More Than This (Harry Styles) {COMPLETED}

Chapter 9: An Unexpected Apology

Hey GuyS!

I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN 3 WEEKS! MY LIFE IS SO HECTIC! I AM SO BEHIND ON SUMMER READING!!!! I AM SO SORRY! DON'T GIVE UP HOPE ON MY STORY! I am estimating for there to be about 40-50 chapters... too long?? that is just an estimation, but it may be more or less. I am planning to write 3 ro4 other stories that aren't fan fic, but most definitely romance :) look forward to seeing one posted in the next month or so... :) I would like to encourage all of you guys to check out @HopeinLovexx's story Being With Him! It is awesome! Love you, Hope!! haha... well.. that is it for now! AUTHOR'S NOTE COMING! WOOHOO!! okay! Idk when I will finish chapter 10 :( hopefully i can start soon! in the next 2 days hopefully!

BYE FOR NOW!

<3 Jenn

P.S.: Dedicated to @beunbreakable! She is awesome!

Chapter 9: An Unexpected Apology

Harry Styles’ P.O.V.

The policeman dismissed Louis after asking him a few more questions. I was silent for the entire car ride back to the X Factor house. Was Emmarose still alive? She could be if they found her shoe in the woods. What was Carla doing to her? Will the police find her in time? I couldn’t help but think about Emmarose and worry for her dear life. It was odd. She almost had a charismafrom her eyes that enchanted me. She was unique. Different. Original. Like no other. Everything about her was so enticing, yet I had never even met her before. It was like she was trapped in a spell, and only I could rescue her, like in those fairy tales. Or in a better comparison, it was like she trapped me in a trance, and I couldn’t be free until I set her free.

Before I knew it, we were back at the X Factor house, and it was nearly twelve o’clock midnight. Ugh... I was utterly exhausted. I trudged out of the car, through the house, up the stairs, and finally, up to my bed. I didn’t even bother changing my clothes or brushing my teeth. I plopped onto my bed and pulled the covers over me. I slowly drifted off.

***

“Lads, get up! We have to visit Simon before we leave for rehearsals!” I bustled through the room, trying to wake up the other boys. We had to be at Simon’s before eight o’clock and then arrive at rehearsals by nine. It was nearly seven-fifty! Frustration overcame me, and I was just about to blow up.

I started making a lot of noise, trying to get the guys up. When I told the guys to get up, Liam was the first to get up without me having to remind him twice or pester him. Why can’t all the guys be so obedient? Well... I guess this isn’t(tense) a perfect world.

I hurriedly ran downstairs and grabbed a pot and metal serving spoon from the kitchen, then ran back upstairs. This was a devious thing to do, but they had to get their butts moving! I put some earplugs on before going ahead with my plan.

Dong. Dong. Dong. Dong. Dong. Dong.The repetitive clang of my metal spoon against the pot made a loud clang that rang throughout the house. With my earplugs inserted in my ears, I was not deafened by the ear popping clang of the metal spoon hitting the metal pot. However, I wasn’t too sure about the other lads.

Niall was first to wake up. He looked around completely puzzled at the loud, ear-splitting ruckus. His hands were covering his ears, displeased by the loud banging. His eyes locked with mine, and he gave me an annoyed glare. Niall didn’t even bother to get up and ready for the day; instead, he collapsed back onto his bed and covered his head with the covers.

I took the pot and metal spoon and started banging them together even louder and closer to Niall’s ear. His body flinched at the deafening sound. I didn’t intend to burst his eardrums, but at the rate that he was going, I would have to just to get him up no matter what the consequences were.

Without any hesitation, Niall ran out of the room, covering his ears. He gave me an annoyed glare before heading out the door. Two down, two to go, and I knew perfectly well who my next victim would be. Louis.

I stopped clanging my pot and spoon and slowly approached Louis’ sleeping body. Louis is not a heavy sleeper, so he surely heard the loud commotion that I was making. But, Louis easily falls back asleep. Through all the noise, he probably woke but fell back to sleep shortly. His cover rose and fell as he breathed. Slowly, I approached Louis’ sleeping body and yanked off his duvet cover.

“Mmm...” Louis moaned as he felt the cold air sting his skin after I yanked off his blanket.

“Louis it is time to get up! Do you know what time it is? It’s seven fifty-eight! We have to be at Simon’s office by eight o’clock!” I hollered in his face, hoping that he would wake up from his sleepy mode.

“What? Oh, okay... just five more minutes.” Louis turned over on his side, facing the wall and began softly snoring again.

“Ugh!” I was utterly frustrated.

Without any other option, I began tickling Louis, knowing his weakness.

