In And Out Of Love

Harry hugged me tightly as we arrived in front of my house. He kept me in his arms for surprisingly long, like he didn’t want to let go. I smelled the familiar scent coming from his clothes and from him in general; it always reminded me of a nice and safe place. I had to be the luckiest girl in the world.

“Don’t go just yet.” Harry mumbled to my ear as I was gently trying to get his hands to loosen around me. “I don’t want you to go. I don’t like you to go.” He kept saying, sounding like he was actually worried.

“Hey… Look at me. Are you alright?” I forced myself to pull away from him so I could see his face. “Please, don’t look so sad. It’s going to be fine, everything will be fine.” I told him and cupped his cheek, forcing him to look at me too.

“Probably so… I mean it has to go fine. Just please don’t… don’t do anything stupid. I think it’s stupid you’re even going there in the first place. But I know I can’t stop you, I know that. But you also have to know there are all kinds of jerks out there. Just so you know. And please, don’t dress the way you normally dress in our parties.” I looked at him, raising my eyebrows and probably looked a little pissed off although I knew what he meant. “There’s nothing wrong with that, trust me. But if I can’t be there to look after you, I don’t want to think how everyone is looking at you.” He continued.

“I knew you meant that. I won’t wear a dress or anything like that, obviously.” I smiled at him and kissed his soft lips slowly. “I love you so much. And I’m so grateful for your concern and how much you care. I really am.”

“I love you too… more each day if it’s even possible. Just please be safe. I’ll let you go now. Call me later.” He said quietly but was already smiling a little. I nodded and kissed him once more before I got out the car.

I knew mom was going to be a little longer at work today because a shipment of clothes had just arrived yesterday. I felt like it was just pure luck; now I didn’t have to explain to her where I was going with Theo and why Harry or anyone else didn’t come with us. I hated not telling her where I was and with whom but this was a rare exception.

I tried to eat something and watch TV, waiting for the clock to go forward faster. It didn’t exactly help. I watched some makeover program and how some woman was renewing her make-up routine. Suddenly, I got extremely sleepy and I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. After a while, I gave in and started napping after setting the alarm on my phone. Besides, I had to be wide awake tonight so I figured it was only good I got a little sleep in my system.

I woke up an hour and a half later from the couch. The TV was still on so I closed it as I got up and stretched my arms high up in the air. I left out a yawn and marched upstairs and straight into my clothing room. I picked out some dark blue jeans and a loose white top with some phrase in it. Although it was still quite warm, I put a loose grey cardigan with big pockets on it and headed back downstairs. It was 7.30pm and I decided to give Theo a call if I could come and pick him up a little early.

“Hey… hi.” I yawned in the middle of talking. “Sorry about that, I just woke up from a little nap. But I just called to check if I could come there a little early, like in fifteen minutes? I’m ready and have nothing to do.” I explained.

“Of course, no problem. See you soon.” Theo answered.

I grabbed two coffees to go from the coffee shop we had been in a week ago and drove to Theo’s house. I didn’t want to go inside so I just waited in my car. Few minutes later, the front door opened and Theo half ran to my car.

“There you go.” I said and offered him a hot takeaway cup of coffee.

“What? Thanks Gracie, this is great.” Theo took the cup and was happily surprised and took a sip from his fresh coffee. “Alright, take left here and go to the highway.” He continued and gave me some directions.

“I don’t honestly know what to think. I’m scared and curious at the same time. And more than anything I just want to help her. And I want to see it for myself, if everything that we’ve heard is actually true. I just don’t want to believe it.” I started talking and explaining my thoughts to Theo. As the moment of finally seeing her became closer and closer, I got more and more anxious.

“Me neither. Of course I wish it’s all just a lie and people are exaggerating things. But it’s obvious that something’s up.” I remembered I hadn’t told Theo about the phone call her mom had made earlier today. I explained everything to him. “Oh no… see, a lot of it has to be true. Oh god I miss her. Just being crazy with her, you know. Having fun. But also talking with her. She always made me feel so good about everything and like nothing could stop me.” Theo talked and I could hear from his tone he was smiling. I smiled too because that was exactly how we knew her.

After a twenty-five minute drive, we were finally on the right street. We glanced around and saw a few blocks of flats side by side. The neighbourhood wasn’t exactly appealing and we could hear some loud noise coming from the street even though our windows were closed. We looked at each other and then again all of the apartments.

“Lovely neighbourhood.” Theo said to which I chuckled a bit. “There’s some parking space, let’s leave the car here. The apartment should be there, on the left side.” Theo continued and pointed to a building on the other side of the road.

I parked the car and we got out and crossed the street. It was pretty dark outside but it was obvious it was a Friday-evening; we could hear music, screaming and crying coming from all over the neighbourhood. But one party seemed to be louder than the rest. I glanced up and saw a few figures talking loudly over the music on a balcony on the fourth floor.

