Chapter 6
Kenzie's P.O.V
"I dare you." Niall laughed pointing the plate of chillies he had specifically ordered ranging for mild to extremely hot. "Eat it!"
"I can't!" I protested shaking my head and shoving the plate back over to Niall.
"Go on Kenzie!" Danielle encouraged pushing the plate back towards me.
Our table at Nandos was one of the rowdiest there, we were all laughing, shouting and giving each other wacky and out there dare's.
"She's too afraid." Liam snickered poking his tongue out at me.
I leaned over the table and punched him gently in the arm, "Shut up. Fine, I'll do it."
"YAY!" Everyone cheered throwing their hands up triumphantly causing a few people to turn and look at us weirdly.
I picked up one of the mild chilli's in my palm, "Oh, no, no, no." Louis said plucking it out of my hand and eating it, "You're going to eat this one." He smirked picking up the extra hot one and waving it around in front of my face.
The whole table erupted in a loud, "Ooooh!"
"Even I have trouble eating those and that's coming from me." Niall admitted shooting a, 'Good luck' smile at me. Thanks for the encouragement Nialler, I thought bitterly.
"No way!" I cried, "I cannot eat that, I'll die!"
"Eat it! Eat it! Eat it!" Everyone chanted banging the table with their cutlery.
Reluctantly I grabbed the chilli from Lou and slowly raised it to my mouth. "Come on babe, you can do it!" Lou smiled beautifully slinging his arm around my shoulder. Babe? Did he just call me babe? An uncontrollable smile made it's way onto my face and a faint blush tinged my cheeks, he called me babe!
"I don't know if I can." I whispered to him softly.
He cupped the side of my face with his hands forcing me to look into his stunning, popping blue eyes. "Do it for me?" He asked shyly.
I sighed knowing there was no way I'd be able to resist his charm, the effect he had on me was way to powerful. I slowly placed it in my mouth, the table fell into silence and everyone stared at me expectedly.
"She's won't be able to do it." Zayn said, "I tried in X-Factor it was awful."
"I remember that!" Louis laughed, "You ran away screaming WATER!"
At first I tasted nothing, it was actually quite nice, as I bit further into the chilli a weird sensation filled my mouth. It was burning, my whole mouth was on fire! I started coughing and reached for the glass of water sitting in front of Zayn while everyone doubled over in laughter.
"Her face!" Liam laughed, "It's bright red!"
"Shut up!" I spluttered, I threw the glass of water back and chugged it. The water dowsed the burning feeling momentarily leaving my tongue and lips tingling. "My mouth is numb." I whined slamming the cup on the table.
"Aww, poor Kenzie." Louis murmured sympathetically pulling me under his arm and kissing my cheek. I snuggled into his chest loving the feeling of his strong arms wrapped around me.
"I have to admit, she did better than you Zayn." Niall chuckled causing Zayn to roll his eyes and try to hide the smile playing on the edge of his lips.
"You guys come up with the worst dares." I laughed pressing my fingers to my lips trying to stop the tingling.
"But you love us for it." Danielle smiled.
"Of course!" I giggled.
The conversation moved on to their concert and the strange items fans had thrown on stage, I looked around the table. All these smiling faces, they were actually my new friends. After the accident and mishap I thought nobody would want anything to do with me anymore, I thought I'd be alone for life. But I was wrong; I had new friends and a new life. A fresh start to forget my wrongdoings and I'm the happiest I've been in a long, long while.
"Kenzie we need to go shopping some time." Danielle said sipping her coke and pushing her long hair over her shoulder.
"Yes!" I cried excitedly, "I haven't been able to do that in ages!"
"Don't expect us to come." Liam laughed, "Have like a girls day or something."
"Liam your such a man." Danielle chuckled reaching over and poking his cheek, "But your right. Kenzie and I will have a girls day."
I smiled gratefully at Danielle, I definitely needed a girls day out. I hadn't been able to go shopping in ages, I was unquestionably looking forward to it.
"Oh my god." Niall suddenly muttered his eyes growing wide.
Everyone turned to look at him, "Niall, what's wrong?" Zayn said reaching over and grabbing his arm whilst waving a hand in front of his motionless face.
"OH MY GOD!" Niall cried again snapping out of his trance and dropping his spoon, which landed on the wooden table with a deafening clatter.
By this point I was scared, I had never seen Niall like this. The table was silent, everyone sat there looking at Niall with a mixture of shocked and worried expressions. "Niall." Zayn whispered again, "What's happening?"
"How long have we been here?" Niall asked completely ignoring Zayn's question.
"About an hour and a bit, why?" Louis said warily. I noticed that his grip on me had tightened and he was playing with my fingers nervously.
"Where's Harry?" Niall said quietly.
I looked around the table searching for the adorable curly haired and green-eyed boy, but he wasn't there. Slowly a big pit of uneasiness and nausea settled in my stomach, Harry was gone. How could this go unnoticed?!? How could we have forgotten about him! I felt awful, completely awful. I wanted to throw-up, Hazza was missing and we had failed to realise his absence.
Louis arms went rigid around me, I looked up at him, a pale expression had taken over his face and he looked lost. "We-We have to find him." He faltered, I could feel his heart racing and see his hands start to slightly shake, Harry and Louis were extremely close, this must be extremely hard for Lou.
"Before anyone panics, let's just take a look around the restaurant. He might still be here." Liam mumbled.
The four boys looked completely lost, Harry was like a brother to them and they must be feeling ten times worse than what I was feeling.