“Okay! Harry, I’m up! Stop torturing me!” Louis managed to say while still in a fit of laughter as I was “torturing” him.

He was so desperate to get away from me, that as he climbed out of his bed, he hit his head on the top of the bunk beds since he slept on the bottom bunk underneath Liam.

“Owie!” Louis yelped as he rubbed his head.

“You deserved it.” I mumbled as I made my way to Zayn’s bed.

Louis groggily exited the room to go get ready for the day ahead of us, still rubbing his head.

I quietly approached Zayn’s bed. He was my last victim. After all the ruckus and commotion, Zayn did not even move or wake up at all. He is practically deaf when he sleeps.

My mischievous mind was to threaten Zayn with a scissor and tell him that if he didn’t get up in the next five seconds, then he should say bye bye to his hair, but remembering what happened last time with the air horn, I decided to take it easy on him.

“Zayn, wakey wakey! before Louis uses all of your hair products.” I cooed into Zayn’s ear.

At the mention of hair products, Zayn snapped awake and looked me straight in the eyes. His face was filled with worry and disbelief. I, on the other, was smirking from ear-to-ear.

“Stop messing with me.” Zayn grumbled.

Zayn pulled the covers over his head and tried to fall back asleep.

“Get up, Zayn! It is eight o’three! We are already late and you aren’t even out of bed yet!” I lectured Zayn to move, but he did not even react to anything that I was saying.

“Go away.” Zayn’s voice was muffled by his pillows and the blanket covering his head.

“Seriously, Zayn, get up or I surely will use the air horn again!” I scolded him, my voice filled with frustration.

“Ah! I am up!” Zayn shrieked then immediately threw the covers off his body and jumped off the top bunk of the bed, running to get dressed.

Well that ought to do it. With the duty of waking the boys off my shoulders, I marched off to the kitchen to grab a quick bite before heading off to Simon’s. I was rather lax even though we were already late.

“Hey, mate!” Liam said, looking up from his morning newspaper. “Where did you, Louis, and Niall go last night?”

I rummaged through the cupboards looking for something that appealed to my cravings. Cereal? No. Leftover pizza? No. Crisps? No. Humph. There is nothing to eat after Niall raided our food supply.

“Harry?” Liam called my name, and I looked up from my position over the counter. The sudden presence of Liam frightened me, and my natural instinct made me jump. My head was unexpectedly greeted by the cupboard, only to result with a pain on the top of my head. Oh, Harry. You can be so airheaded sometimes.

I began rubbing the top of my head where I hit the upper cupboards. To my foolishness, I did not even realize that Liam was still standing there until he said something.

“Are you okay, mate?”

I looked up, and once again, I saw Liam’s tall presence hovering over me as I leaned against the counter, hunching over.

“Erm. I guess so.” My eyes were squinting while I was adjusting to the light. I sure did hit my head pretty hard.

“Come, and take a seat at the table.” Liam grabbed my arm and led me to the table. I hit my head pretty hard since I felt a little bit light headed and dizzy.

As I slowly made my way to the dining table with Liam’s guidance, black splotches began to blur my vision. Fearing that I would collapse, I reached my hand out to grab hold of something to keep my balance only to knock a place setting off the table on accident. The clanking of metal hitting the ground echoed in my head  as the sound of metal utensils hitting the ground became more prevalent.

Liam let out a shriek from my side. With my vision slowly returning, I turned my head, and at the same time, Liam’s hand left my arms. From the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a fearful Liam cowering by the refrigerator. Still holding the top of my head where I hit it, I looked at what Liam’s eyes were staring at with such fear. A harmless metal spoon was lying on the ground.

“Ermm... Liam, are you alright?” I asked Liam, while I was still a bit fuzzy after hitting my head on the cupboard.

“Yeah. Can you get that spoon out of here?” Liam plastered on a fearful smile, and his voice was shaking with intimidation.

“It is just a spoon, Liam. It is completely harmless!” I said, waving the spoon in front of his face.

“Don’t get near me with that thing!” Liam cringed even closer to the refrigerator. “Put it away, Harry!”

Confused, I put the spoon into the sink, and Liam slowly stepped away from the refrigerator.

“What is your problem with spoons, Liam?” I said, chuckling to myself.

“You don’t understand, Harry. It is a very complicated story, which goes along with my very complicated past, and I do not want to take a trip down memory lane.” Liam says, shivering just thinking about his past.

I abruptly went to a fridge to grab some ice for the bruise that was forming on my head.

“Wait. So, Harry, you never explained to me why you, Louis, and Niall left so suddenly last night.” Liam asked, as he sat back down to his morning newspaper and bowl of cereal.

