Nova's POV
"Let's just get you into bed, it will all be fine," I said, watching from the door as Eliza and T got DJ into her bed.
"Okay oka I'll go to bed but likeee- tell me why did I do thisss to myself?" DJ asked slurring her words as she threw her head back onto the pillow.
"Honey, you did nothing to yourself. You just weren't ready and that is okay. Quit putting all the hate on yourself," T said pulling the blankets over DJ's body.
"I bet he hates me!" DJ yelled as tears fell down her face once again. After a few weeks of DJ never leaving her room, Eliza, Talulah and, I decided enough was enough, and said it was time for her to come down here to finally meet us in person. The four of us met a few years ago when we attended the same online class and we quickly hit it off but this was the first time DJ was actually meeting us. We convinced her now, was the perfect time. Little did she know Harry was also currently here in Florida.
"No honey. He could never hate you," I said from the doorway.
"I don't feel good," DJ whined closing her eyes.
"Just lay your head down and when you wake up tomorrow you won't be drunk and it will all be fine," Eliza said stroking DJ's hair as she nodded. DJ thought it would be a great idea to have a game night with a few drinks. But her "drinks" turned into a little bit more when she tossed down a whole glass of watermelon vodka and green apple schnapps.
"It will all be fine once you wake up in the morning, my friend," I whispered to DJ and I exited the room. Eliza and Talulah joined me closing the door to her room behind them. "Alright well I will be back." I said to the two of them. Eliza, Talulah, and I grew up together and sometimes it was like DJ hadn't grown up across the country but right here with us instead. I was glad she was finally here but I wasn't about to sit by and watch her be sad.
"You aren't actually going to do it," T said to me, shaking her head.
"The hell I'm not. That was the whole original plan for getting her down here. She is here and now step two needs to come into place." I turned from where I stood walking down the stairs and grabbing my keys, the girls sharp on my heels.
"And how do you think you are going to see him?" Eliza asked handing me my purse from the chair next to her. I took it with a grateful nod.
"Well we know everything we need to know," I said unlocking my phone and revealing the number on the screen.
"How did you get George's number?" Talulah asked.
"I have my ways," I chuckled.
"You stole it out of DJ's phone didn't you?" She asked back.
"I stole it out of DJ's phone," I answered, shoving my phone into my purse, leaving the girls standing, stunned in the living room of my house. As I entered the Florida turnpike on my way to Ft. Lauderdale I knew I needed to figure out what I was going to say to Harry. My plan only made it to getting DJ and then showing up at the venue. After that, I had nothing. Keeping my eyes on the road I hit the speak button on my steering wheel, a loud ding leaving the speakers. "Call George," I said so that the microphone could hear me.
"Would you like to call George Larson or George Harry?" The computer asked back.
"George Harry!" I yelled back at it.
"Calling George Harry Cell." A ring quickly came and went as George answered his phone.
"Hello?" George had a soft but deep voice. Scary but also heartwarming at the same time, if that were possible.
"George?" I asked. I took the number from DJ's phone when she was in the bathroom but much like Harry I wasn't sure what I was going to say to George either.
"Yes?" George hesitantly answered. "Who is this?"
"Hi. This is weird but my name is Nova, I'm DJ's friend. I took your number out of her phone." I heard a sigh leave his lips.
"Honestly, I'm glad. She hasn't returned anyone's texts or calls. How is she?" He asked with what I recognized as true concern.
"Not great if I'm being honest, which is why I called," I answered truthfully. I knew something had to change because DJ was in a hole but I also knew she was the only one who could pull herself out.
"What is going on?" George asked, worry in his voice.
"Well you see, I'm from Florida, and I happen to know you guys are currently in Ft Lauderdale."
"Oh I do see," George said.
"Possibly. See I am an on my way to the venue as we speak and I was hoping you would be able to help me by getting me in to talk to Harry?" I asked, crossing my fingers.
"Yes," George said without hesitation. I wasn't sure what he would say but that wasn't it. At least not without a little pushing.
"Oh ok, that was easy."
"Did you want me to make it harder?" George asked.
"No no I appreciate you making it easy, I was worried I would have to plead," I told him honestly.
"Harry has been off since she left and it just keeps getting worse every time she doesn't answer her phone. He just wants to know she is alright and maybe with you he can find some closure. I just want to see both of them happy and healthy. What time will you be here?" His words made me remember that I had no idea what I was going to say to Harry. I looked to the time on the dash.
"In about an hour," I said to him, relieved I had time to think about what I would say.
"Okay great. Harry will be in the bus. Come to the back gate and I will let you in."
"Alright, I will see you soon. Thank you," I said to George. He was probably one of the most genuine people I had ever talked to and that made talking to him easy.
"No thank you! See you soon." George said before the line went dead.
***
I pulled into the parking lot, quickly getting out of the car and heading towards the gate. As I pulled in I sent George a text letting him know I made it and was headed towards the gate. As I approached I could see a tall man waiting on the other side. "George?" I asked as I walked closer.
"Nova?" I heard the same voice, from before, ask back.
"Yes, sir," I said stepping through the now open fence.
"How is Sunflower?" George asked as he began leading the way.
"Sunflower?"
"It's what my wife calls DJ. I guess we have been talking about her more lately because of worry, that Sunflower is what I'm used to saying. How is she?" George explained. From what I could see between the low street lights around us, sadness streaked across his face for a second before becoming hard again.
"If I'm being honest, not great. It took everything to try and get her here but we did it. She wouldn't leave her-" I started but George turned to me quickly putting his hand up.
"Wa-wait a minute. DJ is here? Like here here?" George asked pointing with one fingers down on the ground. I shook my head at him.
"Not here here but in Florida yes. She is back at my house in Miami. She doesn't know I'm here right now and I'm pretty sure she doesn't even know Harry is here." George nodded.
