Four Reasons (ON HOLD)

Chapter 16

    ~Tom's POV~
    When Elena had gone upstairs in a fury, the three of us at the table were left in tense silence. None of us wanted to eat anymore.
    "I think we could all do with some much needed sleep," Kate finally broke the silence, and Grant and I both nodded in agreement, all of us standing up simultaneously.
    "I'll take care of the dishes, you two go to bed," I said, grabbing some of the food and taking it to the kitchen. "Grant you can take Harrison's room, he won't be back for a while."
    "I'll show you where it is," Kate said, heading up the stairs.
    "Thanks," Grant said, following her after nodding at me.
    I nodded back before putting all of the food away in the fridge. It was actually pretty late, and it was almost pitch black outside, so I turned the light on above the sink and started on the few dishes that were there. This was a great time to think, since no one was around, and I had a lot to think about.
    What am I supposed to do? I mean, Elena's right, I did just meet her a few days ago, and I don't even know how I actually feel about her. At the same time, Harrison's been my best friend for I don't even know how long, and I beat him up! Why the hell did I do that?! I mean, he hurt her, really bad, and I can't imagine what would of happened if she hadn't of screamed, but he obviously has no idea what he did. I can't believe I actually punched him, because of Elena. Man, this is killing me. I care about both of them. So much. But... oh God, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I need to talk to Harrison. I have to make things right, because even though he was the one who did it, I still had no right to react the way I did. I care about Elena a lot, but I don't even know her well enough to have reacted like that. I need to start over with her—keep my emotions in check and just be friends with her. If it turns into something else later on, then it will. But I have to let it do that on it's own.
    I finished the dishes and dried myself off, then turned around and there was Elena leaning against a wall looking at the floor with her arms hugged closely to herself. I jumped in surprise.
    "Holy—you scared me," I exclaimed.
    "Sorry," she said quietly, barely above a whisper. She wouldn't look at me, and I waited for a moment when I saw something clear drip from her face down to the floor. She was crying.
    I know I just told myself to start over with her as just friends, but I couldn't do that quite yet. I walked over to her and wrapped her in a hug. She flinched slightly at the contact, but then relaxed and set her head on my shoulder, her tears soaking my shirt almost instantly.
    "I-I'm s-sorry," she whimpered, sobbing a little.
    "It's okay," I hushed her gently, rubbing small circles on her back with my hands. "I understand, we all understand. You've been through something horrible, and we have been treating you like you can't handle it, and for that I'm sorry."
    She lifted her head off my shoulder and looked at me, her eyes still brimming with tears. "T-thanks," she mumbled, giving me a minuscule strained smile.
    "Hey, look," I started, not sure how to say what I needed to. "I have to talk to Harrison."
    She looked at me startled for a moment, before a wave of understanding flashed through her eyes. "Okay," was all she said.
    "But, I do want to talk to you when I get back," she looked up at me with a glimmer of hope in her eyes at my words. "I'll be back, probably tomorrow. This might take a while."
    "Just..." she began, then paused. "Just, make things right between you. And can you tell him something for me?"
    "Yeah."
    "Tell him that I don't blame him. I haven't forgiven him, but I don't blame him," she finished, one last tear running down her cheek.
    "I will," I reached up and brushed it away, smiling at her. "Now get some rest. Heaven knows you need it."
    "Okay," she nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow."
    She turned away from me and went back up the stairs, and I didn't move until I heard her door click shut. Then I grabbed my keys, went out the door—locking it behind me—and got into my car. I drove to the house Zendaya was staying in and went to the front door.
    I hesitated for several minutes before making up my mind and knocking in determination. It took a minute, but the door opened to a very tired looking Zendaya.
    "Tom?" she looked confused, and honestly a little angry... at me.
    "Hey," I muttered, slowly starting to second guess my decision.
    "Hey," she started. "You're an idiot."
    "What?" her reply caught me off guard.
    "You are an idiot," she repeated, saying it like I was an actual idiot. "Do I need to repeat it again?"
    "No, but why am I an idiot?" I was still confused.
    "You're an idiot because despite your amazing ability to be a superhero on the screen, you seem to be having trouble being one off the screen these days. You beat up your best friend because of a girl that you just met on Friday. And you didn't even listen to his explanation!"
    "That's because there wasn't one! I caught him on top of Elena against her will about to do something that you can't take back and he—"
    "Would you just shut up for half a second!" Zendaya interrupted me. "Just shut up! Let me talk."
    I clapped my mouth shut and crossed my arms, looking at her expectantly.
