Where Your Heart Is (A Harry Styles Fanfiction) #pfcc2k16 #Wattys2016

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Tomorrow

Find my love, then find me.

*****

I check my phone after a long while, noticing not only that I have several missed calls but that it has been over thirty minutes since I left the room.

"Is everything okay? Is she sleeping?"

I lift up my gaze from the screen just when I'm finishing writing a text to Liam who was the one that kept calling me the most, to find Jasper leaning against the threshold of his bedroom door.

He is wearing the same clothes he had this morning, and judging by how disheveled they look and how his eyes are having a hard time adjusting to the light, he has been sleeping until now.

It is almost four in the afternoon so is safe to say that the events of this morning took a huge toll on all of us.

"Yeah..." I respond, pressing on the send button and tucking the phone back in my pocket. "She's talking to her parents right now."

He seems to snap out of his sleepiness in a swift, and his eyes widen all of a sudden.

"Crap! I didn't think of that." He scolds himself, striding closer to where I stand and almost pressing his ear against her door. "Sounds weirdly quiet in there..."

I stare at him with a confused frown, not really knowing what he's doing or why. He seems to pick up on that, and he simply nods and smiles, stepping away from the door.

"What do you mean?" I enquire, feeling a little worried all of a sudden.

"I don't know." He says, rubbing his face and head. "Something about the way she took the news back at the hospital... It's just not what I was expecting, I guess."

"I think she took it quite well." I say, after considering what he just said for a few seconds. "I mean, all things considered, she's fine."

"That's exactly what worries me, actually. The news she got, to anyone who does what we do, is borderline tragic. And if she's not screaming and kicking is either because she hasn't fully wrapped her mind around it just yet, or she's in denial."

I want to tell him he's wrong and there is nothing to worry about. But the longer I mullet over his words, the harder it becomes to convince myself otherwise.

Of course she's not fine. Would I be fine if someone told me I couldn't sing for months on end? No. I would be a total wreck.

"How long have you been out here?" Jasper asks, tearing me away from my contemplation.

"Half an hour, maybe more. I'm not sure." I mumble, literally scratching my head. "Should we go in?"

"It does seem oddly quiet in there, doesn't it?" He repeats, rubbing his head.

I suddenly feel like a selfish, idiotic dick; all this time, ever since she woke up, I kept hoping she wouldn't remember or care about the things she said to me last night. I was so fucking busy praying and relishing on the fact that that shoe hadn't dropped so far, I failed to recognize she was a ticking bomb ready to be set off.

And now I'm sure that phone call is the ultimate trigger.

We don't have to wait for the other to say yes or even nod. And after a soft knock out of mere courtesy, we slowly open the door and walk right in.

As I take her in, I feel my heart plummeting to the floor. I was ready to find her sobbing uncontrollably, but what I see is strangely far worse.

She had been crying, that's for sure. Everything in her face; from the flushed, tear stained skin of her cheeks to the puffiness of her eyes is a clear indication of that.