Before responding to his question, I grabbed an apple off the counter and began munching on it.

“Well, you see... it is a rather lengthy story... where do I start?”

I took a seat at the table and began stroking my chin, showing that I was in deep thought.

Before I started my long explanation for Liam, I briefly glanced at the time. Eight twenty-three. Eight twenty-three?! Goodness! We are so late!

“Listen, Liam, we have to go now! Do you know how late we are?! We were supposed to be at Simon’s at eight o’clock!” I gasped as I scrambled to grab my coat that was by the doorway.

“Yeah, Harry, we are very late, so hurry up on the explanation!” Liam got up from his seat at the dining table to put his empty bowl in the sink.

“Okay, I am going to make this really quick so that we could go.” I hurriedly put on my peacoat since the weather reports said it was going to be fairly chilly out today. “So, as I was saying, hang on.”

“Lads! Hurry up! We are almost thirty minutes late! We still have to get to rehearsals at nine!” I shouted up the stairs to the other three lads who are still probably moping around and groggily getting ready.

“As I was saying, Louis-used-to-be-Carla-Hersch’s-neighbor-and-he-witnessed-her-burying-a-corpse-in-her-backyard-then-Carla-saw-Louis-watching-from-his-window-and-threatened-him-with-a-knife-and-now-Louis-has-a-scar-under-his-neck-as-I-was-saying-he-saw-Carla-on-TV-and-told-us-this-entire-story-in-which-I-don’t-have-time-to-include-all-the-details-so-you-can-go-ask-him-yourself-but-anyways-Niall-decided-to-go-to-the-police-department-and-report-what-Louis-had-witnessed-so-that-they-could-use-that-information-to-help-find-Emmarose-and-there-was-a-big-debate-about-going-and-what-not-and-there-is-so-much-more-to-the-story-but-we-need-to-get-to-Simon’s-office-NOW!” I gasped out the last word.

“Wow, okay. The only words that I made out during your speed speech were ‘corpse’, ‘Carla’, ‘Louis’, ‘scar’, ‘details’, ‘T.V.’, ‘Niall’, ‘police’, ‘Emmarose’, and ‘NOW’!” Liam chuckled at my anxious behavior since we had such a cramped schedule today, and we were already running thirty minutes late.

“Ugh... Louis will explain it on the car ride. I am sure that he would love to emphasize the details for you.” I reprimanded frustratedly, rolling my eyes.

“We’re coming!” Louis screamed down the stairs.

Liams and my eyes darted to the staircase where we saw the other three scrambling down the stairs like mad men. Louis halted five steps from the ground and put his arms out so that neither Niall nor Zayn could pass him.

Louis looked down at the ground before looking up at me and Liam with a mischievous look plastered upon his face.

“Lou, hurry up! We are already-” Liam started his sentence before being interrupted by Louis belting throughout the house.

“SUPERMAN!”

Without warning, Louis jumps down the five steps of stairs and throws his body on top of me and Liam. Before I know it, I am collapsing to the ground with a heavy Louis on top of me, using me to break his fall. Oh great...

Plunk.

“Agh... Louis!” Liam groaned, as he slowly pushed himself off the ground with his elbows with Louis still on top of us.

After hitting my head on the cupboard and now plummeting to the floor by Louis’ heavy body, I was feeling a bit woozy.

“Lou...” I moaned, as I began ruffling my curls.

I heard Zayn and Niall snickering in the background while Liam and I were still lying on the ground, recovering from the “traumatizing” event.

“Lou, get your heavy body off me!” Liam grunted, as he pushed Louis off him.

“What was that about, Lou?” I whined while slowly pushing myself off the ground and hoisting myself back to my feet.

“I am Superman, and I was saving you two lads from the danger ahead of you that you were unaware of.” He said with a confident smile while puffing his chest out like what Superman would do.

Liam just rolled his eyes at Louis’ immaturity while I just moaned and rubbed the back of my head. Niall and Zayn’s voices were still snickering in the background at the outcome of Louis’ maniacal action.

“Stop laughing. It wouldn’t be funny if you guys were the ones that had Louis’ body thrown himself on top of you out of the blue.” Liam was clearly irritated by Louis.

“Okay, well, I don’t know what has gotten into your trousers this morning, Liam, but the police station called and said that I needed to meet them there since they had to interrogate me more.” Louis said cheerfully as if nothing happened.

“What about Simon and rehearsals?” Liam asked, still flustered about Louis throwing himself at us.

