Copyright © @zylgnagnaba 2013
VALERIE’s POV
I’ve ran the fastest my boots could carry me to the safest place I could be, away and far from the furious and hormonal teenagers chasing after me. Who knew those two girls from the bookstore could quickly rise up an army to apprehend me? And who knows what these girls are capable of doing after they catch me?
My thoughts are vacant as I continue to run for my life. The only thing that matters to me is to escape this madness I didn’t know would exist until now. I knew Harry’s fans could be quite obnoxious, but never once it occurred to me that I’d be scared to be killed by girls with such a number wanting so badly to attack me.
My pace is quick, leaping to alternate direction to avoid bumping to any people walking the opposite direction I am taking. I can hear those girls’ quick continuous stomps to the gravel behind me screaming, threatening to hurt me once they are able to lay their hands on me—cursing and calling names. Truth be told, I am really scared and I can feel the shivers from my limbs as I continue to run. I turn my head back to glance behind me quickly, making sure that they aren’t catching up to me. I am nearly satisfied that they are meters and meters away from me still, but I am still petrified for my life.
I still hear the loud shrill cries of the girls behind me while I quickly turn to the left side of the street, hoping to find a hiding place at any building that’s lined up on the side of the road. Quickly glancing over my shoulder, I see no sign yet of the girls chasing me but their steps and screams are audible, so without any hesitation I run inside a thrift shop. When I rush inside, the guy behind the counter and the only two customers inside look inquisitively at the way I pull off such an entrance.
I gasp for air, panting relentlessly and I clasp my hand on my knees. When I stand up to my full height, the guy behind the counter’s expression grows more quizzical. I am well aware that I am cringing as I take in sharp breaths, my chest heaving up and down. I prop one hand on my waist and the other on my throbbing stomach. I can associate the aching to the running for almost half an hour.
I haven’t even survived running for good five minutes with Harry when we were in Cheshire. Surprisingly, I did it today quite amusingly, for half an hour for heaven’s sake. I guess anyone who’d be put in my shoes would be able to do this too.
“Help.” I tell the guy—around my age and strikingly good-looking—behind the counter through a heavy breath. Glancing at the name on his left chest, I find out his name is Norman. “Norman, help me please,” I look out the glass door of the shop, hoping not to see the bloodcurdling sight of the group of girls that might attack me. I continue to pant as I put my hand on my chest, my heart beating faster and louder than its usual rate. I look at him again with a weary smile. How come he never moved even an inch since I asked him for help?
Looking at him, I know he is startled at my frantic appearance. He doesn’t expect to see a customer such as me in their remote shop with only few customers are enticed to look around.
“Look,” I wave my hand towards the door where I come from. “There are girls—God knows how many they are. But they are chasing after me. They want to kill me.” At my last few words, Norman widens his eyes and he immediately rises up from his position. He runs around the counter to my direction and quickly grabs me by the wrist.
“Here, Ma’am. Hide at the office.” Normally, I would flinch from some strange person grabbing me by my wrist. But today, I’m really relieved that someone is trying to help me. He ushered me to the back of the shop, the smell is awful but it’s nothing I couldn’t handle. Once we reach a white painted door, Norman opens it and he comes in before me.
The first thing that I have in mind when I entered the room is it’s nowhere near to what an office should look like. It’s like a small house, a room even with the absence of a bed. It has a TV set on top of the drawer, a small fridge in the corner, sure there’s a brown wooden table on one side of the room. I mentally cringe at the sight of the few empty food-wrappers on the tiled floor. It seems that Norman read my mind when he immediately gets rid of them by dusting them off under the cabinet with his foot. I’m impressed with his way of cleaning.
I can’t help but think that Harry is quite the opposite of Norman. Harry is a tidy person—he can’t stand the sight of clatters around our kitchen, the bathroom, the lounge, everywhere. I even remember him yelling at me for drying sets of my underwear inside the shower—one of the fondest memories when we started living together.
“VALERIEEEE!!!!” I heard Harry yell from the top of his lungs inside the bathroom while I was at the lounge, watching some random rerun of my favourite comedy series, Friends. “Valerie, come over to the bathroom. Now.” His roaring made me stand up from my seat grumpily and I turn off the TV before heading towards the bedroom.
I had no single clue what it is this time that he is complaining about. We’ve been fighting over silly stuffs ever since we started going out in public.
My steps were casual as I head to the open door of the bathroom and I immediately stopped in my tracks when I saw my red bikini bottom hanging on Harry’s forefinger. My mouth flung open and I felt my eyeballs almost fall out of their sockets.
“What are these things doing in my shower?” He growls at me, gesturing his other hand to the garments hanging on the straw I had attached to opposite ends of the shower.
