It takes a while for me to build the courage to go inside. I end up leaning against a telephone pole outside, watching as slowly more and more people start showing up. The building is old and dilapidated, a brick actually missing from the wall here or there. The windows along the front are completely boarded up and I can't imagine what could be in there that someone would need to hide. And why are there so many people? They're not being inconspicuous either, most riding up on motorcycles, covered in piercings or tattoos, or both, and majority of them seem to be intoxicated to some degree.

Sooner or later I'm going to have to go inside, and if I don't go now I never will. At this point I'd rather not go in at all; whatever Harry is doing here...I don't want to know. This place makes my skin crawl and I have to pull my jacket tighter around me when I walk in. I'm glad I wore leather; it seems to be keeping in tone with the attire of the other people in this place. The metal doors are heavy as hell, but a large middle-aged man is quick to hold it open for me. Instead of saying thank you I practically sprint away from him. No one here looks safe, and it makes me so scared and angry to know Harry is spending time with these people.

"You lost?"

I whip around when I feel a large hand on my arm, callused and rough even through my jacket. A tall man around my age with large arms and a scruffy face stands over me, both arms covered in tattoos and dressed in all black. When I try to pull it away it takes a good amount of force and I make sure to keep more than enough distance.

"No," I say firmly. "Are you?"

He laughs and folds his arms over his chest. "Relax, princess. I think you're on the wrong end of town, that's all."

"I'm looking for someone."

"Maybe I can help."

With one last glance-over, I shake my head. "That's fine. I'll find him myself."

"You should stick around when you find him," he says, starting to walk past me. "It's gonna be a good show tonight."

"Show?"

He doesn't hear me, but a few people bump my shoulders as I stand there puzzled. Now I'm even more confused as to what the hell is going on here. I start moving with the crowd and everyone seems to be going to the same place, entering a large room through multiple entrances. When I walk through my mouth falls open.

There's a large circular room, seats rising all around like a colosseum. They're like movie theatre seats, but older and without cushions. Some of them appear to be broken, but no one really seems to be using them anyway. Four spotlights on the roof are the only light in the place, apart from the odd lit end of a cigarette. The very centre is flat and there's some sort of ring in the middle, where the lights are trained. My heart is beating hard and fast and my stomach drops.

"Excuse me." I walk up to a woman to my right, her hair a dark purple colour with a tattoo colouring the side of her neck. "Do you know...what's happening tonight?"

She laughs a little. "You don't? It's a fight, sweetie."

"A fight?" I breathe. She looks concerned for a moment and holds a finger up to her friends. She puts her hand on my arm and pulls me a little to the side.

"Are you supposed to be here?" she asks.

"I umm...I was trying to find someone," I admit, looking around again. Everything seems ten times more dangerous now.

"Good luck, this place fills up pretty fast. Who is he?"

"He's umm...he's tall, green eyes, curly hair. Tattoos on his left arm," I say. She raises her eyebrows and smiles.

"Yeah, I think everyone knows who that is," she says, laughing a little.

"What do you mean?"

"Harry Styles, right?"

"Yeah."

"And...you don't know what goes on here?" she asks. I shake my head. "Well, you're about to find out."

She walks away before I can ask any more questions. Why would Harry come to watch a fight and why does everyone know him? That doesn't make sense. My feet feel unsteady as I walk down the cement steps towards the bottom of the theatre. That girl was right, this place does fill up fast. There are people everywhere, especially down here, and when I get close enough to the bottom I have to crawl past a lot of people in order to get to an empty seat. My blonde hair sticks out like a sore thumb, as does my unmarked skin and limited piercings. Everyone around me seems to be holding a beer in their hands, and suddenly I wish I had one too.

The lights turn out, leaving everyone in complete darkness. My heart pounds harder and I'm about to curl up into a ball on the floor when they turn back on, just two of them, much brighter than before. They circle around the audience as deep cries and cheers ring through the stadium. My eyes are trained on the ring and a door I can faintly see left open just past it. Someone walks out and jumps into the ring, holding his hands up to try to quiet the crowd.

