Recovery / / h.s

Chapter Four.

"You're kidding, right?" The voice asked through the other line of the phone.

"Nah, man. They have me busting my ass all summer. I'm stuck there every single fucking day," I said. I was laying on my back, watching the ceiling fan move around and around.

"There better at least be some hot ass chicks there that are willing to bang," he said with a laugh.

I groaned. "None. I think there's only one girl that works in that whole place, Zayn. She's the most stuck up bitch I've ever met."

"Shit!" He exclaimed with a laugh. "Her personality won't matter once you get her home, bro."

I laughed. "I don't think you understand how stuck up she is. She won't go for it."

"Is that doubt? You're Harry Styles. Girls can't resist you. I'm pretty sure you could get whoever you wanted, whenever you wanted."

I rolled my eyes as he spoke. Zayn was so annoying, all of my "friends" were. I couldn't even consider them friends, I just kept them around because they always knew where parties were and they followed me around like lost little puppies. They did everything I told them to and they didn't question anything I said.

There were four of them altogether: Zayn, Ashton, Niall, and Liam. They used to follow around another guy, Louis. Everyone thought that Louis was pretty bad ass because he had gotten a full scholarship for soccer. I guess he was a pretty good drummer, too.

I never understood why they chose me, of all people. I didn't show any interest in anything and I chose to be alone. I walked the halls alone, I sat alone, I ate lunch alone. That was, until Zayn and his little crew came and sat with me one day and decided to strike up a conversation. They weren't all that bad, so I let them stick around. They mostly talked around me and I kept quiet and listened to how stupid they were.

Ashton was my favorite. He was quiet and he had a lot of tattoos. He also had an eyebrow ring, but he was forced to take it out during soccer season. I guess he never felt the need to put it back in. He was quiet and conservative. He read a lot and he could tell you anything you wanted to know about Romeo and Juliet. I would choose to hang out with him over any of the other guys any day.

However, Zayn was the one who was the friendliest. He always tried to outdo the other guys to win me over. He fought for the spot to be number one and actually believed he was favorited.

"I think I've met a girl that I don't want to sleep with. Seriously, she's the worst. If I fuck up once she's going to go snitch," I said. Just the thought of Lily pissed me off. She was such a bitch.

"Then quit! Why is it so important that you stay there if you don't like it?" He asked. I fought the urge to hang up on him. He was such an idiot.

"Because, fuck face," I said. I didn't try to hide my agitation. I could call Zayn any name I wanted and he wouldn't want to stop trying to be my friend. "I don't want to go to jail." I also could not lose my scholarship at Stanford, but I would never tell him that.

"Whatever, man." The line went silent for awhile and I found myself hoping that he had hung up. I couldn't be so lucky. "There's a party tomorrow night at Liam's, man. You should come... If you want."

I rolled my eyes at their constant need for me to be around. "Will there be alcohol?" I asked, annoyance heavy in my voice. I didn't want to answer the phone, but He had called almost four times this week and I knew that if I didn't pick up he wouldn't stop. I would have to come up with some excuse as to why I hadn't picked up the next time he saw me and I couldn't think of any more lies.

"What kind of question is that? Of course there's going to be alcohol." For someone who tried to portray the part of a bad ass, he sounded like a little punk most of the time. Like me, he could pull in whatever girl he wanted. Those girls didn't stick around long enough to know how annoying and whiny he actually was.

"Okay," I said. Before I could be bothered with another word, I pressed the end button on my touch screen.

~~

My eyes shot open as the marimba ringtone filled my brain. I groaned and tried as hard as I could to block the noise out with my pillow. I picked the phone up off the night stand and pressed the ignore button, chucking it across the room.

I buried my face in my pillow, cursing whoever had called me for waking me up so early. Why the hell would someone call before my alarm clock went off, anyway? I had to be up at six, so that was when my clock went off.

I looked over at the clock and threw the covers off of my body in a haste. It was already seven o'clock. I must have forgotten to set the alarm. I tried my best to hurriedly put on my normal attire of black skinny jeans and a band t -shirt.

I brushed my teeth and laced up my boots so fast that I swore I beat a world record. I picked my phone up off the floor and grabbed my keys. I had never been thankful for having a second floor apartment until now.

As I sped out of the parking lot, I unlocked my phone and opened up my voicemail.

"Harry, it's Lily. Where are you? You should have been here a half hour ago. I had to make the officers coffee before they got in and covered for you, so you better hurry your...ass...up and get here."

She covered for me? I couldn't believe it. I refused to believe it. As soon as I got there, I was going to get arrested. Goodbye Stanford.

I wasn't too worried about going to jail. I knew I could handle myself. It would put me on a bigger throne than I already was when it came to my "friends". But I would lose Stanford, the only thing I had actually cared about in three years.

The walk from the parking lot to the station didn't take long, and before I knew it I was making my way to the back.

"It's about time you showed up," a voice said behind me. Lily.

I scoffed. "Shut up, Lily." I turned around to face her. The place was completely silent around us. "Where is everyone."

"Working," she said slowly, almost as if she was talking to a child. "Something you should have been doing since six-thirty. You're lucky I covered for you."

"Look, I don't need your grief, alright? And I didn't ask you to cover for me and I'm not going to thank you or even be friendly to you because you did it." I sat at one of the empty desks and started pulling paperwork out of one of the Manila folders.

She was quiet for a long time, but I could feel her eyes on me. Even though I was facing the other direction, her stare made me uncomfortable, but Not in an intimidated type of way. If she thought she could intimidate me she was fucking out of her mind.

"So, what? I should tell Officer White where you really were this morning? Which, from the looks of it, was hell. Did you even think about how wrinkled that shirt was before you literally ran out of your front door this morning?"

"My alarm clock didn't go off!" I practically shouted at her. She thought she could intimidate me? She was going to be shown what intimidation truly was. "Shut the hell up and go back to doing whatever the hell it is you do. Get off my back."

She looked offended, hurt even. The intimidation tactic had worked and she stayed quite until Officer White finally showed up almost an hour later.

"Harold, how is your grandmother?" He asked as he made his way to the water cooler that was perched in the corner of the room. The officers were not allowed to drink anything but water while on the job. It was a stupid rule.

"Um... She's great," I responded, confused. I had only one living grandma and she was back in England.

"I didn't think you would be here already. Lily said she had a broken leg, that's terrible." He seemed really concerned considering I had almost bashed his face in only two nights prior to this conversation.

So, Lily really had covered for me. Unbelievable. "She's doing really well," I lied. "She really hates not being able to get out of bed, though."

Lily watched as we spoke. I expected her to come over and tell White the truth. I figured she would have done it as payback for me snapping on her before, but she sat there quietly and pretended to write.