I quickly snatched the little article from his hand and dug it in the back pocket of my denim shorts. “I don’t know where else to put it. It’s raining outside, I can’t dry them under the sun.” I explained to him.
“Duh?” He retorted, “We have this machine called a dryer, Valerie.”
“I know, but I called you about it this morning. I think I might have wrecked it.” I cast my head down as I finish my timid statement, knowing that he could yell at me any moment now.
“What?! You wrecked the dryer?!” See?
“I’m sorry, Ma’am but it’s the only place I could offer you to hide in.” Norman subconsciously snatches me out of my thoughts. A smile appears on my face as I brush off the memory of one of my first fights with Harry. Looking back, I really find it funny when he used to yell at me. But now it’s different. I’ve become sensitive with the way his emotions affect me.
“It’s okay, Norman. It’s better than nothing. Thank you so much.” A reassuring smile blooms on my face as he begins to take a step towards the door.
“Uhm… uh,” He holds the door open and turns around to look at me again. “You’re Harry Styles’ girlfriend, right?” He sheepishly asks me and I begin to notice that he regrets to ask when he looks down to the ground and scratch the back of his head. “I’m sorry to ask, I was just-“
“Yes, I am.” I cut him off, answering his question anyway. He quickly snaps his head to look at me and he smiles eerily.
“Yes. You’re Valerie Scott. I didn’t even realize until I guide you to this awful room.” He looks around the small room, cringing to himself as he chuckles.
I giggle at his shy remark and I sweetly smile at him. “You don’t need to worry. I don’t mind.” I tell him matter-of-factly. “You can go back to work now. I’ll call someone to help me out of this mess. I’m sorry for disturbing you.”
He quietly laughs and dare himself to stare back at me. “No. It’s my pleasure to help.”
I give him few nods and that’s when he turns to leave the room to go back to his work. The fear that temporarily left my body just a while ago returns to creep up my body now that I’m alone once again. I haven’t even realized that my sunglasses are gone—it must’ve fallen while I was running, but it’s the least of my concerns now.
I reluctantly open the zip of my tote bag to reach my phone inside. I am thinking of calling Harry, but it’s rather complicated at the state that we’re in now. To be honest, I am quite daunted to let him know what happened. I know he would yell at me again for not listening to him, for proving him right about going out alone, for just being a stubborn shit, over and over and over. If feels like a habit now—me, doing something stupid and he, lashing out on me about it.
And so I dial a number on my phone and after just three rings, I hear a thick British accent sound off from the other line.
“Liam, I need your help.”
*****
“Wherever you are, don’t move. We’re coming to get you, okay?” I recall Liam’s voice through the phone about fifteen minutes ago while I find myself seated on a roll chair. He told me they’ll be here in about twenty minutes. I still am clueless as to who ‘we’ Liam was referring to. I am silently wishing they’re anyone but Harry. The last thing I needed right now is another angry Harry shoving my stupidity down my throat again.
The office where I am hidden is about ten meters away from the main shop, and the shop is concealed with thick glass doors that makes any sound outside inaudible. I am guessing the girls don’t have the clue as to where I am. If they do, I would be thankful with Norman for keeping me from them.
With few clicks of the doorknob, I dart my eyes to the door assuming that it’s Norman opening it up. I take a step back further into the room as the door creaks open. Norman appears by the doorframe with a smile I can only relate to being worried and relieved at the same time, I smile back at him nonetheless. He looks over his shoulder to his side and I hear slight footsteps approaching the room. I trail his sight and came into view is Liam stopping beside Norman.
I feel relief wash over my frail body and I briskly trot to hug Liam.
“Oh my gosh, Liam! Thanks for coming.” I momentarily close my eyes as I am tangled against Liam’s firm body. He rubs my back up and down in a very comforting way with slight whisper of ‘sshhh’.
“I was really scared,” My voice lightly trembles as I pull away from him but my arms are still fondled on his shoulder blades.
“It’s okay. We will get you out of here.” Liam turns his head to the side as he finishes his sentence. Following his sight, I figured he isn’t alone when he comes for my rescue, just like what I’d assume earlier. Came along with him is Harry with a merely readable expression on his face when I dart my growing eyes on him.
“Harry…” I almost choke as I call his name and I subconsciously detach my hands from Liam’s shoulders. I can’t wrap my head around his appearance. I wouldn’t even notice him standing on his spot all along of Liam hadn’t turned to him. “Harry, I-“
“Come on.” He cuts me off by grabbing my elbow away from Liam. He looks straight ahead as we leave the back area of the shop, Liam and Norman following behind us. Harry’s grip only tightens when we finally walk out to the main area where racks of various clothes are displayed inside. I notice three big guys waiting for us, only then I realized that Paul is one of them when he walk towards us, smiling at me in a concerned way.
