HALO - h.s.

4

Don't stop me now.

"Fuck."

At the sight of Harry driving behind us I cuss under my breath, quickly ducking in my seat in an attempt to hide. "Do you think he saw me and knows I'm in here?"

Niall turns around and rolls his eyes at me. "Ellie, he's literally following our car after you ran away from him. Of course he knows you're in here, he wouldn't follow a random car for fun. Unless he's a psychopath."

"Wouldn't be surprised if he is," I mumble, trying to hide myself even more when it's obviously useless.

"He probably tracked down the car or was able to follow you." Louis kept checking the rearview mirror, but doesn't speed up the car. "And he looks like he isn't in the mood to leave."

"But how?" I ask more to myself than to them. "How did he find me? I literally sprinted out of the house and jumped into your car."

"I guess we're going to find out now." Louis and Niall quickly exchange a look, followed by Louis slowing down the car.

My heart drops into my stomach. "Louis, what the fuck are you doing?" I punch his shoulder, starting to panic as Harry's car comes even closer to ours. "Are you mental?"

"No, I'm reasonable," he shrugged, slowing down the car even more. "Ellie, he caught you. You can't run anymore, he'll just follow us."

I whack his shoulder again. "Just keep driving! We'll lose him eventually."

I look at Niall for support, but all he does is quickly turn his head and avoid my eyes. So far for support.

"Are you guys actually kidding right now? Because if you are, cut the crap, because it isn't funny."

Louis parks the car on the side of the road and turns around in his seat, a sympathetic look in his eyes. "Ellie, you have no choice. He could've already called your father for all we know, and that could fuck up this whole freedom thing even more. You know how he is, so you should probably just get out, before you aren't allowed to go out at all."

I quickly glance back to see Harry's car parked right behind us, patiently waiting until I make a move. Great.

Niall turns around in his seat as well, looking a bit guilty as well. "Louis is right. And besides that, you can't run and hide from his forever. You'll have to go home eventually."

My mouth drops a little. "What the fuck is this? A moment ago you wanted to punch him in the face and stay with me 24/7, and now you're practically handing me to him."

They exchange a look again, both clearly hiding something, and then realisation hits me.

"Don't tell me this is because you're scared of Papà and what he would do," I hiss.

They avert their eyes, and I know enough. "Really?"

Louis sighs, running his hands through his messy hair. "Ellie, we don't want to mess with your father, or get in trouble with ours. You know that's far from a good idea."

"Yeah, if they even knew we were doing this, helping you run away from your bodyguard, they would come straight back from Italy and ground us for eternity. Or worse," Niall claimed.

I don't want to admit they're kind of right, so I go on. "What about being reckless and living on the edge, like we always said we would? This wouldn't be the first crazy and dangerous thing we did. You're acting like straight up wussies," I scoff.

"There's a difference between a reckless situation and a suicide mission," Louis claimed.

"Didn't think Niall would know the difference," I mumble, frustratedly crossing my arms and looking out the window.