Sold // Harry Styles

Chapter 18

I pace back and forth in Alice’s dining room.  The thought of Harry being alone with A.J. frightens me and I’m not too fond of the unsettling fear that’s sitting at the bottom of my stomach.  They’ve only been gone for about an hour and a half now but it feels much longer than that.

“Jackie, you need to calm down,” Alice says as she examines me from the kitchen table.  Her nails drum against the table relentlessly as she holds herself up with the other hand.

“I can’t,” I say nervously biting on my fingernails.  It’s a bad habit of mine that I’ve always had.  “Why does A.J. want to talk to Harry alone?”

She stares at me as I continue to walk to and from the window.  I can hear her foot tapping against the floor almost as if she’s anticipating something.

“I don’t know,” she finally says.

I continue to fiddle with my fingers and pace around the room. 

“You need to relax, darling.  I’m sure he’s okay.  As scary as A.J. is, I doubt he would actually hurt him.”

“I can’t calm down until I know he’s okay.”

Alice sighs and digs around in her purse.  I watch her with curiosity as she pulls out her cell phone and dials a number.

“Hello, my beautiful,” she says into the phone.  I walk closer to her and stand by her side as she talks to the person on the other line.  “I have someone here that wishes to speak to you.”

She smiles at me before handing me her phone.  I place it next to my ear and my heart leaps when I hear his voice.

“Hello?” he says.

“Harry, where are you?  Are you okay?  Is A.J. with you?”

I can hear him laugh quietly to himself.  “No, he’s not here.  I’m at my house.  He just left about ten minutes ago.”

“What’d he do to you?  Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m fine,” his sentence is cut short by a muffled sound coming from his line.  I can hear someone shouting in the background.  There’s no doubt that it’s one of the gang members—maybe Niall.  I’m still trying to figure out which one is which.  “Shut up,” Harry says talking to his friends.  His voice sounds far away and I imagine him trying to cover the receiver with his hand, hoping that I can’t hear him.  There’s laughing on his line.

“Harry?” I ask.

“Yeah, sorry.  I’m here,” he says.  He sighs.  “Look, I have to go.  I’ll probably pick you up from Alice’s tomorrow.  A.J. made sure I didn’t come near you today.  Bye, Jackie.”

His sentences run into each other and before I even get the chance to say goodbye, he hangs up leaving me to an empty ringing noise.  I keep it by my ear hoping for a miracle that there would be some way that he’ll pick up again.  But the miracle was never granted.

“I told you he’s okay,” Alice says.  I place the phone in her palm and sit in the chair.  I watch her hands as they scurry all over—through her hair, rubbing her arm, picking at her nails.  They never stay still unlike me.  I’m feeling rather numb right now and I have no reason to be.  Harry said he was fine.

“You know what you need?” Alice says breaking the silence.

“What?”

“A little fun in your life,” she says as she stands up.

My eyebrows pull together as I watch her walk into the kitchen.  She grabs a wine bottle and a glass before setting it down in front of me.  I shake my head at the thought with a little laugh.