Ephemeral //H.S

Chapter 32

-Louis Tomlinson-

"Becca!"

My eyes open in a startle and I immediately sit up, my heart pounding as if I just ran a marathon my chest heaves as I try to catch my breath. Blinking away the images of my dream I get out of bed, my hand blindly grabbing my pack of cigarette from my nightstand I place one in between my lips, and using my cheap lighter I ignite the flame, taking a long drag from the cancerous stick into my lungs, and exhaling, watching my nightmares wither away with the smoke as it dances around the room.

I sigh deeply, using the heels of my hand to rub my eyes before finally opening them again, the bright light filtering through the curtains hurting my eyes I decide to get up and get ready. But from the corner of my eye I notice something that catches my attention. A box on my nightstand, a carefully wrapped one that is.

I swear to god if Amanda snuck in last night to give us fucking Christmas presents I'm gonna kill her.

Leaving my burning cigarette to hang between my lips I grab the box and tear the wrapping paper off with furrowed brows. The first thing I see is a note 'I know you secretly like to read, It's one of my favorites. I know we don't really know each other that well, but Holden reminds me of you for some reason.'

I remove the note and gaze over the copy of The Catcher in the Rye, opening the first page and seeing once again her neat handwriting. 'Thank you for everything Louis. -Lucy'

I frown, glancing down at the side table once again, but when I don't see the necklace where I left it yesterday, I understand exactly what's happening.

"Fucking hell Lucy." I sigh, dropping the book on my bed, teeth clenched I leave my room and hurry down the stairs, still holding my cigarette between my thumb and index finger.

Not today Lucy, not today for fuck's sake.

My eyes scan the living room, expecting to find a disheveled Harry but there's nothing, the room is empty and feels cold. My eyes snap towards his door when it flies open, expecting the worst but when he walks past the threshold I don't notice anything out of the ordinary. I frown as he walks out, already dressed, and ready or the day as he walks towards the kitchen as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"Why aren't you ready?" He looks up at me and my eyes widen.

Why isn't he freaking out? Hell, even I am kind of freaking out. She fucking left.

"What d'you mean?" I ask and he's the one looking at me as if I was crazy.

"We need leave in 20 minutes, where's Niall?" I shrug, swallowing harshly as he busies himself in the kitchen making coffee. I want to ask him if he knows where she is, but on the other hand I know that if I tell him that she left, if I tell him the actual reason she's not here this morning, he'll drop everything including the mission, especially that fucking mission.

We have a job to do today, we have to go in with a clear head to do this thing properly otherwise it's all gonna go to shit.

So I keep my mouth shut, clench my teeth, and decide to let the day go on without telling him, because I don't want to be the one to fuck the whole thing up.

Besides, I was the one to help her with all of this. I helped her with new ID papers, I even left guns in her fucking car just in case. I was planning on showing her how to use one but we didn't have time, because she's already gone. I helped her getting cash out every week without making it too noticeable, but mostly I kept my mouth shut all along and didn't tell anything to Harry because she was supposed to be the one to tell him. But apparently she decided otherwise and now I'm the one that's gonna have to fucking do it. And he's gonna hate me for it.