Will's POV
Sleep didn't come for me for hours.
Even after Natalie had fallen asleep and I had turned and turned for hours after coming home from Kaylee's party, I couldn't help but feel exhausted yet unable to sleep after the whole fiasco with Natalie. It wasn't like I could just pretend that nothing had happened like she was doing. I think that was what pissed me off the most.
Glaring at the ceiling didn't help either. My eyes were begging me to be closed, and yet, tired as I was, I didn't have the energy to do so. I glanced over at Natalie and saw her blonde hair splayed across her face as she slept without a sound. I didn't know how she could do that after everything yesterday. After a while of doing absolutely nothing, I picked myself off the bed and quietly slipped out of the room and down the stairs.
However, the minute I stepped out of the room, I heard the door open after me and the soft patter of her footsteps as she followed me down to the kitchen.
I ignored her and opened the refrigerator's door and peeked inside. I wasn't hungry but it was a good excuse to look busy to avoid talking to her. A midnight snack might do me some good anyways.
"What're you doing up so late?" I stuck my hand into the back of the refrigerator, looking for something good to devour. My hand closed on the milk carton that was wedged way in the back.
"Hello?" Natalie prompted. She leaned against the counter and crossed her arms, waiting for me to answer her. I took my time pulling out the milk carton by first removing everything that stood in the way of it, which was just some leftover take-out boxes from like a week ago.
"You know, Will, you can't ignore me for the rest of your life." I can and I will, I thought to myself. The milk carton was finally free for me to grab. I reached my hand inside to grab it and took it out. "I'm going to ask you one more time. What're you doing up at two in the morning?"
With my hand and head still in the fridge taking my sweet time, I said, "What, is there a law that I can't get up at night to get a snack?"
She continued talking. "You can't blame me for giving you those pills. You really have no right to be mad at me." That did it. I slammed the fridge shut and whirled around and stared at her incredulously. She gave me a blank expression.
"I have no right?" I stared back at her. "Are you fucking serious?" My jaw clenched and then unclenched. I could literally feel the fire begin to spread from my stomach into my chest. Shit, keep it together, Will, I mumbled to myself in my head. The fire inside me was at the point where I knew I was about to lose control.
She waited for me to go on.
"I can't believe you, Natalie!" I said, shaking my head at her. "You can't just drug me and then act like nothing ever happened!"
"It's not drugging if you were supposed to take those pills in the first place." she countered.
"You did it without my consent!"
"I don't need your consent to give you something you were supposed to be taking!" she yelled back at me.
"Don't you think I would have taken them if I wanted to?" I screamed back at her.
She didn't say anything. Heavy silence hung between us like a thick fog. It was hard to see who had won the fight.
Finally, I spoke up again. "You know, I'm not even the one who needs to be drugged to be controlled! I'm not the fucking maniac who goes around murdering innocent people for no reason! You killed Maddy," my voice turned into a whisper when her name came out of my lips without me thinking.
In a flash, I found myself slammed across the fridge with the magnets on it digging into my back. Her fingernails dug into my chest. Her other hand held me firmly pressed to the fridge.
My breathing was ragged from screaming so much but Natalie's breathing seemed hardly affected. Her voice was low and hard when she spoke, yet calm at the same time.
"I told her not to get involved and take that fucking back or I'll make your life a living hell." She breathed onto me.
I just scoffed and shoved her off. "Don't worry, it already is." I pushed past her to where the milk carton laid unattended on the counter and opened the dishwasher, taking a glass out. Setting it down on the counter, I poured myself a glass. It wasn't until I put the full glass up to my lips that I had a sudden thought.
"How do I know that you didn't drug this, too?" She didn't answer. I laughed dryly and set the glass down harder than I thought I did. Milk sloshed out of the glass and onto the counter. "You're sick, you know that? So sick." I repeated again. The fire that was spreading inside me went wild. "Sick!" I screamed at her. My hand knocked against the glass and what was remaining in it and the glass itself flew off the counter. The glass hit the floor and it sent chills running up and down my spine from the ear-shattering sound.
