the article « l.s.

[chapter 3]

We were pretty concentrated, though he often tried to charm me into liking him. At least it seemed as if he was trying to. When we were ¾ through when my phone started buzzing. I wanted to ignore it, but as it rang the second time, I glanced at it.

"Excuse me, Harry. This seems to be important. I'll be back in a minute", and with that, I quickly left the room and picked up.

"Tomlinson."

"Hello, darling. Are you busy right now?", I heard my neighbor on the other line, but what worried me was that she sounded in pain.

"Why? Are you okay?", I asked concerned.

"I'm sorry if I'm interrupting you, but I fell and I can't get up. Would you come home and help me?", she asked hesitantly. I started to panic because you have to know that Gracie was an old woman, that is living alone. Her children live abroad, so I'm kind of her son too and I always help her. I knew that she needed me, so I told her to not move until I get there and hung up. As I re-entered the room I was in a hurry and told Harry quickly why I had to leave.

"Here's my number, so we can negotiate a new meeting. I'm deeply sorry, but this is an emergency.", I mumbled and left him a piece of paper with my number scribbled on it. As soon as I was home, I burst into her flat and saw her sitting next to the kitchen counter.

I sighed: "Oh, Gracie. How did you get down there?" She chuckled humorlessly and told me how she had slipped because she was preparing and washing vegetables and she had spilled water on the floor. I helped her up and sat her on one of the chairs in the kitchen.

"Oh dear, what would I do without you?", she exclaimed. Afterwards, I made sure, that we didn't need to go to the hospital. Since she kept on denying it, I was convinced she was going to be fine. So I finished cooking, even though she insisted to.

We ate vegetable soup in silence and after I had made sure she went to bed safely, I left and went to my flat. It was only half-past six, but I was off, so I fed Clifford, who was super excited to see me that early. I browsed through some magazines until I got bored and decided to watch a movie.

As I was almost done with the movie I had chosen for today, my phone started buzzing. I thought it was Gracie, who called because she needed something, but it just said "2 messages from Unknown". I just clicked on it and read the messages.

Unknown: Today was nice and I'd like to see you again.

Unknown: Good night. H xx