After the End: Book 3

41. Where

Naomis POV

"Becca, shut the fuck up and leave me alone," Harry snapped through the phone. He very clearly wasn't talking to me, but I was very interested in what he was saying. He'd called me and then told me to hold on as soon as I answered him. He sounded very unhappy. I hadn't heard him sound so angry in a very long time and for once, it wasn't me that he was angry at. "I'm walking home and you and Louis can eat shit!"

I looked around the hallway of the school to make sure nobody was around before requesting a face time. Zadies office door was closed a few feet away, but she was busy on a call anyways. She'd seemed thankful for me to step out when the phone rang and now I was invested. I was too nosy for this.

To my surprise, Harry accepted it a moment later. From the small bit of him I could see, he was outside walking rather quickly. I recognized the parking lot of Melvins tower in the background. Harry smirked when he saw me, then looked over his shoulder, presumably to make sure that Becca wasn't in pursuit. When he looked back at me, he visibly relaxed.

"How's it going?" I asked carefully. The last I'd heard from him had been the night before when I'd been trying to keep his attention at the bar. Then I'd had a very awkward exchange with the bartender who had taken on the role of his keeper for a few short moments while we awaited Cory to come get him. I didn't know her at all, and I'd heard terrible things about her, but she'd been absolutely willing to come get him. She'd barely even questioned it. I had lied to Harry about how many details I gave her. I repeated most of what he'd said word for word because I was so worried.

"Shitty," he informed me. "It's going absolutely shitty."

I tried not to frown.

"Currently I am ditching Becca who is apparently my new minder," he added bitterly. He scowled at the thought. "Louis just had all of our employment made conditional and now I'm mandated to go back to therapy and I have to get that fucking form signed at the support group and I most definitely live alone now and Becca thinks she's my new surrogate mother so I'm walking home."

How was I supposed to tell him that I agreed with almost all of those issues he was currently facing? I didn't really think he should be living alone but he was also completely out of control and I didn't exactly want him around my son. He seemed pretty upset, although there was some amusement he seemed to be gathering under the surface. He seemed to have mustered some humor in his angry eyes. As I noticed that, I also noticed his eyes were just a bit glassy although it was hard to tell through the grainy visual on the phone screen.

"Harry, isn't getting help a good thing?" I asked after a moment. I felt my forhead crease in anticipation of what he'd say.

"I don't need the Harry you need help lecture Nay," he said rolling his eyes. "I've got it plenty of times today from plenty of people. Last night too. I definitely heard it a lot last night. My head hurts from last night also which I think I deserve. Can you believe Louis would do this without even talking to me? I mean, I was ignoring his calls but he never even came by my flat this morning. He sent it all in an email! A God-damn email!"

"Didn't you tell him not to come down there?" I reminded him.

"That was last night!" He exclaimed. "And I was losing my shit when I said that, it shouldn't count. Granted I was sober at the time. That was like the longest I'd gone without using in a few weeks and I wasn't having a great day— oh that's why I called you. I wanted to apologize about literally everything I was saying last night. I was getting really dark."

He smiled like he was thinking of all of his drunken suicidal ramblings pleasantly. He was being very open about the fact that he was using all the sudden. Apparently he was completely willing to throw it out candidly and I had no idea how to approach that, especially because he wasn't exactly speaking on it in a recovery oriented way. I'd never actually known a Harry that was actively and unapologetically using. I'd really only ever heard about him and I'd never heard good things.