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Chapter 17

**A/N: Please don't kill me for how long this chapter is! I promise you guys are going to LOVE it (: Can't wait to hear what you guys think!!

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This entire last week, I  felt like a bipolar man in a midlife crisis, and God, do I wish that were an exaggeration. My thoughts consisted of nothing but running down to the post office to get my letters back so Harry could never see it and wishing I had just delivered it to him myself.

"Just be patient, Louis. You've really hurt him. He needs time to figure things out." Liam offered one day during the painstaking wait.

"Okay, that's good and all, but what am I supposed to do? I literally poured my heart into that damn letter and now I'm just sitting here like an idiot waiting and chewing through my nails in fear and nerves." It came out in more of a burst instead of a calm, level-headed statement, but I was past caring at this point. My stomach had been twisting in knots since I wrote the letter in the first place, and each passing day only made it feel worse.  

"Friendly reminder, tour rehearsals are starting in a week, so as nice as it would be for you two to take your time in 'is he' or 'isn't he' friendship debacules, can we please slip a little bit of reason into the scenario and get someone to go get him?" Our tour manager was sitting in the corner of the vocal studio working away intensely on his laptop, but still managed to be listening to our conversation the entire time. Impressive.  

"I don't really think that is such a good idea. This isn't something that Lou should be rushing into. I think he should let it happen at it's own pace. Don't worry, Harry will come around for the tour rehearsals." Liam said, paternal insticts were obviously on overdrive.  

I looked back and forth between Liam and him and interjected with my own thoughts. "He's right, Paul. I'm just going to sit it out and wait."   

That may possibly have been the BIGGEST lie of my life. There was no way I was going to take Liam's advice on something like this. I needed some sort of approval on this whole thing; something that would tell me that taking things into my own hands wasn't actually a crazy idea at all, but in fact, a very logical one, and Paul just gave me that reassurance. I couldn't let Liam know, though. I was already under the disapproving judgement of Harry. I couldn't afford to add Liam into that mix as well.  

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I have never been so thankful for three letters sitting in my mail box with a return sticker on them in my entire life.  

"Hi, I need to get an extra key for my room, I seemed to have lost mine."  

"Name please?"  

Those three returned letters meant that one of them had been delivered to Harry. It also meant that he was checked into the hotel under the name that wasn't on the three envelopes that were sitting on the coffee table back at our flat.  

"David Skinner."  

The receptionist looked from the computer screen to me and then back at the screen. Her petite figure adjusted itself to stand more properly once she realized who I was. She pushed aside her chocolate brown bangs and gave me a slight arch of her eyebrows.  

"Card please? I n-need to swipe it to v-verify who you are."  

Well, shit.  

"Could you possibly tell me that last four numbers on that card?"  

"4601" She replied curtly, a blush still prominent on her cheeks.  

I sighed in relief as I recognized the numbers. He used our 'company' bank card. I should have known. He's never been one to do anything secretly. He must have known if it got down to it, he could be easily traced for the sake of the management team.