Array
(
[text] =>

JULY

From Zayn: how are you doing?

Harry looks up from the paper sheet when his phone makes the desk vibrate and picks it up, reading the text message on the screen and letting out a sigh.

He didn't expect such a text to come today. Over the last few months his friend has strangely been more interested in his well-being than usual. He hasn't taken him out to get wasted and has taken the habit of coming to collect him from the gym when it gets too late, as if he knows that if he doesn't he'll find a way to destroy himself even further.

But it's been months and now it's summer, and he stopped checking up on him so often now that he knows he'll survive his pain. It catches him by surprise, and he decides to reply even though he'd usually ignore the text.

To Zayn: Why are you asking me?

From Zayn: she's leaving today.

Harry stands up quickly.

To Zayn: What do you mean, she's leaving today?

His heart is hammering in his chest and dread spreads through him.

She's leaving today.

What?

His gaze falls to his nightstand, a black-and-white drawing of a rose stares back at him. He still remembers the day she drew it for him.

He remembers the way she creased her brows and bit her lower lip as she focused on it, her fingers gripping the top of her notebook. He was too broken and unfeeling back then to know what he truly had in front of him. It was back in the wasted days when he still tried to push her away, still believed he could make it out of it unscathed.

How stupid he'd been.

Now, he'd give everything just to talk to her again, just to see her eyes look right back at him. He's pathetic, he knows that, but he also knows there's nothing he can do to change it.

She made his frozen over heart thaw, and now it is aching.

And now she's going away and leaving him in the mess he himself created, the last one standing in the battleground of their mess of a relationship.

From Zayn: Liam told me they're going.

Harry stares at the message in shock. Liam?!

Liam is going away with Sierra? He's leaving today and told him nothing about it? Why would he keep it from him?

Without thinking twice, he runs out of the house and gets into his car. He almost crashes against a passing vehicle while getting out of the driveway but can't bring himself to care.

The sting of the betrayal is taking his breath away, becoming all he can focus on for the entire ride.

He wildly parks the car in front of Liam's house and runs to the entrance.

"Liam!" He exclaims, banging on the front door. "Open right now! Liam!"

The door opens before he can assault it any further and a confused-looking Liam comes in the frame. "What—"

All the things Harry planned to shout at him on the drive there fade away into nothing, and his arms fall at his side. "Why?" He asks, the defeat in his voice matching the one in his heart.

Why are you leaving with the girl I love?

Why didn't you tell me?

Were you ever going to tell me?

"You know, don't you?" Liam says. "Zayn told you."

"You're leaving?" For the first time in months, Harry feels lost again.

Liam nods. "We're continuing our studies in London."

"London?!" That's hours away, he thinks, but he doesn't dare to say it.

"You didn't think she'd stay here forever and wait for you to change your mind and be by her side again, did you?" His friend says accusingly. "You never talked to her ever since you two broke up. It's been five months, Harry. Five months in which she waited and hoped, and that you spent ignoring her. Don't get surprised if she doesn't want to stay here any longer."

Harry knows he's right. He's so right, and it hurts even more because of it. She's too good to wait around for someone like him, he shouldn't be surprised she doesn't want to put up with it anymore. After all, he's been a prick to her, even though it was his twisted way to protect her.

They couldn't be friends.

He considered talking to her, at first. He considered explaining his motives and becoming her friend, but it could've never worked out.

He'd never be able to be just friends with her. He loves her more than he's ever loved anyone and more he'll ever love anyone, friendship would never be possible for them. He'd just end up pulling her in once again, and then he'd sink to the bottom of the ocean and take her down with him like he always feared he would.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He whispers.

"She didn't want me to, Harry."

Even though it breaks him to know she explicitly told his own friend to tell him nothing about their departure, he can't help but feel a quick shard of joy rush through him at the realisation that she thought about him. He must be far too gone to be happy he was on her mind in a similar situation, but he relishes the passing emotion. It's the first time he feels something other than pain ever since he broke up with her.

"I see." He turns around and makes to leave, but Liam stops him.

"I'm sorry it didn't work out, Harry."

Harry clenches his jaw, anger at himself coming over him at the other's words. "I ruined everything."

Liam pulls him into a hug. "You weren't ready," he says. "It was the wrong time for you two. But I promise you, Harry. One day you'll stop feeling like everyone's out to get you, and you'll see it's not so hard to let people in." He lets him go and gives him a smile. "You'll find happiness then, and she'll be standing on the other side."

"Don't make empty promises," Harry warns him. He's had enough of those. He lost count of the amount he told himself to get through the last five months.

"Time will tell whether they're empty or not." He tilts his head. "I'll miss you, Harry. Make sure to check in often, I don't trust you and Zayn one bit."

