And Then There Were Seven «1D»

Chapter 50: Teller of Secrets

posted: 8/30/15

edited: 8/31/15

an:

I apologize if this sucks it's 1 am. -riley

THANK YOu FOR READING.

(iguanas are pretty terrifying)

xoxo, j + r
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"You don't love someone because they're perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they're not."
-Jodi Picoult

LOUIS'S POV

"It's been about 48 hours," Zayn says as I walk into the kitchen. "We will be heading to the police station in a little while, Niall's gonna stay with Lyla."

I feel myself becoming anxious. "Where is she?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows whilst I pour myself a glass of water.

"She's with Niall upstairs," Zayn replies, sighing and picking up his phone.

I lean against the counter and take a sip, feeling hopeless.

Niall comes down the stairs with a full plate of food in his hands.

"How is she?" Zayn questions him, looking up from his phone.

"Not hungry apparently," Niall answers sourly, slamming the plate onto the counter harshly. "She hasn't eaten since this morning and it's almost four."

I can't imagine how she feels. Lyla has been oblivious to the fact that Olivia is the most important person to her and she suddenly doesn't have that person anymore.

"She probably just needs a little time," I speak up. "Her sister was taken from her, she's not gonna act like herself whilst she's still processing that."

Niall shrugs as Liam walks into the kitchen.

"We're leaving in five minutes," he tells us. "Where is Harry?"

"In his room, I think." I rinse my glass in the sink. "I'll let him know."

I skip steps going up the stairs. I go out of my way to check up on Lyla, the door of her and Olivia's shared room is open, so I glance inside. Lyla is sitting on a chair next to the window, staring blankly into space. I'm not even sure if she heard me come in.

"Hey," I say quietly. She turns around. "We're leaving so we'll see you later."

"Bye," she replies, turning back around.

I open my mouth to say something else but am interrupted by Liam's yell of "Louis! We're leaving!"

I duck out of the room and rush back down the hall to Harry's room. I knock and wait. Harry opens the door, his eyes a little red, but I don't comment.

"Um, we're leaving for the police station," I mutter.

"All right." He grabs his sunglasses off of the dresser and follows me.

We leave, with me as driver, listening to the radio until we arrive.

When we get there, Liam and Harry leave us to go to the front desk for assistance whilst Zayn and I lie in wait in the reception area by the front.

Someone comes to ask us questions about Olivia and her disappearance. We answer all the necessary questions blandly, but not leaving out a single detail. He leaves us with the promise of "We'll do our best to find her." But for some reason that doesn't reassure me.

We drive in silence for a few minutes after getting in the car as we leave the station.

Harry clears his throat. "Liam told the man whom we suspected," Harry speaks. I look at him in the rearview mirror. "That son of a gun Joseph Baker."

"That doesn't really help, though, does it?" Zayn says. "I mean, nobody knows where or maybe even who he is."

"There has to be someone who knows his whereabouts. He's smart, but not too smart to be on his own with all this," Liam states.

And then it hits me, like a wave crashing down on the rocky shore at the beach.

"Jane Baker," I say.

HARRY'S POV

It's almost 12 AM and the doorbell rings. I'm on the sofa channel surfing, but I take a break from that to get up and see who's at the door, slightly worried about who it's going to be. Probably someone here to kidnap the rest of us. But obviously this person has the code to the gate, or else they wouldn't have gotten in.

I lean forward to look into the peephole and am surprised by what I see. The light above the porch allows long brown hair and grayish-blue eyes to become visible and immediately gives away the culprit as Skylar. She rings the doorbell again, impatiently. The impatience that I've missed.

I unlock the door and open it, she takes only a few seconds to analyze my face before launching toward the doorway and against me, embracing me in a giant, forceful hug that almost sends me toppling to the ground.

"Sky?" I ask. "Skylar, what's wrong?"

She only hugs me tighter. "Come with me." She pulls away, before taking my hand and leading me out into the garden.

The garden is lined with beautiful rose bushes and at night, there's just enough light from the house to see them glistening in their beauty with the white picket fence around them, bringing out their vibrant color. Skylar leads me past many bushes full of pink, white, yellow, and other colored flowers, she stops at a particular bush in the far corner of the garden, it's further away from the house, but on the other side of the tall hedge separating our garden from the street. There's a street lamp that casts a yellow-orange glow through the leaves.

This streetlamp shines bright enough to see that the bush we are in front of is covered in dark red roses. Skylar clips the fullest one off of the bush and turns toward me to reveal the dazzling flower.

"Harry, I want to apologize for being mad at you all this time," she starts, utterly shocking me. "I should've let you explain yourself when I saw the ring. I was just being stupid, I've really missed you and I've decided that I don't want to be angry at you over this tiny, insignificant, little thing. Even though, I might be underplaying it, I think we both deserve to get past this. This rose is for you, if you want I can stomp on it and you can keep it inside a book?" She ends with a giggle and hands me the ruby-colored flower.

I take the rose, being wary of the thorns so that I don't poke myself. I grin, I finally have the one thing I've wanted for months--Skylar to forgive me.

"Skylar," I begin, despite trying to keep a straight face, I simply can't stop the smile that is spreading across my face like a wild fire. "I am just so sorry for beings such an idiot. I should've known that it was you from the start, I should've never dated Cheyenne. I should've never bought her that ring, I should've never proposed to her. But I'm glad that I could finally see clearly that it's you. Thank you for forgiving me." She reaches forward and pushes a strand of my loose hair behind my ear, smiling fondly.

Whilst I was speaking, a slow drizzle of rain had started to fall. And that small drizzle turned into a heavier rain by the time I am done speaking. Skylar and I embrace each other, ignoring the cold rain as it soaks every part of our bodies.

But we don't care. We don't care about anything, but each other at the moment. At every moment. This is all I needed right now. All I wanted right now. This one gesture could save me for a lifetime even if we don't work out in the future. And I know that doesn't seem like it would be correct, but it is.

And if I weren't so damn worried about Olivia, I'd probably sing out with joy that my life was perfect in that instant.

And though it may seem like it for now, nothing was going to turn out "perfect."