"Whatever happens we cannot contact management about this, Paul is going to kill us!" Zayn said.
"Agreed." The other three boys said in sync.
Everyone sat in silence for a long moment, what would have made Harry leave? I was only talking to him right before I went inside and he seemed perfectly fine.
"Niall, you and Zayn check around here. He couldn't have gotten far. Danielle and I will go back to the arena and see if he went back cause he had forgotten something." Liam instructed taking the lead.
"What about us?" Louis said his voice sounding distant.
"You two go back to the apartment, take the van. We'll find other ways of transport, Wait at the house in case he shows up." Liam replied.
Everyone nodded solemnly, how could such a perfect night end like this? For some reason I felt like it was my fault, like Harry going missing was all because of me. I didn't know why I was feeling all this guilt but I couldn't help it.
"Kenzie." Lou said softly, I looked up to find him holding out his hand, I gently placed my small hand in his and he pulled me out of the chair and quickly towed me out of the restaurant. Once we got to the van he turned around and hauled me into his arms crushing me tightly with his strength and burying his face into my shoulder.
"He's my best friend." Louis sniffled, "if anything happened to him- I... I'll never forgive myself."
"Lou." I soothed brushing his hair out of his eyes, "It's not your fault, we'll find him."
"I really hope so." He said, I saw something then, it glistened in the moonlight as it trailed down his cheek. It was a tear. Louis was crying.
"Don't cry." I whispered wiping away his tear, "Who knows, maybe he just went home."
"He'd never leave without saying goodbye except if he's sad. Like extremely sad or angry. He just doesn't think and does stupid things." Louis whispered his voice trembling.
"Come on, let's go. We'll find him." I assured him taking his shaking hand and leading him towards the van.
Throughout the entire drive Louis didn't say much, he barely took his eyes off the road. He was practically motionless, the only movement he made was to reach over a grab my hand absentmindedly. I still couldn't believe Harry had just disappeared like that, he hadn't been himself today, but what would have caused him to leave without a word, text or even a note?
I'm praying he's ok and safe.
"We cannot let the paparazzi find out about this." He mumbled to himself as we neared the driveway to the house.
"Why not?" I asked scrunching my nose up in confusion.
"They'd love this, imagine all the things they could say. 'Harry Styles goes off the rails and runs away.' Or 'Teen pop star abducted.' Possibly even 'To young to deal with the fame? Young popstar has mental breakdown.' It wouldn't be good." He explained pulling into the driveway.
"Oh." I said, "Yeah that wouldn't be good."
Louis shot a weak smile in my direction before getting out of the car, "I really hope he's here." He muttered slamming the door shut before jogging up the steps to the front door. I quickly followed him holding my breath as he unlocked the door and stepped inside, we walked down the dark, empty and eerie hallway. It seemed like we were the only two living things here. Lou slowly walked into the living room, I could feel my heart racing with anticipation.
"Oh thank god!" Louis sighed in relief walking backwards and throwing his head back.
I peered into the room to find Harry sleeping peacefully on the couch. "God dammit! I can't believe this." I cried the relief surging through me mixing with anger. Harry nearly gave us all a heart attack.
"He has a lot of explaining to do." Lou grumbled clearly annoyed but he couldn't keep the grin off his face. "He nearly gave me heart failure!"
I looked at the sleeping 18 year old on the couch and shook my head, "Damn you Harry." I muttered, thank god he was safe!
"I need to call the others." Louis mumbled pulling out his phone with his shaking hands and exiting the room.
I ran my hands through my hair, I better check if he's ok. I walked over and kneeled down next to Harry. He looked so cute when he slept. I brushed his curls out of his eyes examining for any cuts or bruises but I stopped short. His eyes, they were faintly wet. I scanned his cheeks and saw tear stains traveling down them, lots and lots of tear stains. He has been crying, but why? I bit my lip, something must have happened.
"The others are on their way, they were heading home anyways. They aren't to happy though. Well they are just a tad annoyed as well." Louis announced walking into the room and leaning against the edge of the couch as I finished checking Harry.
"He's ok." I said relieved and stood up brushing the dust off my jeans and turning to face Lou who was smiling at me.
I smiled back, "Thank God Harry's ok." I said.
"I know right, he scared me so much." Lou mumbled sneaking a glance at Harry snoring away before his eyes locked with mine causing me to blush. His grin got bigger and he leaned forward pulling me into his arms removing any space between us. "So much drama happening, I'm glad I have you." He said softly brushing a stray lock of hair out of my eyes. I felt my heart accelerate and my cheeks flush bright red again, what did he mean by that? Gosh, he was so confusing sometimes.
"I'm glad I have you to." I said looking into his beautiful blue eyes and feeling myself go weak in the knees at his intense stare.
The smile disappeared from his face and more serious expression appeared, ever so slowly he leaned towards me one of his hands resting on the side of my face, before I could even process what was happening, I felt my eyes automatically closing and my head tilting to the left, everything in my mind went blank. I had no thoughts and could only feel the intense beating of my heart, as he came closer his breath tickled my face and then, his lips slightly brushed against mine barely touching.
"ANYONE HOME?" A voice cried ripping through the silence making Lou and I jump and tear apart scattering to opposite sides of the room.
"Oh thank god!" Niall cried running inside and kneeling beside Hazza. Slowly everyone poured into the room exclaiming sighs of relief while Louis and I stared at each other in shock, did we seriously just almost kiss?
Hey everyone, another upload :) Please, please COMMENT, VOTE AND FAN <3 If you like ;) It would mean so much to me.
- Ashlee (: