The Contract

17

Harry's POV

"I should have picked Louis."

The words echoed in my mind that whole day. They played over and over again in my head when I was singing that night on stage to thousands of people who had come out to see me and the rest of the boys perform. It took everything in me for me to not run off the stage and go. I didn't know where I planned to go I just knew I needed to get away. I needed a time machine is what I needed to go back in time and not sleep with her.

Genevieve. Even her name sounded like my Georgia's. My beautiful and sweet Georgia. She hadn't done anything wrong. There was nothing that could have changed the situation. It was my own fault. I was the only one who could be blamed. I was the one who needed someone and who found someone to take all my frustrations out on a whim. I had run that night too. When they told me if the case went forward that I could be facing possible jail time and the biggest scandal of my life if the evidence proved I had been involved in all of the other cases. I knew there was no way they could trace anything else back to me but the Kendall situation was what made me the most worried. I couldn't be seen giving drugs to someone no matter if she was my ex or not. None of that mattered though. Not without Georgia. Nothing mattered without her. I should have been strong. I should have been stronger than I was in that moment. I should have weathered the storm no matter what came. She would have stood by me through everything. I could tell she was hurt when I wasn't responding to her. But I couldn't bring myself to do so knowing what I did. I kept hoping it would disappear. But the guilt got worse with every passing day. The closer I got to going back to her the worse it got. I tried to play if off like it was no big deal but inside I was crumbling. Seeing her like that literally shattered me to pieces. Hearing her say those words shattered my heart to pieces more than I already had done.

"Mate, c'mon. Let's get out of here," Liam said, gently leading me out of the backstage area. I followed him blindly into the car waiting for us and didn't bother to ask where we were headed to until we pulled up in front a small building with the words flashing "beer" in a neon sign on the window.

"Mate, I'm not in the mood to drink," I said, refusing to leave the car.

"Harry, you need one. You need to talk to me. You haven't talked to anyone. You've been moping around all week." He sighed. "Just one?"

It had been a week already? I had lost track of time. It seemed like only a few hours. All my days had blurred together.

"One drink," I agreed.

Liam nodded and we both walked into the bar. Inside it was decorated in tacky posters of singers from years past who had visited the city we were in. I didn't even know where we were. I had lost track of that too. I could see from the emptiness of the bar and the stagnant smell of cigarette smoke why Liam had picked this place. We were two of five customers in the whole place.

"What can I do ya for?" The bartender asked gruffly. I couldn't tell if they were male or female from the amount of straggly hair covering their face nor through the cloud of smoke that came from the cigarette hanging out of their lips. Their voice was harsh too and raspy.

"Two whiskeys, neat. Uh .. House is fine." Liam ordered for the both of us.

"Good, that's all we have." The bartender ..person? Placed two glasses in front of us and sloshed some brown liquid out of an unlabelled bottle into the glasses. "Ten dollars, please."

Liam pulled out a wad of money and handed the person two large bills. "Keep the drinks coming until that runs out. Then come see me."

The person grumbled and placed another bottle of unlabelled brown liquid in front of us. "Go crazy."