"Our undefeated champion has come back after weeks of waiting to face one of our newest additions!" he shouts. Everyone cheers for a moment before he continues. "Brave, that one. Right?"

"What is this," I whisper to myself. Everyone looks desperate while they wait for whatever is about to happen next.

"Well, let's do this!" the man shouts. "First, I bring you our newest fighter, hidden deep in the shithole of Brooklyn. Now he's here and ready for this, it's-"

Already the shouting is so loud I can't hear anything, and I resist the urge to cover my ears and looking even more out of place. Someone steps out of that door and jumps into the ring, looking confident as someone could with the boos going around like a chorus. Part of me feels pity for him, but I can't think about that now. When the announcer feels like he's had enough he pats him on the back and holds the microphone to his mouth again.

"We all know his opponent doesn't need introduction," he says. He smiles at the cheering this time. "Here he is."

Everything seems to slow down in that moment and all the shouts around me drown away like I"m wearing earmuffs. I see a figure exit the door and after what feels like hours finally the light goes over his face and everything stops completely.

"Harry," I breathe. I feel the blood drain from my face and my body feels numb as I watch Harry slowly step up to the ring, confidence the only thing I can comprehend when I see him pull himself up. The crowd obviously loves him, and when he steps up his expression is anything but excited. While his opponent looks nervous as hell, jumping around and trying to keep light on his feet, Harry just stands there. He looks....bored. That's the only way I can describe it.

So this is what he's been doing. He's been ditching me and not spending time with our daughter so he can come here and....fight? He's been fighting, that's what the bruises are from? All the lies, all the arguments, all the bad things that have been happening between us are so that he can do this? He chooses, what? Some sort of adrenaline rush, some kind of weird need to have power over someone? I don't understand and I don't want to, to be honest. A bell rings and the crowd goes wild, throwing things at the ring and one person eve dousing the 'new guy' in soda. Harry smirks at that and takes a small step forward. He looks terrifying.

Harry easily dodges a swing from his opponent and haphazardly strikes a blow to the side of his face. It barely makes him lose his footing, but I can tell from here he's nervous. Harry is clearly putting on a show for these people, who all obviously love him, and he looks so confident; it's almost attractive if I could forget why he's here and looking like that in the first place.

Things start getting more competitive and suddenly I feel the need to throw up. Rougher than I normally would I push past the people in my way. When I get to the stairs I take one last look at Harry. The other guy is currently on the ground and when I look at Harry, something happens that I wasn't expecting.

He's looking right back.

His mouth drops open and before I can react I'm turning and fleeing up the steps. The crowd starts going crazy again, but I don't want to turn to see why. When I finally push the heavy metal doors open and step outside I don't get far before my vision is blurry from tears and my body feels like it's going to quit on me. When I get a few blocks down the street I can't move anymore, leaning my shoulder against the metal pole of a road sign while I finally cave to my emotions.

Harry is fighting. Illegally, I'm assuming, and apparently it's more important to fight random guys for money and a crowd than to spend time with his fucking family. I can't believe he'd pick this over us, that he was willing to ruin everything we've rebuilt for whatever the hell he gets out of this. Honestly, it breaks my heart. How could he do this to us?

I hear a commotion back down the street and notice the crowd filtering out onto the street again. Motorcycles go flying by at a constant rate and I must look like a crying, dramatic mess standing on the side of the road sobbing like an idiot. My fingers wipe under my eyes to try to remove the tears and smeared makeup. When I turn around again my heart almost stops beating, the one white t-shirt in the crowd catches my eye and I know who that is in an instant. Harry paces around a few times and I quickly turn and try to keep walking, still crying, pulling out my phone to look up the number for a cab company.

"Savannah!" I hear him yell. I start walking faster and hold my phone to my ear. "Savannah, wait!"

