Izzy's POV.
The plane ride is long and I made sure to pay in cash so that no body could find out who paid for what flight. I know that by now, Derek, and my dad have gotten home and are searching for me so I made sure to look over the city I'm going to and know exactly where to go to get hair die.
"Would you like anything to drink?" The airplane attendant asked.
"No. Thanks." I say softly and break eye contact quickly. I count the money I have left over and I'm thankful my ticket wasn't too bad.
Soon enough the flight ends and I leave quickly, with my hood over my head and my head down. I catch a taxi and try to keep my face as hidden as possible. I hold on to the picture of my mom for my life and I can feel the driver constantly glancing at me through his mirror. I ignore it and look out the window. I left my phone in a trash can back home so if they tracked it, I could lead them in the opposite direction.
The drive to Compton and kinda long and I feel tired, eager to find a motel and sleep for a couple of hours. As soon as we pull up to a dead, vacant motel place I pay the driver and hurry out and to the front to get a room. When I walk in, the lady looks at me funny but I brush it off.
"I need a room please." I ask nicely and take my hood off.
"What is a girl like you, doing in a place like this?" She laughs.
"Just passing through." I answer. She shakes her head.
"No, I know what you're doing. You're running away." She says politely this time. Her eyes are light and sympathetic.
"What? How did you know that?" I ask.
"You're bag isn't big enough to be passing through. That and I've done the same thing." She says and peers into my eyes even more intensely.
"Oh." Is all I can say.
"You look like you've been through kind of a lot." She looks at what I'm wearing. I just nod. "Have enough money to get by?" She asks.
"Yeah." I answer.
"I barely had enough." She laughs and looks like he's thinking back. "When I was 14, my mom passed away and I was an only child so I only had my really close friends to talk to. And even they didn't understand, neither did my father. He started to become an alcoholic, and the first time he hit me, I grabbed all my things and took off. I never saw him again. I don't really care to." She explains. A tear slips down my face. I don't know how I would handle not seeing my brother or my dad anymore.
"My mom passed a year ago." I say lowly and dip my head down a little. I look any where but her. The pain in my chest multiplies with every second that passes by, talking to an unknown person about why we ran away.
"So tell me, what's a girl with so much money doing in a place that costs the least?" She asks.
"This is my moms least favorite place in the world. No one would think that I would come here, so no one can find me." I explain.
"Child, you're a smart cookie now aren't you?" She laughs.
"I have my moments." I give a small smile.
"Did your dad abuse you or something?" She asks.
"No. Neither did my brother. There was this boy. And he made me so happy. You know how after your mom died you felt alone and dead and all you ever felt was pain and suffer?" I ask and she nods. "Well he made all that go away. He didn't make the nightmares go away, but the pain and sorrow of losing my mom was just gone, at least while we were together, which we hung out a lot. But I started to develop feelings for him, and sometimes he'd show feelings for me too, and others he didn't. He would always protect me and be the first person to answer when I needed something. But I got tired of waiting, so I told him I wanted to go out with a boy who asked me on a date, just to see his reaction, I wasn't actually going to. That's when he decided to tell me he's moving back to England. That's when I decided that there's really no hope for me to ever feel happy again." I finish and there's tears running down my face.
"Oh sweetie you fell in love." She says and I shoot my head up to her.
"What? No, I don't love him." As I say the words I find it really hard to admit them to myself. I don't know if it's her I'm trying to convince or me, but either way, I can't love him.
"How did you feel when he told you he was going back to England?" She asks.
"I felt broken and sad. Like the whole world was coming to an end. I couldn't even look at him because I knew I would break down and I didn't want to cry in front of him, the color drained from my face as I could feel the pain settling into the cracks of my heart. My ear drums popped and it was hard to breath." I explain.
