Detrimental

Episode 35

"Morning," I greet Maura as I proceed to the fridge and refill my glass with soda. She was wearing a loose yellow blouse and brown slacks. "Going anywhere?" I ask casually as I sit on a stool adjacent the sliding door to the garden.

"I need to buy some stuff from the market." Maura smiles. "Tristan's band's coming over for band practice and I promised him I'd make them a feast."

"Aren't those a little too fancy for the market?" I laugh in my head. I bet she's meeting Hamish again. At first I felt bad for my dad but then I guess it's karma for being such a terrible husband to both mum and Tristan's.

"Ye flatter me,"

Maura leaves and I am left alone in the kitchen. I was the only one awake in the house. Stella came home late from a friend's birthday party. Tristan came home late from Brad's. Niall came home late from a date with Joe. Yes, Joe as in Joe Sugg, brother of Zoe Sugg, the girl my boyfriend spent years pining for.

Nah. I'm not jealous of her. Anyway, she's totally in love will Alfie. If she wanted Niall, she wouldn't be with Alfie.

I contemplate on making some waffles for Niall. After that whole fight about my accusations of Maura's infidelity, we just sort of agreed to disagree and never talked about it anymore. But things never came back to where they were. I don't know where we stand in our relationship. I don't even know if he still wants to be my boyfriend. Yeah, maybe making waffles would help. I get up and start getting the ingredients.

I wear my cute pink apron which was actually something Stella bought for me from a kinky sex store as a joke for my birthday two years ago and yeah, I pretty much looked like I was ready for a halloween party. In the middle of cooking, I hear footsteps coming from upstairs. Since the footsteps were loud, they probably belonged to either Tristan or Niall. Since Tris never got up this early, they probably belonged to Niall.

"Who the hell are you?" I say as I lift the spatula in defense. 

"Don't worry, I'm not a thief."

"McVey?" I laugh. "Wow, puberty has done you well." I say as I give him a hug.

"Cute outfit," he smirks as he grabs a waffle.

"Is Tris awake?"

"Nope." James shakes his head.

"Morning." I hear Niall before I see him. He was wearing skinny jeans and a plain white shirt and he looked hot as hell. I wanna undress him right here, right now. Too bad McVey's here.

"I made waffles," I smile with enthusiasm.

"Don't have time to eat, I have a brunch thing with the Sugg siblings." Niall says with a straight face. Siblings? Both Joe and Zoe?

"Can I come with?" I say as I remove my apron.

"I'm sure you've got more interesting things to do." Niall says as he walks out the door.

"Your new brother's kind of a prick." James comments.

"You just caught him on a bad day," I explain.

"Sure," James says as he gets another waffle. "These are amazing," he says as he takes a big bite.

"Finish them up." I say as I take the last piece of waffle off the pan. James and I start talking about random things. He tells me how they're starting to get popular on YouTube. "For some reason, we're big in Japan." he brags jokingly as he eats another piece of waffle. "Almost a total of a hundred views a day from Tokyo alone." My phone rings and I head outside the garden to take the call.

"What's up?" I ask calmly as I look up the sky. It was a beautiful mixture of pink and purple. It was almost a sin to allow it to turn blue. "Hello?"

"It's Louis." It takes him a few seconds to utter his next words. "I need your help." he says slowly and I feel a sudden chill creep upon my skin.

"Anything." I smile. "How can I help?"

"It's Harry." He pauses, revealing layers of stress and worry. "I'm sure it has something to do with Nick and Kennedy. Since he started hanging out with them, he's started to become different."

"Kennedy Goode?"

"Yeah."

"He knows that older guy Harry's been hanging out with?"

"It turns out they met at a boarding school in France nine years ago."

"Oh."

"It's not me who can stop him from destroying himself. I tried all I could but he won't listen to me." He sighs. "It's you, Rae. He'll listen to you." There is bitterness in his voice and suddenly, I feel a bitter taste in my tongue. Was I the reason why they broke up? Was I?

I'm a horrible person. It all makes sense now.

"Nick's bad news. If Harry ever mattered to you at all, please convince him to come back to Bradford."

"Where is he anyway?"

"Ibiza."

"I'll see what I can do."

I'm a horrible person. Harry broke up with Louis for me. I ruined everything for them. I have to fix this. I get my passport from the antique box buried in my closet and grab my bag on the desk. I get a few clothes from the closet and change into the nearest pair of jeans I could find and an old plain sweater on my bed.

I don't even say a word to anyone in the house. I just hop into my car and head straight to the airport. The next hours remain a blur to me. I don't even know how I found him. All I knew was I did because I had to.

I look at him again and as I stare into his evergreen eyes, I feel a sense of security. I finally look away from his riveting stare and just when I was about to take a step forward, he calls my name.

"Rae,"

"Yes?" I look back and he moves towards me.

"Why did you come here?"

"I have to go," I say as I look at my small watch, ignoring his question. I don't even know why I flew all the way here. It was probably something Louis said and didn't say and I wanted to tell him to stay away from Nick. Or maybe it was because Niall and I aren't working out and I needed a friend. I don't know. "I'm thirty minutes behind schedule. If I don't leave now, I won't catch my flight."

"Rae," I hear Harry's voice call my name yet again but this time, I don't turn to face him. "Stay."

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Poll of the Chappie: Should Rae stay?