Above and Beyond: A One Direction Story

Chapter 17: Annie

ANNIE: September 13? On the way to Salt Lake. Sunset.

That's not what I was expecting.

Oh yeah I'm a secret gaxillionaire. In a nutshell, you got kidnapped because of me.

Harry looks at me in sorrow and begins his confession."Ever since we got rich, everyone treated me differently. Mu friends suddenly were asking me for favors. My family was is the Bronx. We were dirt poor before and now we got out. It's marvelous. We moved to the Upper East Side and I got put in a boarding school in Connecticut. Even still, everyone at the school wanted favors. I isolated myself and did well on school. I hated feeling used. Sure, I had a purpose, but it wasn't meaningful. I didn't want anybody at Berkeley to know so that I could get a fresh start. A fresh start could mean friends that want to be with me, not my money. I'm so sorry.."

His eyes fill with tears and he tries to get them to stop with the cuff of his button down shirt that he wore to the party. We all sit against the wall. Harry sniffles again and I put my arm around him and run my fingers through his curly black hair.

He stops after a few tears have run. Guys don't cry as much as girls.

As for me, my eyes are still puffy from the brief panic attack I had. I still don't know my fate. What's going to happen to us? I gently place my head on Harry's shoulder and he lays his head on mine.

We don't know anything else to do. We sit and talk for two hours.

"What is the one thing in your life that you wish you could change?" I ask the group when it becomes silent.

"I'll go first. I wish that my parents could let me do things for my own rather than try to buy them for me."

Harry of course answers with,"I wish I had extra money but wasn't a millionaire so that I could have actual friends."

We all have problems. I know it.

Liam goes along the line and says,"I wish I had two functioning kidneys and I wish I could go back to the UK so that I could see all my friends again. I haven't been back since my parents had such an ugly divorce."

Sophie lifts her head from Liam's shoulder and whispers,"I wish both my parents were still alive."

Liam turns to her in astonishment.He wraps his arms around her as she sits like a stone. Through his hug, she does nothing. She sit there with her head on his chest unwillingly.

"Soph, how long have you been an orphan?" he says letting her go.

"For a little over a month now. My parents died in a car crash together on the way to pick me up from the airport after I went on a trip to france with Annie."

She inhales sharply trying to pull herself together. She hates crying in front of people.

She might feel better if she showed some emotion during the whole ordeal. She hates talking about it. I don't know how to help her because I don't know how she feels.

Sophie takes stress in a different way than most people. She attempts to block out society so she can deal with it on her own. She acts like she doesn't need help but I know she does.

Even in this traumatic situation, our problems make us feel more humane. We can distract ourselves from the present by reflecting on the past.

The van screeches to a halt and parks. We all back away from the door except Harry who stands straight in front of the door.

It's dark outside now and the door flies open and our kidnapper reveals himself.

Harry's mouth falls into a perfect O.

"Zayn?"

"Sup Harold." The boy jumps into the van and puts a knife to Harry's throat.

"Now we could do this the easy way or hard way. If you want your friend unharmed you walk nicely into the hotel and into your rooms. If not, Harry won't be looking so cute anymore huh Annie?"

He knows my name. He knows all of us. Why does he need us?

We walk into the expensive hotel and rise up to the top floor. "Girls in one room, Guys in another."

"I want to stay with Harry!" I grab his hand with brute force.

"Fine. Logan, put the other two into their room and baracade the door."

Logan nods in agreement and pushes Sophie and Liam into the room next to us.

Zayn pushes us into the room behind us and drags the chest outside the room and locks us in.

I fall onto the bed in sheer exhaustion.