"That, proves it. You ran away because the one person, other than your mom, who made you happy decided to leave. So you did too." She points to my heart. "That's the only thing that can feel it. And if you can feel the pain again, that means you love him." I concentrate on the beat of my heart. It's off a little and there's really no happy feeling on the inside. It's like it's begging me to end it's beating and it's misery, but I refuse, at least for now.
"I guess I do, I mean I've never been in love." I look at her.
"You'll believe it soon enough." She smiles at me.
"Thanks." I smile back.
For at least another two hours we just sit there and talk about all the things we felt when our moms passed away. We talked about Harry and I explained what happened when his mom was out here. I told her basically everything. I've never had someone, other than Harry, listen so intently before, and I can't exactly talk to Harry about Harry, so it's nice to be able to do that with somebody. Even if she is a stranger, I feel like she's interested in the things I have to say. Her name is Georgia and she moved here with her husband shortly after they wedded. Despite all her flaws and her past, he loved her for who she was and still does. I love hearing her stories about when she was my age and how she got through life. All the mistakes and things that made her who she is. The phone rings and I stay silent for a moment.
"Hello." She answers. "Who is this?"....."Well, Harry, I can't help you." The moment she says his name, my heart drops to my stomach and the tears weld in my eyes again. I look at her and she gestures me to sit back down. I obey and slowly start to shake. "Thank you sir." She says and hangs up.
"W-Was that?" I can't even finish.
"Yes he's looking for you." She says.
"He's here. He's gonna find me, I have to go, I have to get out of here." I stand up and head to the door. I hear her calling my name but I continue. I run down the street to the nearest corner store. I pull my hood up and walk inside quickly. I get what I need, pay, and take off again. If I know one thing. right now, it'd be that I will not let them find me.
Harry's POV
I hang up the phone angrily. Not one motel in this horrid place has seen her, or had her come by. I can't believe this. I have called place after place trying to find her. No one has seen her. My phone rings not long after and I hope it's Izzy but it's not.
"Hello?" I answer.
"Harry, my name's Georgia, you just called my motel. You see, I lied about not seeing Isibella. She was sitting with me when you called and begged me not to tell you. But she knows you're here and came find her and she took off." The lady speaks.
"What? Where did she go?" I ask anxiously.
"I'm not sure, she went south of where I'm located. I know she's planning to leave the town, and this time, it won't be by plane." She explains.
"Thank you ma'am." I say and hang up.
I drive the rental I bought towards the place Izzy was just at. We finally drive by and head south of there. I'm so nervous, I can feel my body shake. I look all around, searching for her, praying I'll find her.
We drive and drive, but still no sign of her. I get a little hopeless and depressed knowing anything could happen to her. My mind is clouded and I can't think straight. I pull into a gas station and head inside, my head low and my eyes blurry with tears. Walking down an isle, I bump into somebody, or somebody bumps into me. With out thinking I yell at them.
"Watch where the fu-" I stop as soon as her brown eyes connect with mine. A tear falls from my face at the sight of her terrified expression. She gasps and takes off running past me. I try to catch her with my arm, but she's too quick. With out any hesitation I run after her. "Izzy! Wait!" I call but her fast legs take off down the pavement, my long ones following after.
Izzy's POV
I get hungry after a while of walking around, trying to figure out what I'm gonna do, so I stop by a gas station. My hood is still up and I walk in as quietly as possible. I haven't been able to stop thinking about Harry since I found out he called. He's looking for me. He actually wants to find me. But I still don't know if he cares or if he just wants to help Derek.
I get whatever looks edible and head to the front. I bump into someone and quickly go to say sorry, but his voice stops me.
"Watch we're the fu-" His green eyes meet mine and I gasp. His eyes are full of tears and he looks relieved to see me. I just keep my terrified expression and look behind him to see a back door.