“Oh! I called Simon, and he said that we could discuss it later... possibly in the evening after rehearsals. He also said that I can go to the police station for interrogation, just as long as if I come back for at least two hours of rehearsals. He told me to bring one of you guys along to keep me sane... whatever that means.” Louis rolled his eyes when he mentioned Simon telling him to bring another band member with him to the police station to keep him “sane”.

Upon hearing that Louis needed someone to accompany him to the police station, my ears perked up and my eyes looked straight at him, hoping that he would choose me. Without hesitation, Louis chose me to accompany him to the police station, which meant I got to skip part of rehearsals. In a way, that had its benefits. More relaxing. However, it meant that we could possibly drag the band down with fewer hours of rehearsals, which was not so good.

“We ought to be going.” Louis said while making his way to the front door.

I followed him out, looking back to give the other three lads a quick smile and wave before heading off to the police station. I wonder what they needed to ask Louis more about.


Emmarose’s P.O.V.

I awoke to a beautiful sunrise. Everything seemed quaint and peaceful. The birds were chirping. The trees weren’t rustling. The air was still. The sun’s rays were magnificently shining through the trees, as beams of light peeked through the trees.

The breathtaking sunrise was captivating. Everything seemed perfect and flawless. I was trapped in a trance that I did not ever want to be snapped out of.

Outside, I saw a person approaching the car, with a fairly large circular object in the person’s hands, and that is when it all came back to me. Flat Tire. Trying to escape. Tripping. Carla waking up. Lights chasing me. Asthma attack. Mr. Olson. Darkness. The concurrent question popped into my mind once again. Why was Mr. Olson there when I was about to face death?

As the figure grew larger, I realized that it was Mr. Olson carrying a rubber tire. I froze in my fetal position in the backseat of the SUV. Wait... how did I end up in the backseat of the SUV? I was supposed to be dead! Nothing is adding up right now.

I continued to replay the scene from the last moments before I blacked out the previous morning. How was I still alive even though Mr. Olson found me? I strangely recall the faint sound of his voice as I was fading out. He said something like, “don’t move.” and then he continued by saying, “follow my lead.” What did he mean by that? But then again, I was so weak that it could have just been my imagination or a dream.

What did Mr. Olson do that led me here, in the backseat of the SUV? Why did he spare me from Carla’s wrath? Why didn’t he allow me to be killed? Why was I still alive?

I heard a faint ‘clanking’ sound, and peered out the window to see Mr. Olson hunched over, trying to replace the flat tire with the new one. How did he get a new tire? Did he walk here? Must have, since I don’t see another car nearby.

I lied in the backseat of the car, not moving one bit. I remained motionless, observing Mr. Olson while he was trying to replace the flat tire. A good thirty minutes into the job, Mr. Olson frustratedly stood up with a cherry red face and beads of sweat dripping down the sides of his face. He let out an exasperated sigh and took a seat on the edge of the SUV. I heard him muttering something to himself, but it was not loud enough for me to hear. However, I did somehow manage to hear, out of his muffled tone, say something about Carla. What was it? I strained my hearing, trying to comprehend what Mr. Olson was saying, but to no avail.

After about a ten minute break, Mr. Olson got up and returned to his work. There was a lot of grunting and puffing before he finally replaced the punctured, flat tire with the new tire. He disappeared behind the back of the car, and I took this as an all clear sign to get up and stretch a bit.

To my dismay, I sat up in the car just when the trunk in the back opened. I abruptly turned around to be met by Mr. Olson’s light blue eyes. Surprise was written all over his face, as my mien was probably mixed with surprise, shock, horror, and, most of all, fear.

Mr. Olson’s lips turned into a flat line, and he immediately slammed the trunk. His entire facial expression was impassive; however, when I look into his light blue eyes, they were filled with a mix of sorrow, sympathy, pity, and compassion. The strange reaction that I received from Mr. Olson greatly puzzled me. What was that about?

Lost in my thoughts, the side door of the SUV immediately opened, revealing the impassive Mr. Olson. My eyes examined his appearance. His face had a light shadow, probably since he hadn’t shaved in the past three days. Beneath his eyes were dark bags. His entire mien looked absolutely horrid like he hadn’t slept in days. Speaking of appearances, when was the last time he showered?!

Mr. Olson’s eyes scanned my body. His eyebrows were furrowed with concern as he saw a few bumps and bruises on my arms and forehead. He met my gaze, and his eyes were filled with regret and sympathy. Why was he concerned for me? After all, he was the one that kidnapped me! I am utterly confused.

Before I could process my thoughts, Mr. Olson said something that I was the last thing that I expected out of his mouth.

“I’m so sorry, Emmarose.”