When the cab company picks up I quickly look around to see where I actually am right now. "Hi, I need a cab to umm...I'm on Cherry Street, and I-"

My phone is suddenly yanked from my hand and I spin around to see Harry bringing it up to his own ear. I glare at him, my mouth slightly hanging open and my fists clenched.

"She doesn't need a cab," he says. He rolls his eyes. "No, we're good."

Harry hangs up and keeps the phone in his hand. I can't even...there's no words. I'm so angry that I can't even explain it. So, instead of picking a fight I just turn around and keep walking, my boots clicking against the pavement. Harry doesn't say anything, but I can hear him following me anyway. After a few minutes I spin around and he almost walks right into me.

"Are you just going to follow me?" I spit. "Because it's really fucking annoying."

"How did you find me?" he asks. "Did you follow me?"

"No, I read a text on your phone."

"You what? You went through my phone?" he yells. "You can't-"

"Shut up!" I shout. "Don't you dare get mad at me for that, what would you have done? You were lying to me and I felt like I was losing everything, Harry. Apparently I already did."

"What? No." Harry steps forward and I immediately take one back. "Savannah, it's not-"

"What it looks like?" I finish. "I'm not an idiot, Harry. You were fighting someone. In front of a crowd. I saw you, there's no way to get away from that. There's no way to lie your way out of this."

"I don't want to lie my way out of it, I just want to talk about it." He pushes his fingers through his hair and my chest hurts from this. "Can we go home?"

"I don't know," I whimper. "I don't know if I can..."

"Don't say that, not yet," he says, shaking his head and stepping forward again. "Give me a chance to explain, please."

"I don't understand." I shake my head and cross my arms over me. "How could you do this?"

"Please, just let me try to explain," he pleads. "At home. Please."

The only reason I haven't tried to beat him to death yet is because of my daughter. Sophie probably shouldn't experience her father dying and her mother going to jail, and it would be nice for her to have at least one parent. Whatever happens between Harry and I, it shouldn't affect her relationship with him. But there's no way to undo this or make it better, so I'm not sure what Harry explaining himself will do.

"No," I say finally.

"Savannah, please."

"Harry-"

"You're upset, I know. Trust me, I get it, but I don't want you to..." He sighs and puts his hands on my arms, my eyes wide and glossy when I look up at him. "One chance. That's all I'm asking for."

Why is it so hard to say no to him? The eyes, the curls, the dimples...I know he's a good person, that's the problem. I know he wouldn't want to hurt me like this, and my stupid tendency of giving him the benefit of the doubt is definitely coming through now despite how much I want to stomp on that part of me until it dies.

"Fine," I relent.

"Really?" I raise my eyebrows and he shakes his head, holding up one hand. "No, I mean good. Great. I drove, so we can just..."

He points over his shoulder and I have to take a deep breath before I can actually move. My makeup is probably a mess and I'm exhausted from crying as hard as I did, but I walk anyway with my arms still folded over my chest. Harry slides his hands in his pockets and I resist the urge to ask if he got hurt in there.

A few people clap Harry on the back and congratulate him, so I guess that means he did well. His cringe is quite obvious every time, and slowly my heartache is fading into anger. My silence is quite loud and he doesn't try to talk either and even the car ride home is painful.

When we get back to my place Madison is watching a movie, but she shuts it off when we get inside. She smiles, but it fades when she looks between Harry and I, noting the obviously thick tension. When I try to pay her she completely refuses and she's gone before I can use her as an excuse to postpone this conversation.

We both stand in the living rom for a few minutes before he opens his mouth to start, but before he can I turn and go to the kitchen. If this ends up in a yelling match that'll provide more sound barriers. When I get there I move to the opposite side of the island, leaning my palms on the granite and staring at Harry.

"You have one chance," I say quietly. "So start explaining."

Notes

so you were right. well done ;)

what do you think is going to happen??? is harry going to convince her? or is she gonna leave :O

so many choices. what do you guys think savannah should do?


comment below :)