In This World (Harry Styles)

8

(DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. It's important to remember this is all totally fabricated, embellished, and exaggerated for entertainment purposes.)

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Day and night, my love

You said the blood was on my hands

Long, as you run

I couldn't give you up

Forever run

I couldn't give you up

A.M. Radio - Lumineers

ZAYN

"Any updates yet?" I muttered to T beneath my breath as she and I trailed Yolanda in Costco.

"Not here."

"T, c'mon, mahn..."

"Not here!" she hissed, elbowing me in the rib. "You'll get us caught, you know she has bionic hearing! We've been over this." She was right, I needed to cool it; at least until we put some distance between her and us.

"Hey, Yolanda, we're gonna stock up on water, yeah?" I called ahead. She smiled and nodded back over her shoulder, indicating it was a good idea.

G was home asleep with the baby, so her mum thought it'd be a great opportunity for us to go out as a team and stock up on supplies for all three houses. Toilet paper, hand soap, cleaning solutions, the works. T typically did the shopping for my place, but I was forced to tag along this time to see what needed to be purchased for the baby. It's all I was expected to think about lately. What was best for the baby, what was best for G, what the baby might need as she grew, what G might need as the baby grew. It was a real adjustment, realizing how much you were expected to be preoccupied with this tiny human being once they arrived. She was barely bigger than my two hands held together, yet somehow more high maintenance than her mom and I combined. But she was incredibly cute, so it made waiting on her hand and foot not a total drag.

As we rounded a corner out of earshot of the monster-in-law, only then was T finally willing to speak. We stopped over in the empty food court area and sat across from one another at a small table. Thankfully, the masks had ensured I could move around freely without being stopped every two feet by eagle-eyed fans, and the food court was still closed following lockdowns.

"I'm soooo reluctant to tell you this, btw," she huffed, leaning across the table and lowering her voice.

"Youh know I hate when youh talk in text acronyms. Get on with it then, broh. Tell me what?"

"I found him."

"Forh real? Holy shit, T! That's incredible! Thank fuck," I laughed. "I thought we never would. He was, like, lookin' forh a needle in a pile of needles out there. Where is he?"

"Mexico..."

"Wot?? Really? Why?"

"Shit, never-mind...I can't lie to you..."

"T, quit fuckin' around, alright?! What's the truth, mahn?! Where is he??"

"Sorry...apparently my loyalty to him knows no bounds..."

"Clearly."

"I was just trying to throw you off his trail a little."

"You're a goofball," I chuckled. "Try to remember youh work forh me, yeah? Okay? Fanks."