"Well if you can, will you try and not tell Harry she is here? I'm not sure what he would do and I think it might be better if we don't find out," George said as we began to approach what I assumed was Harry's tour bus.
"I will do my very best," I assured him with a nod.
"Wait here," George said motioning for me to stand on the side of the door, before he knocked.
"Yeah?" I heard a voice say from inside. I could only assume it was Harry. George slowly opened the door and stepped up into the bus, closing the door behind him but not letting it latch, so I could still hear, I assumed.
"H," George started, "what are you doing?"
"Relaxing," Harry said. I wasn't sure what was going on but something smelt off.
"Well someone is here to talk to you."
"Someone is here to talk to me? That's weird. Who would be here?" Harry said followed by a slight cough.
"Her name is Nova," George said. Everything went silent before I heard slight shuffling and the door opening. Harry's head popped out of the door.
"Nova?" He whispered in the dark. I stepped forward raising my hand.
"Here," I said, motioning to him.
"What's going on? Is she okay? Come in," Harry said stepping back to allow me onto the bus. We had never meet before but from the stories DJ told us, I knew Harry knew who we were. I stepped onto the bus and my jaw dropped. It was beautiful. Minus the mess that Harry seemed to have left that he was now trying to quickly pick up.
"Maybe I should ask the same thing for you? How are you?" I asked looking around. George made his way to the door, nodding towards me before leaving me alone with Harry.
"Fine, fine. Yeah pretty great. Doing great," Harry said in a quick tone, moving back past the kitchen doors with an arm-full of clothes.
"Are you sure?"
"Sure." Harry said coming back into view.
"I don't think you are, I think we should talk about it," I said just coming out with it. It didn't look like he was doing any better than DJ.
"We don't really know each other I don't think we need to talk about that. Why did you come here? Is everything okay with DJ?" Harry said shaking his head as he motioned for me to take a seat on the couch.
"You don't need to worry. DJ leaving had nothing to do with you. She hated feeling like she was dragging you down," I said shaking my head no to the seat. I slowly spun around taking in everything around me.
"And that right there is the bullshit now isn't it," Harry said with a chuckle as he threw himself down on the couch instead.
"Harry are you intoxicated?" I asked truly concerned for whatever he was going through.
"So what if I am? I am a grown man. I can make my own choices. Quit worrying about me. Let's just get back to why you are here. DJ thinking she was dragging me down. If she would have just talked to me then I would have known how she felt and it would have saved us all this trouble, but you know it's to late for that," Harry said tossing his arms into the air.
"You didn't listen to the song did you?" I asked turning back to Harry.
"I turned it on for a second before turning it off. If I'm being honest I couldn't hear her voice." I watched as Harry rolled his eyes. I wasn't sure in pain or frustration. Maybe both. I walked over to the counter, turning and leaning my back against it.
"Well like she said in both the song and the letters, she wishes she was ready to talk about it but she just can't. I mean if it makes you feel better she hasn't told anyone about anything from her past, including me," I told him honestly. She had always told me the bare minimum sparing every detail she could, I knew it brought her pain to even think about.
"Wait hold on, rewind. Letters? What letters? Do you mean the one she left me before she left?" Harry asked shooting me a look. Well there I went opening my mouth again. DJ had told us about the letters she had been writing Harry that she never planned to send, in hopes that it would help her move on.
"Shit. Uhm. DJ has been writing you letters. That's all I know," I said raising my arms in surrender.
"Oh my god. This is so dumb. If she would just answer her phone," Harry said throwing his body back causing the black sofa to move slightly.
"Just give her sometime, she will hopefully be ready soon. You just have to let her work through it alone. I think that is the only way she is going to get through this."
"I don't want to leave her alone. I know it is dumb and we haven't known each other long but we are meant to be together. I want her here with me. I don't want her to be scared, I want us to be able to be open with each other. And maybe the reason she can't be open with me is because she doesn't truly want to be with me," Harry said closing his eyes.
"No. No. I think that is what scares her the most. That she wants you so bad but she doesn't want to disappoint you. She is so used to disappointing people that her brain is wired to think that it is just a matter of time before she does it again. I think she is afraid that once she is finally ready to talk you won't want to. You'll hate her for being such a mess," I told him, probably telling him more than I should. If DJ knew the things I was saying she would probably put me in my grave.
"I'll always want to hear from her. No matter what," Harry said, looking directly in my eyes. I nodded knowing he wasn't lying.
"Good. Remember that," I said, pushing off the counter and heading towards the door but stopped turning back towards Harry. "I'm not really sure why I came. Maybe just to tell you not to give up on her. But Harry?"
"Yeah?" Harry asked looking up at me.
"Don't give up on yourself either. I know you love her but please take care of yourself too. If she knew how you were right now, she would only blame herself more," I said moving my pointed finger around, signaling I meant whatever was currently happening with him. Harry nodded.
"Thank you," he said as I tilted my head and opened the bus door. Only to find George.
"How did it go?" He asked as he began to lead me back to the gate.
"Fine I guess. I'm not sure what I was doing or expecting so it was fine. Thank you for letting me speak with him," I told him.
"Thank you for talking to him. He hasn't been himself lately and I hope this helped. If you can will you please get DJ to at least call my wife. She has been very worried about her and I knew it would ease her worry to hear from her Sunflower." George unlocked the gate and pulled it open.
"I'll see what I can do." It would be a power struggle but I was sure I could convince her, considering how much I knew DJ loved her.
"Thank you," George said placing a hand on my shoulder with a squeeze.
"Thank you. Goodnight," I said turning and heading back towards my car. As soon as I got to my car I grabbed my phone sending George a text with an address.
-We will be here tomorrow. Just Incase.