Collide (Impact Book 2) | h.s. | complete

1. Heavy In Your Arms

 ~Tori~

“Tor- Uh…Claire, we’ve arrived.” I opened my eyes slowly and blinked, my eyelids incredibly heavy. Reaching down I circled a hand over my swollen belly and glanced out the window at the crowded train station. A woman stepped down from the train and broke into a run as soon as her feet hit the creamy marble of the tiled floor. She flew into the arms of a man standing just a few feet from the train and they gripping each other tightly. “Do you want me to take your passport now, or when we get to the house?” A voice broke me out of my infatuation with the happy couple on the platform as they disappeared behind a crown of road-weary travelers and I turned, my hair tumbling from behind my ear and brushing my cheek.

“I’ll hold onto it for now.” I said, standing. My legs were wobbly underneath me and I placed a hand on the window to steady myself, my stomach protruding from my dark blue woolen pea coat, which I had unbuttoned on the train ride. I rest a protective hand on it as we made our way down the aisle. Tanner tugged my bag off my shoulder and pulled it onto his own, shooting me a knowing smile and I reciprocated. Once we had left the train station, Tanner lead me to a convertible Porsche Boxter Spyder waiting, parked on the street. He tossed the bags into the back and followed me, helping me into the low seat.

“I would have gotten us something nicer, but I needed something inconspicuous.” He said, regarding the beautiful sports car with tired eyes. “Is it alright?”

“Nicer, Tan-… Jake. I don’t know what could be nicer. A little hard to get into but I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’ll get used to it.”

“I’ll look into a bigger four-door for when the baby comes.” He said, inserting the key and bringing the engine to life.

“How long is the drive?” I asked, watching a street vendor hand a flower to a young girl who skipped off towards her parents. “So picturesque,” I scoffed in my head, my newfound cynicism getting the best of me.

“It’s about six and a half hours from Paris to Gordes.” I nodded, glancing at Tanner’s profile as he watched the road carefully. Careful was the only word to describe the way that my ex-boyfriend had treated me since I had told him that I wanted to leave Los Angeles, and everything I knew, behind. At first he’d called me insane, telling me I needed more sleep, but as I had explained the story and it’s many facets, my plan had grown on him. Tanner had no ties to Los Angeles. He hated his mega-star director father, his mother had left years ago, never looking back and he didn’t have any siblings. He had agreed to help me without too much convincing and hadn’t retracted his promise of aiding me in my safe passage to France.

Yet.

 Not only had he assisted me on the journey, but he had also decided to stay with me, for “as long as it took.” He had organized plane tickets, used his fathers mysterious connections to get us new identification and identification for my baby, due in just six months and had pulled strings to get us a home in Gordes, France, a charming little town where we could camouflage as a young, happy couple, starting a family. All things that we were not. For the rest of our lives, we would be living a lie, and it was entirely my fault. “I’m really sorry about the whole name change thing,” Tanner said after a while and I shook my head. “I tried to get them to let us keep them but my dad’s guy said it would be best if we let go of every tie to our old lives that we could.”

We had. I had chopped off my long hair, cut off my entire family family members, the best friend’s I could ever ask for, the father of my child - the love of my life with each lock of hair. “It’s fine, Tan, I understand.” I reached over and patted his hand, squeezing slightly, and then let my hand fall to my own lap. I rest my head against the leather headrest and sunk lower in my seat before drifting off to sleep, settling in for a long drive to a new life.

~Harry~

“Where the fuck is she?” I roared, ripping open Tori’s chest of drawers, throwing one wooden drawer across the room with such force that it hit the wall opposite me. “Where did she go?” I yelled, pulling on another empty drawer, letting it fall to the ground at my feet. My blood was boiling and I was panicked, the same anxiety that had overwhelmed me for months now growing, swelling to unbearable dimensions. My vision blurred as my anger grew and I felt myself losing control, the control I had worked endlessly to harness for months.

“I don’t know.” A tearful Allegra muttered, her eyes pleading with me to cease my rampage, but I couldn’t. Nothing that she could do or say, nothing that anyone could do or say, would stop this anger and this pain, unless they could bring Tori back to me at that very moment, in one piece, unless they could make this nightmare stop. 

“She didn’t call? She just left?” Liam asked from the door, typing furiously on his phone, presumably contacting Matt. He stepped further into the room and surveyed the damage I had done.

 “No, Matt said that she came by the office at Impact two or three days ago with Tanner and she bought out of her contract.” Tori’s voice shook and she cowered slightly when I turned my head, achingly slowly, to look at her.

“With Tanner?” I raised my eyebrows, anger growing larger and larger inside of me. Over coming me. “She went with Tanner?” I asked and Allegra nodded, her long brown hair, identical to Tori’s falling forward to cover her face as tears spilled over.

“What else did he say?” Liam asked, but she didn’t look up. I stepped across the room and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her.

“What the fuck else did he say Allegra this isn’t a fucking joke.” She refused to look me in the eye as I let my hands fly to my head, sinking into a crouch, immediately knotting my fingers in my curls. After a moment, I stood and brushed a hand across the top of the dresser sending the empty glass vase flying across the room, then reached up and grabbed the sides of the mirror mounted on the wall, tore it from its fasteners and lifted it above my head, sending it with all of my might to the ground at my feet, watching the reflective glass shatter and the wood frame splinter helplessly.

“I’m sorry Harry,” She bawled, her shoulders trembling. “I’m so sorry, I think she’s gone.”

“She’s not gone. I’m going to find her.” I said, making my way towards the door, “I thought I was going to lose her once, and I will never let that happen again. Never.” I pushed past Liam who now had his phone pressed to his ear. When he pulled it away I caught a glimpse of Tori’s name across the top of the screen. 

“Disconnected.” He said, his eyes sliding to meet mine. I could hear my heart beating, blood pumping and flooding my ears. I shook my head.

“I’m going to find her.” I repeated, staring down the hall towards the stairs. “Even if it kills me.”