serenity | h.s | ON HOLD

thirteen.

tw// mentions of drug & alcohol abuse.

Sarita.

Harry was still nowhere to be found.

I spent a solid thirty minutes contemplating, wondering if I should try to call him or give him some extra time to show up. My eyes would anxiously flicker towards the door each time the little bell went off, hoping that he would run in and apologize for showing up late. That didn't happen though, and I couldn't wrap my head around a possible reason as to where he was.

After fighting my contemplations, I decided to try calling his phone. Each time that it would ring, my patience levels were thinning by the second. All the while I attempted to call him, I had left Erie's and hopped back into my car to drive back to my house. By the time it hit his voicemail for the fourth time, I started to feel a weird pit feeling in my stomach, suddenly sparking my nerves.

What if he was hurt? Did he get in an accident on the way here? I wonder if he passed out while he was getting dressed?

Before my mind could even make any other decision, my mind snapped out of its dissociative state and had my body driving me in the direction of his house. At least this way I would be able to get some sort of answer on his whereabouts.

The drive to his house was not far from town, only about a good ten minutes from where I currently was. Usually I could fit in a few short songs on a drive this small, but this time around, my mind was on overdrive. There was no way that I could focus on anything other than Harry. His safety was all that consumed my thoughts.

Surely he wasn't there for good reason, surely he wasn't ghosting me. No, he wouldn't do that to me, right? Fuck, what if I had been reading all of the signs wrong this entire time? What if he was just putting on a show for everybody to get them to think that he genuinely liked me when in reality, all he wanted was one good fuck and then he'd be gone.

Stop it, snap out of it Sarita.

Pulling up to the little white house in the woods, the first thing I take notice of is that there was no car in their driveway. I do know that he and Juliette shared one car together, so it could be a possibility that he was with Juliette. Maybe they got caught up in some last minute errands?

I make my way out of my car once it's parked on the side of the road and towards the front door, taking the chance to knock in hopes that someone would answer. Before I could continue knocking, the door swings open, revealing a frazzled looking Juliette.

My brows furrow with immediate confusion at her panicked demeanor, "Juliette?"

"Sarita, hey." she breathes out, closing her eyes for a few seconds before reopening them.

"Is uh, is Harry here?"

Juliette lets out a heavy sigh before she moves backwards to motion for me to come inside with her extended hand motioning me in. Nervously, I step over the threshold and close the door behind me. She guides me towards their kitchen until we reach the island counter, and her hands reach for a piece of paper on top of it.

"I had just gotten back home about five minutes before you showed and saw this note that he left," she explained softly, taking one look down at the paper in her hands before handing it over to me, "Was hoping that when you knocked, it would be him."

Taking the note from her hands, my eyes quickly scan over the scribbly writing that was barely legible, seeming that he was in a rush when he wrote it.

J -
She called today. I couldn't be here alone.
I came to that place down the road that you like.
Be back soon.
- H.