Harry nods. "I'll go."

This time around, Liam doesn't stop him.

He gets in his car and speeds away.

He should've known she was never going to stay there. She's too bright to confine herself to their small town, and she knows that.

This is all he's ever wanted for her, to fly as close to the sun as possible without letting it melt her wings. To go as far as the wind would take her. To find her path in the world and walk it, to strive for success. This is exactly why he broke up with her, so that she'd be able to follow her dreams without ever having to worry about him.

Then why does it hurt so bad?

He doesn't even realise where he's going until he finds himself at the start of Sierra's street. It's too late to turn back now, so he decides to drive past her house quickly and leave.

When he does she's outside, talking to her parents with a couple of suitcases on the ground next to her.

She doesn't see him, and he doesn't linger.

He ignores the urge to run to the gym and goes back home instead.

There's nothing to fight for anymore. That's it, for now and forever.

He parks his car in the driveway again and walks inside. Niall's father glares at him from the couch, and Harry goes upstairs before he can come up with something hurtful to say.

He enters his bedroom, dread filling him when he realises he left his door unlocked. He checks around the room to make sure everything is right where he left it, and suddenly feels sick when he can't find the papers he left on his desk.

He rushes to it and checks the drawers and the floor, but they're nowhere to be found. Someone came in while he was gone and took them.

"Looking for these?"

He looks up, Niall's father is in the doorway, holding the paper sheets.

"Give them back!"

"Right when I thought you couldn't get any more disappointing, you surprise me," he snickers, ripping the paper sheets into pieces and throwing them at him. "Here's your useless shit."

He scoffs and leaves, and Harry crumbles to the floor as soon as he's gone.

One time.

He forgot to lock his door one time in six years, and that's what happened.

He can't do it anymore.

"The hell happened to the room?" Niall comes inside and takes one of the pieces of paper. "Oh..."

Harry shoots him a murderous glance. "Let it go and leave now."

Niall laughs. "And why should I? This is hilarious."

Harry stands up, fire burning into his eyes. "Leave now."

"No."

He pushes him towards the door. "Go."

"Or else?" Niall challenges him. "My dad is downstairs, I can call him upstairs and tell him you threatened me, how about that?"

Harry clenches his teeth, anger flashing through him. He closes his hands in a fist, the need to hit him sharp in his mind.

But it wouldn't fix anything.

"What now, too scared to do anything?" Niall teases him, and that's the last straw.

Harry walks to the wardrobe and takes out a suitcase, opening it and throwing it on the bed. He shoves all his clothes inside it under Niall's shocked gaze and then goes around the room, gathering all his belongings and putting them either in the suitcase or school bag.

When he's done he closes it and picks it up, walking to the door.

"What the hell are you doing?" Niall asks, stepping in front of him.

"Get the fuck out of my way," Harry says, lowly and threateningly, and he jumps out of the way.

Harry shoves past him and walks down the stairs. He gets in the living room and knows what he has to do.

If he wants to be free, he has to cut all ties he has with that family.

He takes the keys to his car and throws them on the ground, at Niall's father's feet.

"I'm not coming back."

He doesn't wait to see the effect his words have on him and walks out, taking his phone and dialling Zayn's number.

"Can you lend me your car?" He asks him in the moment he picks up.

"Like hell I'm doing that," his friend replies. "Where do you need to go? I'll drive you."

"Do you have the time? It's far away."

"Where?"

"Manchester."

There's a deep silence coming from the other side. "I'll be there in ten minutes, be ready to be picked up. We're going on a road trip."

He closes the call and Harry shoves the phone back in his pocket, looking up when he feels water hit his face.

The sky is dark, and it isn't long before it starts raining.

Harry doesn't have an umbrella. He lets out a sour laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Can his day get any worse?

He sighs, thinking of Sierra. Is she still in front of her house, waiting for Liam just like he's waiting for Zayn? Somehow, the thought of them both being outside as their life is about to change in the same moment warms him up inside.

Maybe the rain falling upon them will erase the stain of their heartbreak.

Zayn gets to Niall's house together with Maura.

Harry puts his bags inside his car and turns when he hears his name being shouted. She's running towards him.

He sits in the passenger's seat and shuts the door before she can reach him, staring into her wide eyes as Zayn speeds away, not being able to look away from her until he can't see her anymore.

Relief washes through him when Niall's house disappears from view, and Harry looks down when the realisation of what he's done comes to him.

He's running away again.

That seems to be all he's able to do.

This is the last Artwork extra. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

If you did, it'd mean a lot to me if you checked out my two ongoing stories, "Interlude" and  "Lux" x

Miki

[text_hash] => 779e0b58
)