(Harry)

My knuckles stung from how hard I wiped off the soap that Lila used to write on the mirror.

Why the fuck did she run
AGAIN
Why this time
Why after what happened
It wasn't just me

Fuck this.
Why did I take her here?

I smeared her words off of the mirror and grabbed both sides of the sink and looked at my reflection.
A deep wrinkle creased in between my eyebrows.

Just as I turned off the light to leave the bathroom, the text chime came from my phone.

Tom
Still coming over?🏔

My head fell back in annoyance. Tom was selling some property and asked me to come by to look over the paperwork. I completely forgot about it, being with Lila all day.

I quietly left the Espiritu home and sat idly behind my steering wheel for a moment.

The engine hummed steadily as I stared out at the dark road in front of me, running my index finger back and forth across my bottom lip.

Reading documents was the last thing I felt like doing as I thought back to the fire's light shimmering across Lila's silhouette.

But what else was there to do

I sighed and rolled the windows down. The air ruffled my hair as I drove through the dark empty roads.

When I turned onto Tom's street, Zayn's house came into view. Lila wouldn't go anywhere I could find her. The house was completely dark.

I got out of my car, walked up to the front door and turned the large handle that was never locked.

"Tom", I said, loudly, looking around, saw no one, but heard people talking from another room.

I made my way toward the voices, inaudible at first, then clear, as I got closer.

"...the reporters get there so fast?", a girl spoke, then Tom's voice.

"This is Rosewater", he said, sounding bored.
"We have one News station. They have police scanners, taps on 911 calls, they knew about it the second the dude called it in! Hell, the cameras probably got there before the ambulance...."

I walked in to see Tom, Olivia, Olivia's cousin, Lydia, and a girl I didn't know. She was blonde, wearing a small black slip of a dress and absolutely stunning.

They were all looking at a television, listening to the reporter on the screen talking into her microphone.

"....driver of the other car, unnerved, unharmed and glad that the driver who crashed is alive and was tak-"

"Harry!", Tom talked over the reporter when he noticed I was there. Olivia and Lydia said hello and the blonde looked me up and down, then went back to watching the TV.

"Harry. Look at this, this is Live, happening now", he said and I walked closer to the screen.

"That's Zayn's car", he pointed behind the reporter as she spoke.
"....got the driver into the ambulance and quickly-"

"Wait", I said, grabbing Tom's arm, my heart racing, "Was Lila with him? Was she in it?"

"He..was alone in the car....", Tom said, looking from one of my eyes to the other before continuing.
"....but she got in the ambulance before he was taken to he hospital, just minutes ago."

I closed my eyes and exhaled a breath of relief.
Tom looked at me as I stared at the screen while the cameras scanned the wreckage.
".....as you can see, while they work quickly to clear the roads...."

"Ladies? Excuse us", Tom said with a charming smile and walked me out of the room.

Once we reached a room overlooking the dark ocean, Tom closed the door behind us. I sat down on a cool, soft leather couch and ran a hand down my face. I'd never felt as many emotions in one day as I had today.

Tom walked over to a small bar in the corner of the room and lifted a decanter of dark liquid.

"Do you have a bar in every room?", I said, pulling my hair off of my neck, into a bun.

"Not in bathrooms", he said, handed me the glass, then in one quick move, I downed it in one gulp.

Tom refilled it and I did it again.

"Want me to get a funnel?"

I kept my gaze on my glass.
"I went to the Espiritu's today", I said, my voice low.

"I swear, if that woman wasn't two hundred years old, I'd say you were bangi-"

"I took Lila with me", I interrupted his crass remark.

"What?", he bent down to get me to look him in the eye.
"That's like taking her to meet your family. Wait, if she was with you, why did you ask if she was in the wreck?"

I looked at him, seriously, and his light-hearted smile faded.

I wanted him to know everything that happened from the time I picked Lila up this morning to the moment she left through the bathroom window.

I needed someone to understand.

I told him about everything Lila told me about herself. Found homeless when she was a kid, about her memory, what she could and couldn't remember, even after she was found.

As best as I could, I told him about what happened when she fainted today, her flashbacks, what Ellaque said to us, her tattoo, the constellation, her moments of panic, how she tricked me and ran away, how we almost had sex....everything.

By the time I caught him up to when I arrived at his house, we drank half of the decanter of whiskey.

"Jesus, Harry", Tom looked at me, enthralled, but not knowing what to say. I nodded and we just sat there for a minute.

"Listen", he said, softly, like it was going to make it easier for me to hear what he was going to say.
"She...left, though, you know, man? Again. I mean, we just saw her on the News, going with him to....it just sounds like she's made up her mind is what it-"

"No", I leaned forward, stopping him.
"That's the thing, I don't think it's her mind", I gestured to my own head, hearing a few of my words slur.

After a few seconds, Tom shifted in his chair and looked at me.