Liam starts to walk beside me placing his hand at my back and I observe as Norman returns to the back of the pay desk. I mouthed Norman a ‘thank you’ and he smiles at me only to dwindle when his eyes dart to the protective figure that is on my other side, Harry. He loosens his grip from my arm only to pull my waist against him. He refuses to take just one quick glance at me as I can’t take my eyes off of him. “Harry, I’m-“
“We’ll talk when we get home, Valerie. Not now.” He cuts me off again, still refusing to meet my eyes. I can tell he’s fuming again, but he’s controlling it for as best as he can.
Paul, along with two securities starts to huddle us together when we make our way to the exit. Paul walks ahead of us, keeping his close proximity. The other two are on each side of Harry and Liam. Everything is quiet until Paul flings the door open and loud shrill cries start to deafen me with every step we take. Harry and Liam now start to brace me with their firm arms as we take further steps outside.
The overwhelming sight of screaming girls start to creep up my veins again and my thoughts reel to the worst possible thing that could happen. I even find myself scanning the crowd for any trace of the girls who were chasing me earlier, but I fail as I realize how thick the crowd is and I wasn’t even able to memorize their faces—only the two girls’ angry faces is registered on my mind. They must’ve mixed with the cluster. With such a huge number, they can mob us and then they’ll snatch me out of the secure hold of Harry and Liam, and then they can do whatever they want from me.
Casting my head down, I block out the unnerving sound and focus on the way my boots meet the grey ground. I feel two hands shielding my head as we make our way to a black shiny figure that is an SUV. I can only assume those hands belong to both Liam and Harry. I quickly snap my head up when I feel a random unfamiliar hand grabs my arm rather forcefully. The hand doesn’t let go even how hard I try to shuffle it away from me. With the big crowd that surrounds us, it’s a struggle to find out who is harassing me.
“Take your filthy hand off of her, you freak!” I hear Harry hiss to a stranger on his side at the same time that he swats the hand away from my arm. It is the first time for me to see him getting mad in public. I’d say that I’m happy he protected me, but I’m still scared sick at the moment. The severe hold left a red mark on my arm and I quickly pat it in an attempt to ease the pain.
“Are you okay, Val?” I look to Liam’s side as I hear him ask. I give him a weak nod before casting my head down to the ground again. I pucker my lips and squeeze my eyes as tears start to spill from my eyes. I have become so freaking emotional these past few weeks—this month actually. Just when I thought I’m out of tears to give, here are my eyes welling up again, betraying me.
“Be ready, we’re hopping in.” I hear Paul yell over to us followed with a loud swish and bang coming from the door of the car. With a forceful pull from him, Harry and Liam climb in the SUV with me.
Few people outside start slamming the side of the car and the sound alone makes me shudder. I keep on glancing at Harry with an expectant eyes, but the veins protruding on his neck as he scowls straight ahead tells me not to push it. When the car has finally move from the lot, instead of feeling relieved, I am again engulfed with fear as my mind mull over and over to the petrifying image of the girls who were wanting to hurt me, worse, maybe even kill me.
The tears continue to betray me, staining my flushed cheeks. And instead of Harry, Liam leans over to comfort me, rubbing my arm lovingly— as a brother. I would rather prefer if it was Harry giving me some sense of ease and security at the moment, but I highly doubt he ever would. I have put him through enough, I have worried him too much. This is the last straw.
This day couldn’t get any much worse than this. The drama will continue by the time Harry and I get home. I just feel it coming.
*****
Hey! So this will be the last time I’d be asking for votes and comments.
I just feel like no matter how I beg for my readers to vote and comment, only few would gladly respond to it. By few, I mean four or five comments and maximum of 15 votes. I can’t say I’m not thankful for that because when I was starting out for this book, I was just wishing one comment or five votes, and then I’ll be happy about that already. But all I really wanted is to know where I’m leading my readers with my story, and of course to interact with you. So uhm, yeah. Haha
I am well aware that I have a lot of ghost-readers, but I will not ask any of you to come out of your hiding places. Nah, you’re all grown-ups. Do what you gotta do. Hahah
But to my dedicated readers, y’all know who you are. I love you all so much for always brightening up my day and keeping me motivated to write. SALAMAT (‘Thank you’ in Filipino)!!! Mahal ko kayo (‘I love you’ in Filipino).
Next Update is tomorrow!
Sorry, this chapter is a bit shitty. I didn’t take a bath today, so that’s why my thoughts stink and kind of all over the place. Bwahahahahah xxD
Love,
Glyz <3
PS:
Dedicate to nialleryolo! Surprise, surprise. I know you haven’t reached reading up to this chapter, but I have to dedicate this to you because of your votes in the first many chapters. Hahah Thank you so much, babe! Xx
Long Author’s Note, saree!