Luella

13 | cheeky

L U E L L A

"Hey, Kate, it's Harry."

At his raspy voice, surprisingly worried tone, my heavy breathing and my knocked-off-guard self, my respiratory system struggled to function. My lips parted and my eyes widened, and needless to say, I was speechless. I tried to form a coherent sentence, but all I could do at this point is hang up on him.

Which I did and, panicking, I threw the phone on the couch and curled my legs into my chest, hugging them and trying to slow down the rate of my rapid heartbeats. That was so unexpected, there are lots of things going through my head, a lot of jumbled questions. I tried to sort them out.

1. Why the hell was Harry Styles calling Kate this late on a Friday night? (Why is he calling her, anyway?)

2. Why the hell was Harry Styles worried? (Which kind of relates to 1.)

3. Did this have anything to do with Ben? (Also kind of relates to 1 and 2.)

4. Why am I acting like such a little baby? (Why didn't I tell him that I was Luella and that Kate forgot her phone with me? Why am I so weird?)

Before I continue to work through my mind, the phone springs to life again and I jump a little before I clear my throat and make a decision. I grip the phone tightly and skim my eyes over the familiar number. I quickly tap to accept the call and press the phone to my ears, gulping down huge breathes.

"Kate?"

"It's Luella," I explain as steadily as I could. "Kate, erm, forgot her phone with me."

There was temporary silence, then came the sound of an exasperated sigh. "Of course she did."

"Is there..." I cleared my throat again. "Is there something wrong?"

"Do you know where she might be?" Harry asked, completely ignoring my question. Why does he need to know where Kate is, all of a sudden?

"Why?" I narrow my eyes.

Harry mumbles something under his breath and huffs. "There's no time for th- oh, shit!"

My eyes widen and I stutter. "W-What is going on? Harry?"

"Do you know if Ben's with her?" Harry asks hurriedly and I hear the screech of a car's tire. There's a bit more noise in the background but it's all muffled. If I'm any good at guessing, then Harry's probably in a car with the windows rolled up. "Luella, you still there?"

"Did you give Ben a ring?" I pondered, confused. "He's with her, but what's wrong?"

"I think his phone battery died," he breathes a huge sigh of relief as he says so. "Where are they?"

"I'm not telling you until I know what's going on, Harry!" I exclaimed, which seemed to infuriate Harry even more. Which made me worry more that something might be wrong by the urgent tone in his voice. Did he get into another fight?

"There's nothing going on! There's just a big ass storm outside and it's fucking dangerous! Happy?"

Oh, crap.

I jump off the couch and hurry to the window by the living room, drawing the blackout curtains open, only to reveal a dark, angry gray sky. When I turn off the TV and carefully listen to the thunderous noise outside that follows a faint streak of lightning, I shudder, my eyes widening.

"Stop by Kate's apartment," I demand quickly.

"They're there?" Another screech of car tires.

"No, but I know where they are."