    "He doesn't even remember doing it, AH—" she held up her hand as I opened my mouth to retort. "I mean, he doesn't remember any of it. He said he doesn't even remember the majority of truth or dare, let alone anything after it. He told me the that the only thing he remembers is everything after you punched him, but nothing before that all the way to when you guys got in the pool. He's been beating himself up over this and practically driving himself insane trying to remember what happened. But he can't."
    I stood there stunned, processing everything she just told me. "He doesn't remember any of it?" I stated to myself rather than asked it. "That kind of blackout doesn't come from just drinking too much. You can still remember what happens most of the time, it just might be fuzzy."
    "I'm really sorry mate," a voice spoke from inside. I looked up and Zendaya turned to see Harrison, looking worse than I had ever seen him before, standing just inside the door.
    "Oh my God, Haz," I choked, seeing my best friend like this was bad enough. But knowing I did it to him... my heart tore in half.
    I stepped through the door and wrapped him in a bro hug, he flinched and I realized that he must be in a lot of pain. I pulled back but kept a hand on his shoulder.
    "Can we talk?" his voice cracked and I figured he must have a really sore throat.
    "Yeah yeah, of course," I replied, leading him to the couch where we both sat down, Zendaya following after closing the door.
    "I don't want you to pity me or feel guilty about what you did to me, I deserved it," Haz started, fiddling with his fingers in his lap.
    "I do feel guilty, I know what you did but the way I reacted was just not right, so I'm sorry too," I said honestly, making sure he knew how I felt about this.
    "Thanks Tom, but I don't deserve your apology. I may not have known what I was doing, but I still did it. However, I have an idea of what might have happened," he answered, turning serious.
    "You do?" both Zendaya and I spoke at same time, clearly surprised at his revelation.
    "Yeah. Someone drugged me," his words were dead serious and all of our faces dropped. "I don't know who, and I don't know why, but someone wanted something to happen that night, and they definitely didn't want me to remember it."
    "Oh wow," Zendaya muttered, putting her head in her hands.
    "The question is, who did it?" I said darkly, my vision going slightly red as the anger from these events came boiling back to the surface.
    "Well, it wasn't either of you two," Harrison said, gesturing at me and Zendaya. "And it obviously wasn't me. So that rules us out, and Elena too."
    "Yeah, so that leaves everyone else. But why would any of them want to drug you?" Zendaya questioned, clearly as confused as the rest of us.
    "Maybe it wasn't meant for Harrison," I thought out loud.
    "That's true. But that's gonna make it even harder to figure out," Haz replied, yawning as soon as the words came out of his mouth.
    We talked for at least another hour, trying to figure out who did it and why, but the results were extremely less than satisfactory for all of us. We officially had no idea.
    "It could have been any of them," I said grimly, my brain at the end of its wires.
    "We won't figure it out tonight," Harrison concluded, huffing back against the back of the couch.
    "Yeah, and we need sleep. We're all exhausted, and we have to go to set tomorrow. We might be able to figure it out if we get some more information, and we can't do that unless we're around everyone that was there. So I say that we just wait and keep each other updated as we go along. That's the best thing I can think of right now, honestly," Zendaya put in her two cents and we all agreed.
    "Do you mind if I crash here?" I asked her, and she shook her head.
    "It's fine, you shouldn't drive anyway. There's two couches, so go ahead."
    "Thanks," I mumbled, letting out a yawn of my own. I looked at the clock and it was almost 2:00am.
    "G'night boys," Z said and stood up, going to her room and shutting off the lights as she went.
    We both muttered goodnight and I stood up, going over to the couch Harrison wasn't on, and was about ready to flop on it and go to sleep when I remembered what Elena had told me.
    "Hey Haz," I said after a moment of silence.
    "Yeah?" he sat up and looked at me.
    "Elena asked me to tell you something, before I came over here," I said hesitantly, unsure of his reaction.
    "Really?!" a glimmer of hope merged into his expression.
    "Yeah. She said to tell you that she doesn't blame you. She hasn't forgiven you but she doesn't blame you."
    Harrison let out a giant sigh and closed his eyes like he was holding back tears. "Thanks mate," he said quietly before laying back down, facing the back of the couch.
    "Goodnight," was my reply before I flopped face first on the other couch, falling asleep almost as soon as I closed my eyes.

~About 4 hours later~

    BZZZZZZ BZZZZZZZ "YOU CAN STAND UNDER MY UMBRELLA ELLA ELLA EH EH EH"
    I jerked awake to my phone buzzing and the ringtone going off on the table.
    "What the heck Tom?" Harrison groaned from the other couch. "I thought you changed that ringtone a long time ago."
    "Oh shut up," I sat up and grabbed the phone, looking at the clock before I answered it. It was 5:00am, and Kate was calling me. "Hello?"
    "TOM! YOU HAVE TO GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW!" she yelled, and I stood up from the couch instantly, hearing the panic in her voice. "IT'S ELENA!"
    "What?!" I started to panic myself. "Okay, okay, I'll be right there. I'll call on the way and you can explain what's happening."