Until Now (Harry Styles)

Chapter 21

Have I ever said how small my school is? It’s ridiculously small and sometimes I love it, but sometimes I absolutely hate it. Eastern’s student enrollment is so small that word travels fast.  The campus alert system notified all students and faculty about the incident at my apartment. They left out my name of course, but not what happened. A female student was assaulted... One of the suspects is under custody and the other is still at large…

That was what scared me the most. He was still out there. I guess that was why I hadn’t left my apartment building in the past few days. It was also the reason why Nicks was calling me in the mid afternoon and I was still in bed. “Hello?” I answered my phone by lying in down on the mattress and placing the side of my face and ear over top of it. I felt too exhausted to actually sit up and hold the phone to my ear. I breathed in deeply and snuggled into the dark satin sheets. They smelled nice.

“Where the hell are you?” Nicks shouted into the phone. I cringed away from the sharp noise and then settled back down.

“At my place.” I lied. I said I was in bed, just not my bed. I couldn’t go back to my place after everything had happened, but I couldn’t get out of bed either. I just wanted to relax. Was that too much to ask for?

“You’re a filthy liar, Ashleigh.” Nicks growled into the phone. “I’m at your apartment. You’re not here.”

Wait. What? “How’d you get in?”

“Door’s broken. I guess what I heard through the grape vine was true. Now, where are you? I’m worried about you, chica.”  I forgot about my door being broken. I hadn’t gotten around to calling and having it fixed. A lot of things needed to be fixed. Including myself. “Ashleigh, please. You’re scaring me. Where are you?” The worry in Nicks’ voice was there. I felt bad, but I really didn’t want to tell her where I was. I felt like such a hypocrite although nothing happened between him and me.

“Hey, I made food. Come eat.” Harry stood in the doorway of his bedroom. He was holding a spatula and a pan full of eggs. “Scrambled eggs. That’s all I really know how to make.” I nodded at him and rolled over, uncovering myself from the blankets of Harry’s bed. Yes. I was fully clothed. No. I did not sleep with Harry. He was just letting me stay with him until I cleared my head. It was a process. I just happened to take over the bed. Harry slept on the couch. Not by my choice. I would have like to have someone to cling to in my sleep, or rather the little sleep that I got. Harry insisted that he sleep on the couch. I wasn’t going to complain.

I could hear Nicks yelling through the phone. “Why are you there? Did I miss something?! I missed so much! You’re supposed to keep your best friend in the loop. Dammit, Ashleigh. I’m coming up there.”  I heard some noise from downstairs and Nicks’ side of the phone call went dead. Soon there was a banging on Harry’s door and I was sitting in his kitchen, pushing around overcooked eggs with a fork.

Harry opened the door to greet Nicks, but she busted through the doorway Harry had a look of annoyance plastered on his face. “By all means. Come right in.” He stood back and glared at Nicks as she approached me. He rolled his eyes and grabbed his keys from the hook by his door.

“Where are you going?” I asked, oddly concerned that he was leaving.

“For a smoke.” His jaw clenched as he left his apartment, leaving both Nicks and I, the invaders, behind. The slam of the door made me jump. I instantly felt bad about staying there with Harry. I was invading his space, but he offered for me to stay with him in the first place. I was too embarrassed to ask and I was just going to stay with Liam or another friend, but Harry was there and we have something going on between us. I figured I would accept his offer. And there I was, eating his cooking in his apartment, like it was a normal day-to-day task.