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

4. A Call

a/n: Double Update! Vote and Comment! It would mean the world to me.

~Harry~

“You wrote how many?” I sat on the floor of my room, paper spread around me and Tori’s notebook cracked open on my lap while Niall and Liam stood in the doorway, seemingly too afraid to enter my room.

“Six solid ones, one I’m a little iffy on…” I said, frantically scrawling across a new sheet of paper.

“Seven songs…” Liam muttered, astonishment clear on his face.

“They were all Tori’s ideas.” I said, looking up and dropping my pen to the floor.

“Right.” Niall said, his face falling. I knew he missed her, the other boys tried their hardest to stay strong on my behalf, my pain clearly too much for all of us bear already without the addition of theirs. Niall, however, could rarely hide his heartbreak and never spent time in the house anymore. He was by far the most sensitive of us all and endured more drama from my relationship with Tori than the others combined, because he was the only one who knew the truth until that night at the hospital. Half the time I wasn’t sure I would make it through the day as the sadness was crippling.  “We came to talk to you about something…” Niall said, stepping over a stack of crumpled paper. He crossed the room and sat beside me, wrapping his arms around his knees. Liam followed, sitting cross-legged beside Niall.

“We’ve all been talking, Audra, Louis, Zayn, Allegra, Matt, Niall and I…”

“That’s never good.” I grumbled, picking up my pen again.

“Hear us out, mate.” Niall said, pulling at a loose string from the ripped knee of his pants doing anything he could to avoid eye contact.

“We all think it would be best if you went home for a little while. Spent some time with your family, maybe.” There was a pause and I stopped writing, turning slowly to look at Liam.

“You want me to leave.” I stated, my breathing picking up as anger filled me.

“That’s not what we want at all. We want you to be okay, and everything here reminds you of her. You’ve had your nose in that damn notebook for close to twenty four hours, it’s scaring us.” Niall said, finally meeting my gaze. As he spoke, my phone lit up between the three of us and all of our eyes fell to the screen, which read “Unknown Number." We stared at it for a few moments before I shot a shaking hand towards it, fumbling to answer it.

“Hello?” I asked, my voice hoarse and desperate.

“Harry.” A woman’s voice cooed and I glanced at Liam and Niall who were watching me intently.

“Hope,” I breathed, pulling the phone from my ear and activating speaker phone, then placing it on the ground between us. I lifted a finger to my lips.  “I didn’t think I’d be hearing from you again.”

“You can’t shake me, Styles.” She said and Niall shuddered, closing his eyes as his bottom lip quivered.

“What do you want?”

“I heard about your little girl friend, how she fucked off with Tanner Rowland.”

“Yes, Hope, she’s…” I took a deep breath, “Out of the picture.” I lied. She had never just been in the picture, she was the picture. She was my entire world, but she was gone. As good as dead.

“That’s good to hear.”

“You got what you wanted I don’t understand why you’re still calling me. Hope, i'm doing everything i can to put you in jail for life for what you did to her and i won't stop until I get what I want.” I said, repeating her words from months ago. I glanced up from the floor to Liam who shook his head in dismay.

“I didn’t want her out of the way for no reason.” Hope began, “I want you, Harry.”

“I don’t want you Hope. I have never wanted you. Don’t call me again.” With that I hung up, leaving the phone between us. A few minutes passed of complete silence. After a while I looked up to see Niall and Liam watching me. “I think going home might be a good idea after all.”