Warrior

Chapter Thirty Four

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dedicated to MeganAutumn bc we're friends now and she loves this story.
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Harry

There was a sharp knock on our hotel door and I frowned.

"Lou, did you call for room service?"

He peeked his head around the corner, looking equally as confused. "No, but Zayn might've."

"I didn't even know they still did services this late," I sighed, setting the towel down and wiping my damp hands on my pants before throwing the door open. "How much do I-,"

"Hi," the familiar face said.

It was Satey. She seemed flustered and I wasn't sure it was just from the cold. Her eyes were red and swollen, ears warm under a hat, arms tucked tight against her chest inside her coat.

"Satey," I said, "what are you doing here?"

"Satey?" Louis called in the surprise I felt but didn't want to voice.

"I'm really sorry," she gushed, wiping her nose on her sleeve, "I found your information from Liam. Can I... um, can I come in?"

I gaped at her for a moment, wondering what on earth brought her here, until jerking myself to my senses and stepping aside to let her into the room. "Of course, yeah, come in."

She slipped inside, a grateful smile shot in my direction before taking her coat off and hanging it on the rack. "I'm really sorry to barge in here, I just didn't know where else to go. Paul's in the hospital-,"

I held up my hands in front of her to stop her rambling and pacing. "Hold up, what's going on? What's wrong?"

Satey looked up at me and I finally got a good look at how red her eyes were. It wasn't from the cold, she had been crying. Any hopes that this had nothing to do with Liam went flying out the window into the snow.

"Where's Liam?"

She bit her lip and her eyes shone with fresh tears. "I don't know."

"What?" Louis' stunned voice from over my shoulder startled me, I hadn't known he had joined us.

"I don't know," she repeated, voice wavering, "we were at my apartment and then I... and then he left."

I could feel Louis' gaze on me, dubbing it my job to figure out what to do. I knew Liam, I had for years, and he had a habit for either fighting or running away. But this... this felt different and even Louis could tell.

"Lou, make some tea, will you?" I decided and he went to the little kitchen as I led Satey to the couch. "Sit down, yeah? Calm down a little."

She obliged my request, but didn't appear to be calming down any as she curled herself into a ball and leant against the arm of the piece of furniture, knees tucked under her chin.

"I don't know what happened," she whispered, "I thought everything was going great, he had told me his story and we were finally honest with each other... I don't know."

I pushed the coffee table out and sat on it, elbows on my knees to watch her carefully as she wiped her tears away from her eyes.

"Hey," I said calmly, "I'm sure Liam's fine. He's very capable of taking care of himself."

She looked at me miserably. "That's not what I meant," she said, and there was so much nonchalant sadness in her voice, like she had seen it coming, that it made me almost uncomfortable. "He left when I told him I loved him."

"Oh," I voiced, leaning back, "oh."

"Yeah," she whimpered, shrinking farther into herself, "I don't care that he didn't say it back, I didn't think he would, I just didn't think he'd... run away from me. I thought we were past that."