as it is || harry styles au

four

pls keep letting me know what you all think of this story so far!! it really keeps me motivated (:

tw: depression

h a r r y

"What's up?"

"What are you doing right now?" My younger brother Will asked, sounding out of breath. Very out of breath...and scared.

I was wiping down my station after finishing up a two-hour session for a chest piece of this guy's girlfriend. It wasn't a favorite of mine—permanently etching the love somebody had for someone else on their body forever wasn't really my cup of tea, but it paid the bills...and more.

"I'm in between clients, why? You sound like you're being chased by a fucking murderer right now. You're not, right?"

"No, I'm not being chased by a murderer, but I'm gonna need you to sit down for a second."

An icy sensation ran down my spine and froze the blood in my veins. Time stood still. Nothing good ever followed the request to sit down to receive information, but I took a seat in my chair anyways.

Is it Mum? Alden? Lena?

"It's Ivory, brother."

Sitting down didn't do a thing to prepare me to hear that name. My phone went loose in my grip.  She must not have stolen the damn thing because that lump of muscle behind my ribs moved for the first time in years. It seized up and sent a sharp pain erupting in my chest. I felt like keeling over and dying. What was the point in having the damn thing if it wasn't hers? Why'd I waste all this time? Why hadn't I just...

"Ivy's..." My voice came out as more like a whimper than anything. I couldn't finish the statement. I needed to hear Will say it himself.

"Ivy's here."

     Full stop.

     Ivy.

     Is.

     Here.

     "Mate, what?" I spit out. My lungs expelled the toxic air that accumulated in conjunction with the notion that Ivy was...well, dead.

   My head fell down against my desk, my eyes closing shut in relief. I physically felt my heart recede back into its cage—most likely awaiting its departure back to its owner now that I knew she was fucking alive.

     "Ivy's here in town."

     My relief turned to complete shock and disbelief. Ivy coming back to Camden was practically a miracle. While I'd just momentarily believed she wasn't alive, she was dead to this town. She left six years ago, and other than a couple months of constant contact, I'd never heard from her again. No one here had. The only sign or evidence we got that she was not dead was her mother, Dena.

     "Brother, I fucking thought you were going to say she was..."

     "What? Dead? God, no. I'm sorry, mate. I just...it's still bad. There's still something else I have to tell you about her."

     "Something else? She's alright, though?" I was desperate. I couldn't help but ask. It was the psychosomatic response of my heart belonging to somebody else.

     "Besides looking like she'd seen a ghost when she saw me at the diner, yeah, she's alright physically."

     I grunted. "Can we stop fucking talking about death and ghosts?"