DIRTY BULLETS

chapter fifteen

Trigger Warning – please read with caution.

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HARRY'S HEAD WHIPPED to me upon realising my entry, the tiniest glint of shock capturing his features before it was overshadowed by annoyance and anger.

Why was I beginning to make a habit of running into this man at the most inconvenient of times? God, next thing I know I'll be walking in on him taking a dump.

Ok, now was not the time for jokes, Layla.

Frozen in the doorway, with my hand on the handle, I didn't miss how his jaw was clenched tight, his eyebrows furrowing while his eyes narrowed on me. Tilting the screen of the laptop in front of him down, it wasn't as though I could see what was on it from where I stood especially seeing as only the back of it was in my view, but he still angled the screen so that it wasn't completely closed. Whatever was on there, he really didn't want me to see.

"Just a second," he uttered, his words irritated as his eyes didn't leave me and I frowned a little confused, though I soon realised it wasn't me he was talking to.

He must've been speaking to someone on his laptop - maybe it was a meeting or something, I don't know. But it was obvious I was definitely not supposed to walk in during it.

Removing one of his earphones from his ear, he held it between his thumb and middle finger when he then mouthed the words, "get out" to me. His eyes were wide, his eyebrows now raised as though he shouldn't have had to tell me to leave and it was ridiculous that he even had to. Putting the earphone back into his ear, he continued to just stare at me, waiting for me to go.

My cheeks tinted red, a flooding feeling of stupidity and embarrassment washing over me as I stood there awkwardly. Without giving him a reason to tell me twice, I turned and walked back out of the room as quick as I could, just wanting to get swallowed by the floor. Closing the door after me, all thoughts of finding Will had completely left my mind as I repeated what had just happened in my head. How did I keep walking into these awkward situations? I mean, nothing of significance happened but Harry really had a way of making me feel inferior and quite humiliated and it constantly put me on edge. I really did not have room to mess up right, especially considering as he was so 'kind' as to not reprimand me for last night.

What a noble man.

God, if he didn't want anyone to walk in on him, would he not close the damn door to the room he was in? Though, yet again I reminded myself of how I wasn't supposed to go into the room, so perhaps I had no room to be upset.

Lifting my hand from the door handle, my eyes were trained to the ground of the corridor, my head hung low, embarrassed, and I wasn't looking where I was going. So when I collided with someone else, it shouldn't have surprised me the way it did.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." I rushed out as I stumbled back slightly, finding my balance, before lifting my head to see who I bumped into. But my stomach tensed and sank when I saw it was Zeke.

Shit.

"Well, well, look who it is." That slimy smirk that was riddled with bad intent was spread across his face and I felt my skin prick from the immediate feeling of uneasiness wash over me. "How've you been, eh? Heard about your little run in with 'big boss' Styles last night."

It took me a short moment to realise who he was talking about, but obviously it didn't take long to figure out that Styles was in fact Harry, I just never knew his surname until now.

But the way Zeke spoke about him, his tone was demeaning and with scorn. From that, as well as the last encounter I had witnessed the two men have in the main room not so long ago, it didn't take a genius to figure out that Zeke wasn't Harry's biggest fan, and vice versa.