Mirrored Exile (HS)

seventy eight

chapter seventy eight - where do we go from here

Lucy Caddel

It was California all over again. Harry assuming what I wanted was now an age-old pattern.

"You won't be out of here by morning because simply, you don't know even where you're going." Zayn shut him off and glared at Louis and Niall, making them leave the room with him.

Harry was still leaning on the counter, gripping the edge of the white marble with his hands. His head was dipped low and curls falling over his forehead. I was standing in the middle of the room with nothing but myself, gripping Harry's ring on my neck.

"Why do you keep doing this, Harry?"

"Doing what?"

"Please don't act dumb with me." I pleaded, standing up and walking to the sofa.

I heard Harry follow me with the sound of his boots on the floor. He soon came into my eye line, but not looking at me.

"So? What is it then? Why do you keep pushing me away if I'm willing to be there-,"

"I don't want you to lose your freedom over mine being taken from me."

My mouth fell open but I couldn't form the words. He finally looked at me now after what he said which felt like salt on my wound. The defeated smile he had said more than he had intended.

"But what if I say I want to?"

"It won't matter because I won't allow it. I won't let you give up your own life to be on the run constantly."

"That's what I want to do, Harry." I run my fingers through my hair with stress, each strand sticking to my sweaty skin.

"Why?"

As if I'm gonna have the answer to that.

"I don't know."

He wasn't just a person to me now. He was an important part of my life and I couldn't imagine what it was like before I met him. How do I summarise that? He was stubborn and harder to convince than a brick wall.

"That's my point. You don't know."

I stood up, a shiver crawling up my spine to my neck. "Yes, I don't know, Harry. But there is one thing I do know, which is we both got dragged into this mess together so I think it's only right we work our way out of it...together."

He froze his gaze on mine, biting his jaw and breathing heavily. "...Okay."

"Okay." I nodded.

"I'm fucking starving," Niall yelled from the hallway, assuming it was aimed at Zayn who had something in the oven.

The three of them returned to the kitchen. Zayn, Louis, and Niall. They looked at Harry and I who stood frozen from their stares.

"Liam messaged," Zayn broke the silence to tell us. "He said it's gotten real bad, Harry. There are people even flown in from Europe. You need to be out of here soon because they'll come back."