birds // hs

8. Daddy Issues *

The drive to the hospital was a long one. The whole time I couldn't take my mind off Harry and what I called a relationship. What would my father think? What would he say?

I turned onto the curving side street lined with tall palm trees and sighed, my eyes skimming over the sign I was much too familiar with:

Palm Grove's Home for the Mentally Unwell

*Harry's POV*

"F.uck," Liam hiccuped as he leaned back onto the sand with a grin. "I think I'm wasted."

"You've only had one beer," Zayn cackled, his own words cracking him up as we fell into fits of laughter.

"Haz, where's that cute little piece of ass you always bring 'round?" Niall asked with a sly raise of his eyebrows.

Louis whistled. "She's hot as shit, mate."

"I know, I know," I cut them off as my cheeks heated up. "She went to go see her dad for a couple days, I don't know. I think she's coming back tonight."

"Dude, she's so f.ucked up, it's hot."

I snapped my attention to Liam. "What?"

"Yeah she's got like demons and shit."

"What kind of demons? Like cocaine?" Niall whispered, his breath thick with alcohol. "Ha, I bet you two f.uck when she's high as hell."

"Shut up," I scowled as I punched him hard on the shoulder. "I want to hear this."

"I can't believe you didn't know," Liam rolled his eyes. I shifted up and he cleared his throat, our fire casting a dim shadow on all our faces as we began listening intently. "So I went down to the library the other day, right? Because you know there's that smoking hot mom that always wears those shorts, you know. And anyway, I asked the librarian, the ancient one, about Rachel and she spilled the whole story, mate."

Zayn rolled his eyes. "I bet she's a f.ucking vampire."

I chunked my bottle at him and he ducked. "Shut the hell up, I'm listening."

"Anyway," Liam glared at us. "Apparently a few years ago they were coming down here to visit and her dad swerved to avoid this deer, right? And a drunk driver came round the corner and hit the car, which f.ucked them all up but her brother died and he was like super young, you know. Like seven, maybe. So Rachel's mom is apparently psycho and she blamed the dad and eventually he went like insane and ended up in some nuthouse upstate."

"And I asked my tattoo guy about that tattoo," Zayn finally spoke up. "He said he actually did it for her on her birthday last year."

I felt my heart thud loudly as the answer I wanted so badly came so close. "What is it?"

"There are three birds, one for her brother and one for herself and her dad. Rumor has it that when the paramedics showed up and found all their bodies all over the road, there was a cardinal sitting right by Rachel."

"There shouldn't have been cardinals in that part of the state," Louis frowned.

"Yeah, that's the miracle," Zayn chortled. "It came out of literally nowhere. Anyway, it's probably just a rumor."

Suddenly everything made so much sense. Why she was so upset when I asked about her siblings and why there wasn't a single picture of her mom in her room. Only her brother and dad.

"Wow," Niall commented somberly. "That's...wow."

"And she's such a f.ucking nice person," Liam added. "I mean usually those types of people are deep and dark and just-"