“I guess that’s the place.” I said and looked at Theo who also glanced up and nodded. “Fingers crossed. Oh god… we are crazy. Just plain crazy.” I said to myself a little quieter.

The elevator made weird noises as it made its way up slowly. The sound of the party kept getting louder and louder. Finally, we were standing behind some apartment that didn’t even have the last name of the resident on the door. This looks promising, I thought to myself.

“Alright… shit.” Theo started and looked at me, also a little nervous. “Let’s see what happens, let me do the talking.” He said after gathering some confidence and rang the doorbell.

Nothing happened.

He rang the doorbell again.

Still nothing.

“The music is probably just really, really loud…Let’s wait for a bit.” I said. The waiting didn’t exactly help our nerves.

Suddenly, someone opened the door and the loudness of the music and people screaming and talking invaded our ears. We both flinched and I even had to take some support from Theo’s arm. Why the hell did I have to be this scared?

“Heyyyy… Just come on in.” Some guy said and welcomed us. He didn’t bother to introduce himself, he just continued his way back to the living room where I could see a mass of people dancing wildly.

I still kept a hold of Theo’s arm. The amount of people crammed to the living room was insane. The place reeked of alcohol, cigarettes and sweat. And it looked as if no one had bothered to clean there for a while. I looked around me but no one seemed to be sober enough to make eye contact. I was relieved of that.

“Fuck… I’ve never seen anything like this. In the movies maybe, but… wow. This is horrible.” Theo said and shook his head. “I don’t know anyone here. Let’s explore this place, shall we?” He smiled at me and squeezed my hand.

We went to a big bedroom next to the living room and saw two couples hot and heavy engaging in some physical action. We turned away quickly and continued our way past the kitchen and then to another bedroom.

“That’s Michelle.” I whispered as I saw her dancing. “She’s dancing with someone else… Are they actually dancing to that guy sitting at the corner? Are you kidding me?” I said and had a hard time containing myself. It looked as silly as possible. But the guy seemed to be enjoying it. Theo couldn’t exactly take his eyes away from the scene either.

Suddenly, the other girl Michelle was dancing with turned around and I could see her face. Her hair was different and a lot shorter than before. She had also coloured it pink. Bright pink. She didn’t see us, as she was busy grinding against Michelle and keeping the guy satisfied in his chair.

“No fucking way. What the fuck is she doing?” Theo finally spoke and sounded astonished once he realised who we were looking at.

“She doesn’t look sober, does she? But hard to tell if it’s alcohol or something more. Oh my god… is that guy actually putting bills under their skirts? Oh no, no, no… I can’t watch this.” I said disgusted and turned around.

“Wait… I know. This is super weird. What if I try to go there and talk with her? Or try to get her to come with me outside or something?” Theo came after me.

“Try that… I’m going to the bathroom. Don’t disappear with her and leave me here or anything. Got that? If she agrees to go outside with you, send me a text and I’ll come there too.” I said firmly to Theo who assured me I had nothing to worry about.

Theo made his way back to the bedroom and I found a bathroom nearby. Although it was not really surprising, it was horrible. I glanced at the toilet and decided I didn’t need to pee after all. I let the water run over my sweaty hands for a little while and I looked at myself from the mirror. How on earth had her world turned into something like this? Who wants friends like this? Or parties like this?

Seeing her dancing there with Michelle was awful. She would never have danced for money before, not even joke about it. She was a smart girl. At least she used to be. And now, she was dancing to a guy with her friend in her underwear. What the hell? She was seventeen.

My phone started ringing so I closed the tap, dried my hands to some toilet paper since there wasn’t anything else, and answered.

“Hey… outside. Now.” Theo said firmly and ended the call.

Oh no… I just wanted everything to go okay with her. It had to. I just wished she would listen to us and understand we wanted nothing but the best for her. And this clearly wasn’t that.

Just as I opened the bathroom door, someone came inside the toilet and pushed me back. He was big and had no trouble handling me with just one of his hands. I tried to keep myself focused and not panic. But then, he closed the bathroom door. Then locked it.

I swallowed hard and looked straight to his eyes. He smiled crookedly at me and tilted his head, his eyes looking at me from head to toe. I felt disgusted by him.

“Listen, I was just about to leave. Sorry, I took some time here. Had to touch up my make-up, you know.” I said normally and tried to go past him.

He took a strong hold of my shoulder and pushed me back to where I had been standing. I started to get a little panicked. What the hell was this guy going to do to me? Why didn’t he just let me go?

“You’re a pretty one. Let’s have some fun.” He simply said.

I took a step back, but he took two to get closer to me. I could feel my heart beating and my hands starting to sweat again.

Then he lifted my hands up and pushed me against the wall.

Notes

Another update already! Good job me :D

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