Save ourselves- One Direction

Roxanne

All day I had been working with Harry and Niall, helping to fix the roofs. However, I noticed that Harry wasn't really paying attention. He was constantly throwing glances over at Avery.

Not lovey-dovey looks, though, but rather sad or scowling looks, like he was upset about something.

"Harry!", I snapped my fingers next to his ear and he flinched.

"What?" he growled.

"I've asked you three times now if you could hand me the hammer."

With a growl, Harry handed it over to me.

"What's the matter with you today? Is there trouble in paradise?", I asked playfully.

"No!" growled Harry, hammering a nail with a second hammer, a little harder than necessary into the roof.

Niall and I glanced at each other.

"I thought she was happy about your birthday present. What's the problem now? Since she's been back, you've been avoiding each other," Niall now asked in wonder.

"There's no problem. We just don't see eye to eye right now, that's all," was Harry's curt reply.

"Why? What's it about?", I now asked, surprised.

"It doesn't matter," Harry said curtly.

"Hey, come on now. Spit it out, mate. What could possibly have put you lovebirds in such a bad mood?" said Niall jokingly.

Apparently, he was trying to lift Harry's spirits a bit.

"If you must know...Avery has gone back to Plan E. And apparently this time she actually thinks she can get out of here. I've talked her out of it before, but now...she won't let me talk her out of it, even though she knows damn well it's total bullshit."

Again, Niall and I exchanged a look. This time, though, it was a horrified look.

Plan E. That was the code we used among ourselves when talking about escape. Admittedly it wasn't the best code word, but it had become so common.

"Oh, she'll calm down. Probably the 2 days in the hole freaked her out a bit and she's trying to deal with it now. She'll probably be back to her old self in a week," Niall tried to reassure Harry.

I honestly wasn't so sure about that. When Avery had approached me about Hempton in the washroom yesterday, she had seemed quite concerned. No matter what Hempton had hinted at in front of her, if she found out, she probably wouldn't even plan to escape. She'd probably drive the next truck through the closed front gate like John McClane and go straight to the police.

Something told me Avery wouldn't back down this time. She wouldn't wait for the next incident to happen or until she had served her time. She wasn't that kind of person. She had already proven that.

Still, I didn't want to worry Harry unnecessarily.

"Niall's right. She'll come around," I said, even if it didn't sound half as convincing as Niall himself.

Harry didn't seem to notice, though, and continued to dedicate himself mindlessly to his work. I unintentionally remembered my last encounter with Hempton and promptly had to fight the nausea that rose up inside me.

Normally it had worked quite well to suppress the nausea, but this time it was different.

Hempton became careless. He apparently believed by now that he could get away with anything. Otherwise, he wouldn't have indirectly grated the incident with me on Avery's face. And since Avery had already called me on it yesterday, I knew it would only be a matter of time before someone found out the whole awful truth.