The Way Things Change

Chapter 19

*Niall’s POV*

“What do you mean she wasn’t there?” I was confused. Then where would she be? She wasn’t with the girls, and if she had gone downstairs we would have seen her.

“Well I mean she wasn’t there. I knocked on her door, there was no answer, so I went in. Her bedroom was empty, but I thought she might be in the bathroom, so I waited for 5 minutes before knocking on that door. Again there was no answer so I walked in and it was empty in there as well.”

“Then where the fuck is she?” I hissed at him.

“Hey, take it easy. I don’t know. I have been with you all the time, remember? We could ask the lads if they have seen her. And maybe she is in the pool, or in the gym or something.” Harry resonated, trying to make me calm down.

“Well aren’t you the genius. She can’t be in the pool because of her plaster and it would be hard to be in the gym with a plaster as well.” I was angry. Not at Harry, but myself I guess. For leaving her alone.

“Well maybe she is in there to look. Maybe she is exploring the house. She hasn’t really seen anything besides her stupid bedroom. I DON’T KNOW WHERE SHE IS, GODDAMMIT!” Harry was angry too.

“SO WHY DIDN’T YOU LOOK FOR HER THEN? THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A GREAT IDEA!” I was yelling at him. Two could play at this game.

“WELL, I THOUGHT I WOULD TELL YOU FIRST SO YOU COULD HELP ME LOOK FOR HER. IF I HAD KNOWN YOU WERE GOING TO GET ANGRY WITH ME I WOULD HAVE LOOKED FIRST!”

Our shouting had attracted the other boys. They were standing in the door to my bedroom. “What’s going on in here?” Liam asked. I tried to calm myself down before telling him, but Harry was quicker to answer.

“Niall here forgot to tell Kate that we are going on tour on Wednesday, so he sent me up to tell her. BUT I couldn’t find her in her room or her bathroom, so I went here to tell Niall and he started yelling at me.”

“WHAT? You haven’t told Kate that we are leaving?” Louis asked, looking at me with furious eyes. REALLY? That was the only thing he had picked up on? I looked at him in disbelieve.

“No, I totally forgot. But are you DEAF or something? Kate is gone. And we have no idea where she is.”

“Hold on” Liam said. “You say she is gone, but have you looked through the whole house? Or just her room and bathroom?” He was always the one to make everything clear. And now I felt embarrassed.

“We haven’t searched the house yet.” Harry answered.

“Well, then lets go do that first. I’ll get Dani and we will go down to the gym, even though I doubt she’ll be down there. Are Eleanor and Perrie awake?” Liam was organizing everything, like always. “Yes” both Zayn and Louis said. “Well go get them too. Maybe Kate said something to them about what she was going to do. Niall and Harry, you can go check the library. Louis, you and Eleanor can go check the bedroom again, just to be sure and Zayn you go check the guestroom downstairs. We’ll meet up in the living room in, shall we say 5 minutes? That should be enough.” And off we went to look for her.

There was an awkward silence between Harry and I while we walked downstairs.

“Harry, I’m really sorry for yelling at you. I know it’s not your fault. I’m just worried. I have no idea what she might do to herself.” I broke the silence.

“It’s okay, but you are not the only one who is worried. We all are.” I looked at him with a cheeky smile on my face. “I know, I know… And yes, I’m also worried” he confessed. He wasn’t as cold-hearted as he had seemed.

The library was empty. I hoped the others had found her. We went to meet up with them.

“Any luck?” I asked, which was really stupid, ‘cause I could see Kate wasn’t with any of them.

“We’re fucked if she went outside.” Zayn said. “She doesn’t know the neighbourhood and she didn’t want to go for a walk with me when I offered it. She might get lost.”

“Look, let’s not panic yet” Louis said. “If she is just out and about, she can always use her phone for directions. And if she really was in trouble she would call us, right?” he didn’t seem completely convinced by his own statement.

We all looked at each other. He was right, right?

“Well… There is a problem with that.” Liam looked down. “I took her phone.” We all looked at him in surprise.

“Why would you do that?” Danielle asked. “And why are we even worried for her? It’s been like an hour since we have seen her. She is a big girl, I’m sure she can manage one hour alone.”

All the boys looked at the floor. We had all agreed not to tell the girls about Kate’s suicide attempt. And I don’t think she had told them about it yesterday. None of the boys made an attempt to answer. The silence was getting awkward.

“Well…” Louis started. “Kate tried to take her own life as a result of some hateful messaged she received. That is why we called you that night, to ask for your help and assistance.” We heard the girls gasp. Yep. Kate hadn’t told them about that.

“Yeah… That’s why I took her phone. I didn’t want her to read anymore of those messages and I just forgot to get her a new one” Liam continued. “I really intended too and we would all pitch so we could give it as a gift, but there was just no right time and then I forgot about it.” He looked really guilty. Danielle wrapped her arms around him. She whispered something in his ear that made him blush.

“Okay, so I guess we can kind of panic now.” Perrie said. “But I really can’t believe she would try and do something like that again. She was really happy today.”

“Well… I’m going out front to look for her there” I said. “Maybe she is just outside our fences.”

“Wait up, we’ll all go.” Harry said. And so we did.