Eloise didn’t sleep all last night. She tossed, and she turned, and she stared at the bed Harry slept in. Its covers were thrown back carelessly and the pillows strewn all over, since he had taken an afternoon nap and hadn’t bothered to remake it. But it was empty, lacking the body it usually held. She couldn’t possibly sleep, knowing that her best friend was wandering out on his own in a city he had barely known for three weeks.
If he didn’t come back, Anne and his stepfather would kill Eloise.
She sits up groggily at 6:34 in the morning, slipping out from under the duvet and into Harry’s bed. Burying herself deep into the covers, snuggling up, she inhales the scent of the blankets, the scent of Harry and the hotel’s detergent.
Although she knows in the back of her mind that none of this is really her fault, Eloise can’t help but feel guilty. And so, she holds the duvet tightly and cries. Everything about this trip has gone so horribly wrong.
The worst of it, though, is that her best friend is missing and, she’s realized, that she may not know herself as well as she thought. The person she thought she knew left the picture as soon as Kat and Niall entered it.
+++
He finally comes back late into the evening, seeming more devastated than the night before. Ignoring Eloise’s worried looks and frantic questions, he locks himself in the bathroom. The shower turns on moments later.
Eloise immediately texts Kat, Niall, and Louis, letting them know that Harry is safe. Kat and Niall respond with complete relief. Louis, on the other hand, simply says ‘okay.’
As she is waiting for him to finish, a loud knock sounds throughout the room. She knows that it isn’t Kat and Niall; they’re both working for a few more hours.
Standing in the hallway is a boy a little taller than Eloise, with brown hair covered by a snapback and deep brown eyes. He smiles at her, introducing himself as Liam.
“Erm, are you, oh what was her name?” he mutters to himself, sitting down on the sofa. Eloise offers him something to drink, but he declines, shaking his head and staring at her, as if trying to remember where he knows her from.
“Jo! That’s it!” he exclaims suddenly, startling her. She spills her hot cocoa all over the small counter. Liam apologizes repeatedly, blushing and rushing to help her clean up.
“So,” he says, when the mess is taken care of and they’re facing each other on the couch, “are you this Jo I’ve been hearing about?”
Eloise chuckles. “No, I’m Eloise. How do you know about Jo?”
“I’m a good friend of Louis’. Harry showed up at his house last night, apparently. How he got there, we don’t know.”
The water shuts off then, the bathroom door opening and releasing steam. Harry appears, a towel wrapped lazily around his waist, looking like it’s about to fall off. He ruffles his hair a bit, water droplets flying. When he notices Liam, his eyes widen only slightly before his expression goes slack again.
“Would you care to explain what you were doing at Louis’ house last night?” Eloise asks.
“Apologizing,” he says, grabbing some clothes and disappearing back into the bathroom.
“Praise the Lord,” she mutters, turning back to Liam, sipping her cocoa.
Liam says that Louis had called him around three in the morning, hysterical, saying that Harry was there and wouldn’t leave. Harry was apologizing over and over, explaining everything that had happened, things which Louis refused to tell. Things that Harry has yet to tell Eloise.
They assume that he took a taxi, spending the last of his cash. He begged Louis to forgive him, even asking if Louis would be his boyfriend. Louis told him that it was ‘too early for this shit.’ He practically shoved Harry out of his house, and then cried until his mom woke up for work.
“Louis has been telling me every single detail about Harry since he dropped his suitcase on his foot. I was waiting for him at his house because I wasn’t able to go on vacation with him. I could barely get out a ‘hello’ before he was blabbing about some gorgeous boy with brilliant green eyes,” Liam says, chuckling a little. “I feel like I’m watching a television show at times. There’s a bit too much drama.”
“Agreed,” Eloise laughs lightly.
The sun is beginning to set. Harry is already in bed, sleeping soundly, and Liam has to get home. He agrees to meet Kat, Niall, and Eloise tomorrow at Kat’s apartment to discuss matters. There is only one more full day left to fix this mess. Their plane leaves Friday morning, after all.
Eloise is praying that it will all work out, that Louis and Harry will leave each other on good terms. She hopes that something good will have come from this trip.
‘But something good did come from this trip,’ she thinks as she climbs into bed, for a better night’s sleep than the previous night. ‘Because I met Kat.’
‘I met Kat,’ she thinks. ‘And Niall, too.’
But Kat is Eloise’s first girl friend in years, and that excites her. What also excites her, though, is the feeling she gets when Kat touches her. She just isn’t quite sure what that means yet.
A/N: This chapter is quite boring, quite short, and quite crappy. Sorry guys. I ended on a bit of Keloise, though, even though I actually have no specific plans for that relationship. I'm not sure yet if it will stay a friendship or not.
Also, if you didn't see my message, I posted a new story called 'Winter Wind.' Check it out please?
Dedicated to @sidewayscalum thanks for reading! xx
-c8
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Soulmate Search // larry
Fanfiction"Sometimes you have to go to extreme measures for love and if I have to search the world for mine, don't think that I won't do it." Ever since Harry was small he's been dreaming about his future, or more specifically, his spouse. He has always wonde...