"Okay. Let's say she's brainwashed, okay? She drank the "Zayn Kool-Aid", he said, making air quotes when he said the last part.
"What exactly do you want to do?"

I looked down at my thighs, focusing on the vertical and horizontal lines crossing over each other on the faded parts of my jeans.

In my stupor, I began speaking my thoughts aloud. I wasn't talking to Tom as much as I was to myself.

"Everything I've found on Zayn is solely work related....his social media....", I mumbled and Tom raised both his eyebrows at me, but stayed quiet.

"....there's absolutely nothing personal about him, anywhere. Nothing that shows friends....family...", I said, taking a sip of my drink, then went on.

"....he only works with clients, no work associates, no one. There isn't even an address for wherever he works".

"Oh, heavy creepin', Styles. This just keeps getting better", he snickered and lazily stretched in his chair.

"....of course, I searched Lila a long time ago", I said, that a given.
"There's absolutely nothing online. Not even her photography. I thought maybe she was just one of those people who decided to "disconnect" or whatever, but....I don't know. It's like they're both off the grid....like they don't exist".

"Maybe they don't want s-", Tom started, but the door to the room opened.

"There you are", Olivia smiled and walked into the room, followed by the two other girls.
"What are you doing?"

Tom smiled and lifted both of his arms.
"Via", he said and she walked over to sit on his lap.

I didn't realize that I had my eyes closed until I felt someone kick my knee.

"We haven't met", a girl's voice said.
Without opening my eyes, I smiled and talked as politely as I could manage.

"Nice to meet you", I heard myself say, gave her a thumbs up and she giggled.

"You're so pretty", she said, then I felt her tussle my hair.

Meshed conversation between the four of them faded into blurred noise.

That was the last thing I remembered when I woke to the distant sound of running water.

Lying on my side, I rolled onto my back and felt someone's bare skin against mine. We were underneath what felt like some kind of quilt.

Still mostly asleep, I took a deep breath as I stretched and ran a hand over my chest, then down my stomach and waist. I was completely naked.

I squinted my eyes open to see a dark ceiling above me and realized that I was on the floor.

I slowly sat up, disoriented, causing the cover to fall off of me. Physically, I actually felt good, great, actually.

I looked down next to me.
Blonde hair.
As naked as I was.

FUCK

My mind wasn't processing the scene normally. I pulled my hair away from my face and lazily looked around me.

Tom was asleep on a couch in the corner of the room.

My face felt like it went numb when I recognized where we were. We were in an office that I'd been in twice before.

Zayn's desk drawers and cabinets were all open. I looked to another part of the room to see the door to his safe was open and empty.

I stared at it, baffled, then the sound of running water that woke me shut off.

Silently, I slid away from the blonde, then tried to stand, but my limbs felt shaky and insecure. I knew if I stood, I'd fall back down.

I crawled over to where my clothes were lying and pulled my jeans on while still lying on the floor. An inappropriate chuckle came out of me, confirming that I was still drunk.

I heard noises come from another part of the house and intoxicated thoughts rambled through my mind.

Is that Zayn
Who cares
Wait
No
Wreck
Is that her
Is she here
I don't even care if she runs
I'm going

I carefully left the room, holding onto steady things to keep me from falling. I followed the distant sounds, leading me to a kitchen.

A sink was being used, then turned off. Just as I was about to walk in, the sound of something break made me freeze.

After a few seconds, the next sound was Lila's voice, barely audible, but I heard her.

"Like the sky", she whispered.

I leaned around the corner to see her standing next to a broken bowl, clueless of my presence.

I didn't know why I was in this house, or how, or what I'd done, but I didn't give a damn about explaining myself.

The way I felt, I didn't care. I'd go to her now, without hesitation.
But the look on her face stopped me.

I'd heard the expression before, never seeing it for myself, but she truly looked like she'd seen a ghost.

Then music came from a phone on a countertop.

For a split second, she looked at it like she'd never seen it before, then picked it up.

"H...H-Hello?"

"Yeah, yeah, I...I...", she stammered, her breathing unsteady.

"Yes...", she said, sounding calmer, but with traces of something else in her voice.

"I love you, too", she said, now more calm.

"Sure, I'll get it right now and bring it to y-", she stopped like she was interrupted, then spoke again.

"Zayn", she half laughed, "Why?"

I stood still, then heard her walk away from where I was standing, relieved that she wasn't coming toward my direction.

"Which drawer is it in?", she talked into her phone, her voice fading as she walked farther away.

I hoped she wasn't going into the office, but if she did, she did, I thought, raising an eyebrow and frowning with cynicism.

I am definitely still drunk
That or I just don't give a fuck anymore
Or both

A minute later, I heard her coming back and I peered around the wall. She carried a leather toiletry case to a door leading to the garage.

Within seconds, she drove away.