I held her faraway gaze for another second before leaving the house and the mess to her to clean up. The door slammed shut behind me.
I didn't know where I was going at all. I alternated between driving and walking and then walking and driving. The streets were empty at this time of hour. I envied the others in the quiet houses that I passed by, wondering why I couldn't live a simpler life like it looked for them from the outside.
Hours passed as I drove on endlessly, one street after the next in no particular order. I drove by Louis' house at one point and it took all my will power to press down the tempting feeling to run up to his doorbell and ring it and then rant my heart out until it went dry. But he still hadn't talked to me since the fight he and I had. He barely even looked at me the whole time I was at Kaylee's party.
Somehow I ended up back in town at the convenient store Brandon worked at.
The whole place was empty inside except for a disheveled old man who was sifting through magazines nearby the doorway entrance. Brandon looked up from his book when he saw me come in. Then just as quickly, he lowered his questioning gaze and went back to his book, probably wondering what I was doing here at two in the morning. But I could ask him the same thing. I didn't know that he worked this late.
I walked past the counter where he sat leaning against the wall behind him on his stool, and walked to the very end of the store where they stored the dairy products.
The inside of the fridge was freezing when I put my hand in to grab another carton of milk. I seemed to be craving for milk again for some odd reason. Something was definitely wrong with me.
I set the carton down on the counter and pulled out my wallet, setting down a couple crumpled bills. Brandon rang up the cash register quickly and pointed at a plastic bag, mentally asking me if I wanted it bagged, but I just shook my head and grabbed the milk off the counter.
My hand was on the door about to leave when I suddenly spoke. "Hey, Brandon?" At the sound of his name, the page he was turning ripped in half. He glanced up, looking sheepish.
"Yeah?"
This was insane. Why was I asking him this? I didn't care if he did, right? "Do you like Kaylee?"
He looked caught off guard by the question and his glasses slipped down his nose. He quickly shoved them back up. I wondered if he was going to answer the question truthfully or not.
"Yeah," he said again. He said it simply and quietly, met my eyes, and added, "But don't worry, she likes you."
I nodded slightly, a little surprised but not really at the same time in a way, and asked, "How long have you known her for?"
"Since birth, I guess." He shrugged.
"Were you close with her?" I noticed the old man watching us, having lost interest in his magazines.
"We used to be best friends until the accident..." he trailed off, casting a glance at me. He played with the book in his hands. The pages of the book fluttered as he flipped through the pages absentmindedly.
"What accident?" I said slowly. The old man was definitely listening to our conversation now. I suddenly felt self-conscious. It was kind of creepy, the way his eyes seemed to stare into me. I shifted uncomfortably. Brandon seemed to notice him, too, now.
"It's not really my place to tell. And besides, she doesn't like talking about it. To be honest, I don't even think anyone really knows the whole story, besides her mom, Avery, and Chance. And me." he finished. I noticed how he didn't mention her dad.
"Oh," was the only thing I could manage to say. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the old man seemed to be bored with us and was back to reading his magazine. I turned back to Brandon and said, "Well, thanks," I held the carton of milk up for him to see. He nodded and I opened the door and left. As I walked by the shop, through the windows I could see Brandon trying to use tape to tape his book back up together.
Driving tired me out quickly and I parked the car near some park nearby Louis' place. For some reason the cold didn't hurt as much as it usually did in the mornings. Instead of getting out of the car and taking a walk to clear my mind, I rolled down the windows and leaned my hand out of it, resting it on the car.
My hand reached blindly for the milk carton which sat in the passenger seat next to me. Popping the cap open, I drank until the halfway point. As I drank, I stared at the empty park and watched the swings swing by themselves from the force of the wind. The place seemed so abandoned and desolate now that all the kids who usually played around in it were fast asleep in their beds.
When the carton was nearly empty, I opened the door and began walking around, away from the park.
I walked block after block. Shopkeepers were just starting to open up their shops for early-birds.
If I hadn't been glancing in that direction to check for incoming cars, I would've never seen him.
