Look After You- Niam Horayne

Snap Out Of It- Chapter 40

Liam's POV

I was at Kevin Care Home bright and early in the morning. It was weird though, I felt more like a zombie than anything. Maybe it was because we'd spoken to almost fifteen different people over the past week, and I was exhausted from begging and pleading. Thankfully though, every single one of them agreed. The majority had a family, just like Russell did, and the rest hated Alex anyway.

We'd discovered that a few of Alex's guys were being fooled around with. Sexually, I mean. Four of them had admitted that they were in a BDSM relationship with him to earn extra cash, but a couple more just blushed when we asked the question. It meant that Alex was truly a sex-mad lunatic who needed to be stopped before he hurt anyone else. To think some of these guys could've gone through what Jess did...

I was cleaning up around the home, though, when I was called into the office. It was Harvey, telling me that Russell was at the door. So I went to meet him, smiling widely, and invited him into the room so I could interview him. Surprisingly enough, both Johnny and Harvey were completely fine with the fact I wanted Russell to help us. The home had been getting better financially, and we could always do with extra help.

Fortunately, the interview went really well. Russell had actually done some child work in his school, and received a low C, which is better than nothing. He was confident and smiling more than he did a while back, and I was happy that he was. He deserved to be, living in terrible conditions with a tiny baby.

I told Russell that he and his family can stay at my place for a while, in my spare room I'd made up a few months ago for in case my parents or friends stopped around. Harry was currently staying there, but he said he'd move onto the couch and that he didn't mind.

I was just coming out of the office and saying goodbye to Russell when I heard quiet sobs coming from upstairs. I narrowed my eyes, thinking it would be the twins fighting again, until I realised it was a girl, and coming from Darcy's room. I couldn't help but feel a little satisfied; she was a bitch- but very concerned, too. So I entered her bedroom without knocking, only to have her hide something behind her back.

Yeah, she was a mess. Her red dyed hair was pulled up into a messy, tangled ponytail. Her olive green eyes were dull, with smudges of mascara and eyeliner everywhere. Her skin was paler than usual, and she wore a simple grey tank top and sweatpants.

"Get out!" She snarled, shaking violently. She was panicking, like I was some rapist coming to get her.

I sucked in a deep breath and walked over to her, sitting on the bed beside her. She adjusted her position to she was further away from me, still holding whatever it was in her hand, an abundance of sniffing exiting her nose.

"Are you going to tell me what's the matter, Darce?" I asked gruffly, raising my eyebrows at her.

She looked down for a minute, thinking about whether she should spill. I couldn't imagine what would make her so upset. She would usually brush off things and get over everything so fast, this must be something huge. Maybe her parents contacted?

She didn't answer, so I took a deep breath. "Right now, Darcy, I'm not your care worker. I'm simply your, uh, friend. You know that I helped Niall through his depression, so I doubt what's going on with you will surprise me too much."

"Ha!" She snorted, shaking her head, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "I highly doubt that, Liam..."

I furrowed my eyebrows and spoke softly. "Come on, Darcy. Bottling it up will make it a hundred times worse, I promise you that."

"You won't tell anyone?" She asked in a small, quiet voice.

"No, of course not. This is confidential only, I swear." I meant it, too. I knew that being in care must be hard, and I was professional only now, I wasn't the childish guy who didn't care about Darcy anymore. She was in a mess, and she was only seventeen. A child.