To Capture a Heart ✔️

Chapter 42

Ferris went home as soon as we left the hospital. He said his parents were expecting him and he had to be there ASAP. Part of me thought that there was something else going on but I was too tired to ask questions.

As soon as I got home, I searched the place for any traces of my father. He wasn't home. Then, I cleaned the blood from the floorboards of the living room and, because I was on a role, I ended up cleaning most of the house. By the time I was done, it was almost six o'clock.

Chris and Sophia called me, asking if I wanted to go to dinner with them. I quickly got changed and when I was leaving, I messaged Ferris to make sure he was okay. He didn't reply.

***

I meet the girls on the town centre, where they were waiting at a restaurant. I walk in, finding them sitting in the corner.

"Hey, girls." I say, sitting opposite them. "I feel like I haven't seen you in ages." I say, momentarily forgetting that all my spare time is spent on Ferris.

"Is everything okay?" Sophia asks, placing a hand on my own. "You've missed a couple days of college."

"What? No, I'm totally fine." I wasn't. "I've just been really busy and I can't really be bothered to go to college, especially because it's the last few days before summer."

"Oh my God, summer break is in a couple of days! I totally forgot." Chris exclaims, clapping her hands like a gleeful child. "I can't wait to get my hot girl summer look going."

I laugh lightly, just as a waitress walks over and asks us if we were ready to order. I ordered a burger meal before returning to the conversation with my girls.

"We should definitely have a girls trip after we turn eighteen." Christina says, taking a bite from her salad.

"Wait till you turn seventeen, Chrissie." Sophia says, smiling slightly. "You're birthdays in a week, what do you wanna do?"

Christina frowns. "I wanted to have a party but my parents are not gonna let that happen." She stabs her fork into a chip and aggressively bites it, still frowning. "I think we might be going for dinner as a family, but us three can watch a movie the next day, maybe?"

"That sounds great to me." I say, taking a sip of my Pepsi. "There's that new Marvel movie-"

"No." They both say at the same time.

"We aren't watching an action movie." Christina says, smiling at me. "I was thinking... romance."

"Ugh." Sophia groans and bangs her forehead against the table. "Is there a romance-horror-action option?" She mumbles, her dreadlocks falling to the side, covering her face.

When she sits up, a small frown is etched on her face.

"I hate being an '02 baby. It makes me feel old." She mumbles and me and Christina can't hold our laughter in. "You guys are so lucky that you're both '03."

"It only makes us a couple months younger than you." I say.

Sophia laughs quietly, but her smile quickly drops. She looks down at her hands and me and Christina are both silent in an instant. We both know that Sophia has been having a hard time at home and we've been doing all we can to cheer her up.

Christina puts her arm over Sophia's shoulder, pulling her into her side.

"Oh, sweetie." She coos, running her hand over Sophia's dreadlocks. "Everything will be okay, I promise."

I see Sophia attempt a smile but it doesn't reach her eyes. I kind of know what she's going through, with parent problems. All I wanted to tell her was that she wasn't alone, she wasn't fighting the battle without me right by her side.

***

Later that night, I try to call Ferris but he doesn't answer. My messages haven't been opened, and I begin to get worried. Deep inside of me, I think it's my fault that he's ignoring me. It's my fault that he got beat up, and now, he's realising how stupid it was to get involved with me. He's probably questioning himself. The moment he heard that I was abused, he should have ran. He should have ran far away without looking back.

I know he might be busy, but Ferris always messages me to tell me when he's too busy to answer, so now, I'm extremely worried.

I stayed up a few extra hours just to see if he would crawl through my window but he never did.

Even the next morning, I was worried that he wouldn't show up to college. Maybe what happened affected him more than he let on. And, right in the middle of it all, is me.

Walking to college, it felt weird not having Louis next to me. Ferris isn't at the front gates where he nonchalantly runs his fingers down my arm as I walk past, just to keep me thinking about him for the rest of the day.

He wasn't on the field, where he usually is at the end of the school day. He wasn't in the cafeteria, secretly watching me as I eat and taking videos.

I knew that something was wrong. And I couldn't contain my worry for much longer.

A/N: This book is slowly coming to an end 😢

There's only a couple of chapters left and then, we're moving onto the next one, so yay!

If I finish this, it'll officially be the first book I've ever finished writing. All the other ones are half written because I gave up on them. I guess, in a way, I felt that way about this book until I found my passion again.

And I'm glad because Ferris and Kaylee's relationship has never been better.

I'm extremely tired right now and my eyelids are drooping (this is such a funny word) and I feel kinda high so I'm gonna go to sleep before I end up embarrassing myself.

Sweet dreams.

-H 🤍

P.S: StRiP tHaT dOwN foR Me.