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Twenty Seven

Aubrey Hart

I've been sitting in this uncomfortable chair for thirty minutes now, just trying to patiently wait for this meeting to start. If Harry could hurry his ass up, we could get going and I could go home without the majority of my day being wasted.

We've all tried calling, but we've been sent straight to voicemail. I'm sitting next to Zayn on my left with Louis on the other side of Harry's empty chair to my right. I don't know if he overslept or what got into him, but it's kind of freaking me out. He's not the type to be late. He gives me shit for the few times I've been late on accident. He's never been late to anything that I've been around to witness.

I don't know why it bothers me enough to consider myself... I don't know... worried, but it does. I just have a bad feeling. That sounds stupid considering I know close to nothing about his life outside of work and being forced to hang around me, but still, I find a slight pit in my stomach due to his lateness and lack of picking up the phone.

"Where the fuck is he?" Louis speaks to himself after trying to call again, being sent to voicemail for the third time now.

"Did anyone hear from him yesterday?" I try to retrace and see how serious this is. Zayn and Louis both shake their heads. He didn't talk to me, either, but why would he?

My foot lightly taps on the floor, not understanding where he could be. Because of his outburst a few days ago due to his lack of cocaine, I did some research after the photo shoot and saw that two weeks into recovery is the worst part. It can get so bad to the point where he's hallucinating and getting angrier than he already is. He would never tell me what he was actually feeling, but at least I can get an idea of what he's going through when I have to deal with him.

I don't know why I did that, but my fingers were typing the words into the search bar as I laid in bed before I could stop myself. I don't know why I bother. It's not like I'm obligated to have any knowledge of what he's going through. I just... want to know for some reason. I want to understand how all of this is making him feel. I feel pathetic for even bothering with all of it.

Our day a couple days ago was almost too nice, and now that he's nowhere to be found, I find myself thinking that maybe his civil acts were the calm before the storm. I don't know what the storm is about, but I think there's only one other person out there who would.

Ruby.

Is that why she called him in the car? Is something going on that I don't know about? Obviously, whatever it is isn't my business in the slightest, I'm just trying to put together why he isn't here right now. I have a life and it's being put on hold for whatever this is.

Is his distraught behavior about more than just the withdrawals? Is there something I'm not seeing? I've been trying to work on being more observant after my slip that costed my sister her life, but I guess I haven't gotten as good as I convinced myself. Maybe there's something I'm missing.

Breaking me from my thoughts, the door to the office opens and in comes Harry. My eyes widen when I get a good look at him, everything seeming even more off than it did a second ago.

Something is definitely wrong.

He plops down next to me, saying nothing about being late or anything at all for that matter. His skin looks pale and clammy. His lips are chapped and he doesn't look very... clean. He's in the completely wrong clothes for a meeting, just a black hoodie and matching black sweats.

He looks really fucking tired. He has dark purple eye bags that are extremely puffy, and for some reason I get this feeling that he hasn't eaten. His cheekbones are a bit more defined than usual, so maybe that's why I made that assumption. I'm probably just insane and completely over analyzing this, but I don't know. Something about him today just doesn't feel right. I don't know why I'm so sure of it, but I am.