With out thinking it over I take off past him. He tries to grab my but I get away quickly. He calls after me but I take off down the street. I hear him running after me and I don't turn back. My fear of him finding me came true and now I don't know what else to do other than run. I run as fast as I can and see an alley way up ahead. Once I get there I make a sharp turn and hide behind one of the many dumpsters there are. I watch the corner and see Harry running into view. He slows down a little once he realizes I'm no where in sight. He kicks a dumpster and falls to his knees, digging his face in his hands. I see two more people appear and run to him. One I can identify as Derek. And the other, I'm not sure but as soon as she talks I know who it is.
"It's alright Harry, we'll find her." She speaks. It's Anne. What how?
"No, it's not alright mum! I fucked up and now she's gone. These past two days I have done nothing but search the entire fucking city to find her and when I finally see her, I do nothing. She's gone and who knows where she's off to next." He cries. I feel the pain in my chest get replaced with guilt and worry. What if he does care for me as much as he says he does?
"Harry, I understand." His mum shh's him. He backs away slightly and shakes his head.
"No! You don't understand! I have been a train wreck ever since Gemma died and she is the only person who ever made that alone dark feeling go away! She is the only person that I felt listened to every single word I said even if it didn't mean anything! It meant something to her. Just like her words meant everything to me. She opened up my box and helped me find the reason why I chose to stay alive in the first place." He pauses. "She is the only person since Gemma to show me she cares and understands everything I say or do. She is the only one mum. To make me feel happy again, and it feels even better than it did with Gemma. To make me want to be a better person, and I tried, so fucking hard. To make me see the reasons why you should have hope that things get better, and she made everything get better." He whispers at the end. He runs his fingers through his hair and I now know what happened to his sister and why he is the way he is. The truth is, he needs me just as much as I need him.
"Harry. You love her." His mom smiles at him.
"What? No! I just care about her." He defends.
"Do you hear yourself. You went to England, just to fly back to find her, then fly somewhere else to search for her. You just went on and on about how she is the only person to help you feel better, and you're saying you don't love her." His moms looks at him. "If you don't love her, why didn't you stay in England?" His mom asks. He thinks for a moment. Just contemplating what to say. I wait for him to say it. If he says it, I'll reveal myself.
"I don't know.. I don't know what love feels like." He admits. She places his hand on his heart.
"Do you feel how intense your heart is beating?" She asks. He nods. "That's what love feels like." She smiles at him.
I place my hand on my heart and I've got to say, I've never felt it beat like this before. It's so steady, yet so dense at the same time. A tear slips from my face while I look at him and the realization of being in love with each other hits us at the same time. His eyes widen and he smiles a little, but it soon fades and another tear rolls down his cheek.
"Of course I realize I love her when it's too late. She's gone. And I have no idea what to do now." He shakes his head. I silently step out from behind the dumpster, wiping a tear before finding my voice and talking.
"I-It's not too late. I-I'm not gone." I look at him and only him. His eyes quickly move to meet mine and his lips curve into a smirk. Another tear falls down my face and he runs over to me.
He wraps his arms around my waist and picks me up spinning me around. He doesn't let go once, even when my feet touch the floor again. I can feel his tears roll down my neck, burning the surface like acid. He finally pulls away and grabs my face his hands. He wipes away my tears with the pad of his thumb and looks into my eyes.
"I'm so sorry." He whispers.
"Me too." I whisper back.
"I thought I was never going to see you again." He kisses my forehead. I don't say anything, I just look down. "Say something." He pleas.
"I love you too." I look into his eyes and he smiles the biggest smile I have ever seen.
"Don't say too." He demands.
"I. Love. You." I say slowly.
"I love you." He smirks and presses his lips to mine.
Our lips mold perfectly together and the sparks his lips cause ignite my body and run through my veins like little kids in a house. I can feel every switch in my body turn on and my heart beats faster, trying to pump the fiery blood burning happiness into my skin, and my nerves. I never thought we'd get to this point. I never thought that I could love him, yet alone him love me.
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A/N- This book in not over. Just an FYI. Thanks for reading and don't forget to vote!:) I love you guys.