Stumbling (H.S. / A.U.)

Chapter 42

Friday, September 22nd

Harry's POV

"No"

"Hear me out."

"No."

"Yes Harry."

"I didn't stutter Niall. I said no. It's not up for debate."

Liam shakes his head because at this point we have probably been bickering like this for at least half an hour.

"You are not even being reasonable. A threat was made. She's already been through a lot." -Niall

"Exactly!" I slam my fist onto the table which causes a stack of cash to start falling to the floor. "She's been through a lot. Why would we add more? We were doing all this lately to protect her, and now you're suggesting we just throw Riley to the wolves? She has nothing to do with any of this and now you are super fucking eager to bring her in and just let her get eaten alive? Why? Why aren't you the first person to understand why this is a bad idea Ni?"

My face feels hot, my palms are sweaty, and every bone in my body aches from the tense feeling I have been storing for the past 24 hours.

I knew both Riley and I were tossing and turning last night with little to no sleep. I offered to stay in the end, and no matter how much I tried to get her to talk about it, she wouldn't open up about her time in the warehouse or just how she has been feeling. Riley was the one of us who was more open about her feelings and emotions when we met, and now she is reserved, nervous, and a different person.

She had moments she was reserved, but there was a good reason. Overall, Riley was much better off before I came into the picture. However, it's too late for that. There is something about her and I can't get her off my mind no matter what I try or what I do, and I want her around. I want to see her smile, I want to hear her laugh, I want to be a part of her memories, and I want to be in her life. I have not felt this way in... well... maybe ever. I don't know what to make of it, but I know for sure I won't let anything or anyone ruin it and hurt Riley again.

"Harry, listen." Niall starts back up while adjusting his stupid backwards hat that has tucked most of his blonde hair away. I refuse to let him tell me for the millionth time why he thinks having Riley come to the meetup is a good idea, because it isn't.

I turn away and block him off from my vision. It's not a real solution but for the moment it will suffice.

"Harry, just be reasonable here." Never mind. I forgot about the fact that everyone but me is on team 'let's send Riley to her fucking death' while Liam calmly places a hand to my shoulder and speaking in a calm tone.

That might be worse than Niall even. I hate when Liam treats me like he is a teacher and I am just some unruly child in class acting up. I shuffle my shoulders to throw his hand off and he drops it back to his side. Meanwhile Louis was ignoring the conversation to pick up the money that had fallen to the ground during my most recent outburst.

We initially came downstairs to try and come to an agreement on what to make of the note and 'gift' left at Riley's place. Little did I know, everyone was going to gang up on me and say we should endanger her.

Riley listened and joined in on the conversation for a while, but I knew this room and everything about its contents still made her nervous. She instead retreated up to my bedroom to work on homework instead.

I bring my hand up to try and rub out the tension headache forming behind my eyes. This was a bad time to give up smoking and drugs because not only am I tense, annoyed, hating life, and wanting to kill everyone, but it is intensified by a hundred because of the lack of drugs to numb me. Niall was nice enough to try and sober himself up a bit too though. He promised me that as a best friend he was going to lay off the drugs and only stick to alcohol, because he didn't want me to be around that stuff more than necessary.