Dressed in a black coat with his hands shoved inside the pockets was Harry. He seemed to be staring intently at something inside Louis' shop. Without thinking, I switched the direction I was walking in and joined him.
When I was right next to him, I followed his gaze and my eyes landed on the shop's menu.
"He changed all the names on the menu." he said simply to acknowledge me. What he meant was the coffee and sweets' names. Louis named all his food and drinks by words he thought fit them.
"Yeah," I replied. "I know."
"Why?" he asked blandly.
"You guys named the menu items together. He didn't want to have to deal with remembering you every time someone ordered something from him." I explained.
Harry nodded slowly.
"You broke his heart, you know, when you left like that. Without an explanation, too." I said.
Harry nodded again. "I had my reasons."
I turned to look at him. "Yeah? What reason would that be to give you the right to just up and leave like that?"
"It's complicated." I found myself slightly annoyed now by his lack of speech.
"I don't think it's that complicated to explain why you left and why you're back again to 'make amends.'" I shot back at him.
This time, he turned around to face me. My words must've hit somewhere soft in him because he had to clear his throat to speak again.
"Look, Will, I don't expect you to understand or forgive me or anything like that, but you have to believe me when I say it's best that you don't know. Things are messed up enough as it is already." He turned towards the other way and gazed down the street. Louis' house was just a few blocks away.
I grabbed his arm before he could move. "Don't," He turned back to me and I could see the teary glaze in his eyes. "Don't do this to him. It took months for him to forget about you. Just showing up is going to ruin him. Please," I was begging now. I thought back to the time when Louis refused to leave his couch and eat because he couldn't figure out why Harry would just disappear on him like that. He kept blaming himself for not being good enough and both Harry and I knew that was the biggest bullshit he probably could've said. But of course, Harry wasn't there, so how would he know? My grip tightened on his arm. "Harry, look at me." He stared right past me. "Harry, you have to promise me to not do anything stupid. Okay?"
He nodded slowly but it was like he didn't hear me at all.
"Promise me, Harry, do it for Louis." I shook his arm to wake him up.
Harry closed his eyes and exhaled. "Yeah, okay, I promise."
"Okay," I released his arm but kept my eyes on him. "Good."
"I'm going to go home now," he said quietly. He turned away from me and I watched his retreating back, still standing in the same place he left me. But there was something wrong about the pace he walked at. It seemed to be too fast for a person who was walking home. I realized it a second too late. Harry was off at a jog already.
He was going to go find Louis.
"Harry!" I screamed after him. He either didn't hear me or he didn't care. "Fuck," I cursed under my breath. Inhaling a breath of bitter winter air, I took off after him. He glanced back behind him and seeing me only made his jog turn into a desperate sprint.
"Harry, please! Stop! You don't know what you're doing!" I yelled. I ran harder and almost tripped over my own feet when I turned the corner. Harry didn't stop. I looked up at the street sign above my head and cursed again. Louis' house was just in my sight.
I knew it was too late, however, the minute Harry bounded up Louis' porch's stairs, with his feet only touching every other two steps.
"Harry!" I called out again. He ignored me and slammed both palms against the door.
"Louis! Open up!" he screamed at the door.
I stopped at the end of the walkway that lead to the porch stairs and watched in horror. The door swung open and a bewildered looking Louis stood behind it.
The minute Harry saw Louis, he cast a backward glance at me and then threw his arms around Louis' neck. Louis stayed stiff with his arms hanging awkwardly by his sides. He looked past Harry and met my eyes.
From where I stood, I could hear Harry whispering into Louis' neck, "Louis,"
"Lou!" came a voice from inside the house. "What's all that racket?" A moment later, Chance appeared by Louis' side and stared at the arms that were wrapped around his boyfriend's neck.
~A/N: HAPPY NEW YEAR! So as one of my resolutions, I'm gonna try to be a better person and update on a better schedule. Anyways, love you guys and please don't forget to VOTE, COMMENT, and FOLLOW!
~Forever_Yours_Too