Sugar (Harry Styles)

19.

Thank you for letting me stay here. I appreciated all your hospitality. I left money for this month’s rent. Sorry to leave so suddenly, take care.

- Daphne

The note was all that was left in her small bedroom as she packed everything up in the dead of night and threw her suitcases and purse into the back of her small car. There was one perk about never staying in a place too long, if you ever needed to make a clean getaway it never took long.

Daphne didn’t know what else to do. She couldn’t stay in Holmes Chapel, not after everything that happened with the bakery. Especially not after Harry chose to take the easy way out and fall out of love with her.

Daphne let the windows roll down in her small car, taking the bitter night air against her skin to keep her alert and to dry the tears that rolled down her cheeks. She couldn’t believe that Harry didn’t believe her. That he chose to be like every other man in her life, pushing her away because they didn’t understand.

She had told herself that all great love stories must have some kind of heartache in order for them to be true. Those happily-ever-afters were just a chapter in the bigger story. She knew this was true so why didn’t it help? Why did she feel so hopeless? Maybe it was because there was no hope for her. Harry had taken the water from Paphos, she had seen men take it before and it worked instantly. She was just a person after that, nothing special. She had only used it on men who were too far gone in love with her to ever function normally again.  Her mother left it to her after a particularly violent man fell in love with her and caused nothing but pain to Daphne. All it took was a sip. One sip and the spell was broken.

Daphne knew that she had to go somewhere new. Somewhere that no one could find her. She was good at this game, at getting herself lost in a new place. She had to get as far away from Holmes Chapel as she could. She had to get as far away from Harry as she could.

Even thinking of him was painful. His curly hair, those green eyes, his large hands pressed protectively to her back, holding her to his body and kissing her hair. Every flash of Harry’s beautiful smile and playful laugh was like sticking a pin into her skin and pushing it in deeper and deeper, past the soft tissue, past the blood vessels, through muscle and striking her bones.

The car was silent, void of music. She needed the sound of the rushing wind and rumble of her engine. She needed the white noise as she drove. She went west, searching for water. An hour passed and she finally found the coast as the sun was rising. Daphne got out of her car and immediately moved towards the beach. She found stones and rocks, sticks and trash. She gathered them up and began to throw them towards the ocean, watching as the waves gathered up everything she threw and swallowed them into its waves.

“You said he was different!” She shouted. “You lied to me!”

Daphne stumbled on the beach, screaming loudly at the water as the sun rose over the horizon. She cursed her mother, cursed her gifts. She was angry, upset, she was heartbroken. She was lucky that it was sunrise on the beach; no one was around to see her lose her mind. Sometimes you had to be crazy by yourself. Not the crazy where you are jumping around from happiness, but the kind of insanity where people legitimately would think you’ve gone mad.

Daphne finally collapsed onto the sand, her bottom hitting the ground before her back found its home on the soft sand. Daphne’s hands were brought to her face as she sobbed.

“You were supposed to make him believe.” Daphne whimpered. “You were supposed to help your daughter.”

Daphne lay on that beach for what seemed like hours, the sun eventually rising from the horizon and over her body. The sun was warm but the beach was cold, the wind rushing on her and wrapping her in its embrace. She could’ve sworn she heard her mother’s voice, it was faint but it was there.