disappear. Instead, all I can manage to do is yell.
"Get off of me!" My voice is as loud as I can muster for the matter of the situation. His hand was reached out to help me as I lie in the dirt, but he retracts it quickly as soon as he realizes I'm screaming at him.
"Calm down. I am trying to help you." He spits back, seeming equally as frustrated as I am. We stare at each other for what seems like an eternity without saying anything. I want to get up and keep running from him but I can feel the aching in my legs from the impact of me tripping, and I know clearly running the first time got me nowhere fast.
Aside from my physical inability, even if I ran, where would I go? I can't hide from Harry. We've been unofficially and officially together for almost a year. He knows where I live, he knows where my parents live, the only friend I could run to would be Lena but she wants nothing to do with me and I'm almost positive Harry knows where she lives too. I can't even run to my parole officer since Harry has met him as well. How did I let myself become so vulnerable to someone I now feel as though I barely even knew?
"Harry, please just take me home. I want to go home." I attempt to bargain with him, not knowing if I have any other options at this point. Theres gotta be something in him deep down that care's for me, right? No matter what his intentions are, we spent months together and he told me he was in love with me. There's got to be something there.
"I know you want to go home baby but I can't do that right now." Harry's voice softens drastically from how it sounded a few minutes ago when I was shouting at him. I'm still angry, but at this point I'm so lost on what's even going on that I'm not sure what there is to be angry about.
"You're bleeding everywhere. Will you please come back to the car with me and let me clean you up? We can talk there and I can try to clear this up for you." He looks down at me with a pleading gaze and his green eyes that I know all too well. The ache from the pain in my legs moves up towards my heart and makes it difficult for me to even reason logically with myself.
"How do you know James?" I ask instead of answering his questions. I don't care about my bleeding legs anymore. It seems to be the least of my worries at this point.
"Kate just let me explain it all to you later-"
"Tell me now or I'll run again." I turn my glare up towards him and he stares back at me, seemingly questioning what to do. I think we both know that attempting to run from him again won't get me far at all but its all I could think to threaten him with.
After a moment too long of pure silence, Harry finally clears his throat and speaks.
"James hired me to look after you while you were in Chicago." He finally admits. A breath of relief leaves my mouth, but seconds later my brain feels much heavier again now that I have the new information weighing on my mind.
"Look after me? What does that mean?" My bottom lip trembles as I continue to stare up at him with worry coursing through my brain. None of this is making sense but somehow it all seems like something that would happen in my twisted life.
"I promise to explain everything, but not here." His voice lowers a few notches as he looks around us, then back down at me.
"Look, Kate, I know that you have every right to be upset right now and to be confused and maybe even a little scared. But I promise you that no matter how this goes over when you find out everything else that goes into this, I want you to remember that I love you. There's a lot that you don't know but I want to clear it all up for you because you deserve that but the last thing that we need at this moment is for you to be doubting that I really do care about you. My only intention at this very moment is to keep you safe." He stands from where he's kneeling down by the rock I tripped over, and instead kneels down directly in front of me.
"Am I not safe here?" My voice drops to a whisper while part of me is nervous to even ask the question, not knowing if I want to hear the answer.
"You're safe with me. I promise." Harry whispers back. He leans down closer towards me, but I turn my head away so that I'm not staring at him.
"You know I can't trust you anymore. I want you to explain this to me before I go anywhere with you." I finally muster up the courage to say. When I turn my head back to Harry again, he's staring at me intently and somehow I find the slightest bit of comfort in his effortless gaze.
"Fair enough." He nods back. Within a few short movements he's standing at his full height once again, but he leans down towards me seconds later. I gasp in surprise when he effortlessly lifts me off the ground and into his arms instead. I begin wiggling around in his grasp in clear discomfort, but he ignores me and begins walking towards the car. Only now that he's holding me in his arms do I take a second to look down at my legs. Blood has stained my jeans and theres fresh tears in the knees of my jeans from my tumble over the jagged rocks. My skin is torn and bloody, but I somehow don't feel any of the pain. There's too many other things weighing on my mind.
Once I look up again, my gaze lands on Harry's familiar face. He's watching the car with determination as he carries me down the dirt path. He seems to sense my gaze on him and glances over at me, then looks away again. I study his features closely while racking my brain for the right thing to say now. Nothing comes to mind.
"Why are you staring?" Harry finally asks. He's not looking at me but I'm still gazing at him.
"You still look like you, but I have no idea who you are anymore." I admit back. He purses his lips while looking like he wants to say something, but nothing comes out.
The only thing I can think of is that I don't know who to trust anymore, but at this point I'm not sure there is anyone that I can trust. The one person I had in my life is suddenly someone who I should have been avoiding this entire time.
✺
GUYS IM SO HAPPY THIS CHAPTER IS FINALLY DONE WUT AND THERES PLOT TWISTS NOW????? ?????????
pls leave some feedback bc like two people commented on the last chapter lmao