Living in London

Would you believe

LOUIS'S POV

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I didn't know what to do. I hate feeling this powerless. I wanted to go to the Feds, but they can't do anything quickly about a blocked number. It will take ages to trace and who knows what this 'Number Withheld' might have done by then. If hitting Zayn with a motherfucking car was not beyond their boundaries, I don't even want to think about how far too far is.

I couldn't exactly confront Ariadne about it either. What was I meant to say? "Oh hey, Ariadne. I was just invading your privacy last night and saw some creepy messages. Care to explain?" Yeah... I can see that will end well. Maybe I could just tell her the truth; we were watching a movie and the message appeared and we wondered if it was them tying to get in contact with us.

But I felt kind of hurt that she didn't feel that we should be told about this. For one, this person-whoever they are- is dangerous. They sent one of us to hospital and Ariadne didn't even mention the fact that it could be them. If I were in her position and someone was stalking me like this, everyone would know. And I seriously mean everyone. My parents would know, my friends would know, my teachers would know, even the freakin psycho Pigeon-Lady from the park would know.

I have to find out who it is though. I'm not letting them get away with it.

You mess with my friends and you mess with me.

"Are you okay, Lou? You look a bit... furious," Danielle said, furrowing her eyebrows.

"I'm okay," I said, stretching out my shoulder muscles a little. "We just found out that someone from an unknown number is harassing Ari."

"Oh, you mean Number Withheld?" Danielle said and we all turned to look at her. "Um... I mean... what?"

"Nice try, but we know you know something," Zayn said. "Now spill."

"I will if you stop talking like a teenage girl," Dani replied.

Zayn rolled his eyes but motioned for Danielle to continue. "Er... at the hospital, when I brought her the clothes to change into, she kind of broke down and told me everything."

Zayn glared at the wall as he spoke quietly and angrily. "So you're saying that you knew for a month and didn't say anything?"

"She asked me not to! I couldn't just go behind her back!"

"Don't, Zayn," Liam said, wrapping an arm around Danielle's waist.

"No, but what about Ariadne!? It makes me so mad that she didn't have the decency to tell us!" Zayn continued angrily.

Danielle glared at him and he fell silent. Shit's about to go down.

"Don't you dare be angry at her! Do you want to know why she didn't tell anyone about the messages, Zayn?"

"Why?" he spat bitterly.

"Because she blamed herself for you getting hit! She blamed herself and she was scared that if she told anyone, we would all blame her too."

The room was silent and I could see the guilt wash over Zayn. I felt awful. I can't believe she would ever think that we would blame her for something like that, something completely out of her control.

"What?" Niall said quietly. "Why would she ever think that?"

"You guys tend to get a little worked up over everything," Danielle pointed out.

There was a moment of silence in the room as we all stared out our shoes. I, for one, felt extremely guilty. I mean, if she thinks I would blame her for something like that, what does that say about her opinion of me?