Criminal (punk harry styles)

chapter twenty-five

Delilah's P.O.V.

The door slammed shut behind me, making me jump. The smell of anti-persperant and something metallic flew up my nostrils and I had to resist the urge to gag. All around me were cheap looking cells filled with men of all ages, some younger than me and some old enough to be my grandfather. All of their heads turned to where I was standing but it didn't go silent like in the movies, if anything it got louder and they all seemed to lean closer to their cell bars. I glanced around nervously as the officer from the front desk lead me through the long row of cells, stopping about half-way and pulling a card from his trouser pocket. I could already see him, sat with his head in his hands on the bench that was provided. He didn't bother to look up when the cell door opened, not even when his cell mate let out a low whistle that made me flush red.

"20 minutes," the officer muttered. "That's all I can get you."

"Thank you..."

"Wyatt," he answered before taking a stance beside the door. I gave him a thankful nod and ducked into the not-so-private room, my emotions already getting the best of me.

"Harry!" I yelped, flinging my arms around his thin frame. He jumped before reacting, pulling me flush against him.

"Delilah," he croaked. Had it really only been 3 days? It's felt like 3 years. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to see you," I sniffed, wiping my face on his dirty shirt. Shouldn't they have given him clean clothes to get in to?

"You can't be here," his voice was cracking all over the place. "You'll get in deep shit if anyone finds out you're here."

"I don't care," I mumbled into the material, burying my face deeper into his chest.

By now I was on my knees in front of him and he was hunched over my much smaller frame, almost in a protective manner. Everything I wanted to say to him left my mind at that moment, even though we were surrounded by criminals it felt like it was just us.

"I'm so sorry," I cried quietly. "This is all my fault."

"No it's not," he cooed, running his shaking fingers through my tangled locks. "If anything it's mine. I shouldn't have dragged you so deeply into this, it's my problem to deal with and now you have to carry the weight as well."

"I'm not gonna let them take you away, Harry," I spoke in a more hushed tone, so the surrounding ear droppers couldn't hear. "I'll get you out of this, I promise you I will."

"Delilah, don't you think I deserve to go away?" he asked. "I did kill a man."

"You had every right to," I argued. "He was hurting your mom."

"That doesn't give me the right to kill him."

"Don't," I frowned, leaning back on my legs to look up at him. "Don't do this to yourself. You and I both know you don't deserve to be here, you deserve to be back home with your mother and enjoying your life. You don't deserve to be locked away for the rest of  your life where you only go outside 2 hours a day. You'll never see anyone."

"Would you visit me?"

"Of course," I answered without a thought.

"Then I don't need anything else," he smiled sadly, brushing hair out of my eyes. I didn't return the smile, just stared into his lion-like eyes. This was just like discovery channel, when a beautiful, wild creature gets captured and locked in a cage to be viewed by people like it was nothing more than an antique.

Harry was the lion, he had no say in his fate, just had to go with whatever happened, whatever the judge said would determine how the rest of his life would be spent. But I won't let that happen.

"I'm going to get you out of this," I spoke seriously. "Whether you want me to or not, I swear I will."

Harry stared back at me with a look of pure awe, which reminded me of something I wanted to ask him.

"Hey, when you were being put in the cop car, what did you mean when-"

"Time's up," Wyatt stepped into the cell. "My shift ends in five minutes and Jared is supposed to arrive in three."

I looked up at Harry helplessly and rose from the ground, squeezing his hand before stepping out of the room.

I turned back to look at him, my beautiful best friend. He didn't deserve this, Harry didn't deserve any of this.

"I'll save you from this," I promised as the cell door slid closed again.

Harry nodded as I was led back down the isle, all the surrounding men staring at me like I was an alien - or an angel, it's hard to distinguish whether it's fear or adoration that shined in their tired eyes. 

The heavy door slammed shut once again and I found myself back in the empty lobby. It didn't smell as bad as the room I was just in, so I welcomed the stale air with open arms as Wyatt returned to the desk and retrieved his hat.

"Y'know," he began. "If you're planning on getting that guy out of his sentence, it's pretty much a lost cause."

"What makes you say that?" I frowned.

"The boys have been talking about him, a popular guy around the station actually. Literally everyone at the trial will hate him, especially the jury. He doesn't stand a chance."

(weyho! My updates are gonna pick up a bit now, since the school term is coming towards an end - yay for the Australian schooling curriculum! - so look forward to that. :P also, where are you guys from? I wanna know!  I'm Australian - obviously (; Update coming soon, mojo is back. x)