TROUBLE

Chapter 50 "Full volume microwave"

We’ve been sitting here for about an hour talking about nothing, and watching TV. Harry walked into the kitchen a couple minutes ago, seemed like he wanted to be alone for a bit..

“Aubri” I looked up to see Harry standing by the armrest on the other side of the couch. He nodded for me to follow him, and I ignored everyone’s ‘ooh’ing as I stood from the couch and followed him towards the kitchen. Uneasiness was radiating off of him, so I laced our fingers together, but that didn’t seem to help any. He could probably feel me staring at him since he gave me a fake smile and turned his face away. I frowned a little, but brushed it of as he led us both deep into the kitchen, away from the archway so our company couldn’t overhear.

He stood inches away, looking at everything else in the room except me. My frown deepened when he chuckled. It wasn’t even a normal chuckle; it was more like a cough accompanied by a defeated smirk. He ran his hand through his hair before finally landing his eyes on me, looking completely fed up with life.

“How’s your Groundhog’s day going?” He couldn’t even keep his eyes on me throughout the whole sentence. What’s wrong with him?

“Um…pretty good?” I said slowly, unsure what he was searching for in my answer. 

He did his cough-like-chuck again as he looked up at the ceiling. “Well, I’m about to ruin it for you.” He said darkly.

My heart sped up and I took a step away from him. “W—what do you mean?” He was scaring me with his evil chuckles. I’ve never been scared of Harry, but right now with his behavior, I kind of want to get away from him, although it kills me to admit it. 

His vision snapped back to me and his eyes softened when he realized he was frightening me. I tensed when he took a hold of my hand, staring into my eyes as he licked his lips and took a deep breath.

“I’m leaving…for a while…”

My heart dropped before he even finished talking. I wanted to crumble to the floor in a mess of tears, but I just couldn’t get my body to move. He’s leaving?

I swallowed the lump in my throat before speaking..“Are the rest of the boys going?” He nodded, rubbing his thumb on the back of my hand to get me to return his gaze, but I just couldn’t. “W—where?”

“Nottingham.”

My breath caught in my throat again, but I tried to desperately push my emotions away. 

“Why?”

“Drifting,” he breathed. 

I slacked my jaw to the side as I tried to fight off the tears. “For…for how long?” He dropped his hand from mine and just as I finally looked at him, he looked away from me.

His silence was all the answer I needed. I let out a breath, nodding my head as I looked passed him. I wasn’t nodding to say okay, I was nodding to say I get it. I get that I will always come second to the drifting. I get that there’s nothing he can do. He doesn’t know when he’s coming back, probably because he won’t come back. And the worst part is he probably doesn’t even know that. They probably said something like, ‘It’ll just be a couple days’ or ‘it’s just for a while’…but I’m not dumb and naïve to trust that.

“I will be back.” He stated.

No he won’t. He was saying it like he was convincing himself just as much as he was trying to convince me. He won’t be back. I wish I was angry with him, but I can’t. I barely have the strength to stand. I took a couple steps away from him, both trying to gain some space between us as well as lean against the counter to hold myself up.