crumble | h.s

part twenty three

Harry Styles

I held Lydia in my arms until I heard her crying stop. When she fell completely silent, I took my hand and gently raised her head to look at me by her chin.

Her blue eyes had shut. There were stained tears on her cheeks but other than that, her face was relaxed completely.

She was asleep.

She had fallen asleep in my arms. She must have been so exhausted.

She knew everything now. She knew about the gang, she knew about the diner, she knew her brother was dead.

But she didn't know that I shot him.

All of this information completely knocked her out to the point where she fell asleep while I was hugging her.

I pulled away from her ever so softly as to not wake her up. Soft breaths left her lips as I guided her body to lay on the bed completely.

I gently grabbed the covers from underneath her and put them on top of her sleeping figure.

I looked down at her for a moment. Her eyes looked so relaxed when they were closed. You'd have no idea what was going on inside her head. Her pink lips were parted very slightly as she breathed through them. Her long blonde hair was spread out across the pillows underneath her head.

She was breathtaking.

I shut the light off and quietly exited my bedroom, allowing her to rest as much as she needed to.

She didn't deserve all of this. It was my fault that she was in this mess but for some reason, I just couldn't come to terms with that.

I walked downstairs and into the kitchen. The boys were scattered around the room...Louis pondering the fridge, Niall scrolling through his phone at the island, and Liam sat next to him eating. I still haven't told them about what happened last night. They still think Lydia doesn't know anything.

Louis was the first one to notice my presence in the kitchen. He closed the fridge with a beer bottle in hand and turned to face me.

"Look who it is. How's the shoulder doing?"  he asks.

I shrug and say "It's alright." and walk past him to join Liam and Niall at the island.

"Is Lydia sleeping?" Niall asks, not looking up from his phone.

"Mhm." I mumble.

"That party must have completely knocked her out." Liam chuckles.

I sit next to Liam and Niall and fiddle with my bottom lip, not knowing how to bring up the Lydia situation.

I really had no clue how to tell them. The fact that Lydia now knows about The Kings changes everything.

I feel a pair of eyes on me and instinctively raise my eyes up from the counter.

Louis was staring at me suspiciously from the other side of the island. He takes a swig from his beer as he drifts his eyes away from mine.

He knew something was going on. He's my best friend...he sees right through me.

"We need to talk about last night." I speak up. The guys turn their attention to me.

"Fuck yeah we do." Louis mumbles, sipping his beer again.

"Well let's look at what we know..." Liam begins. "someone fired a gun twice and someone stabbed you, right? So I think there must have been more than one person." he says, looking at me.

I let my mind drift back to about 13 hours ago, recollecting the events that went down.

-13 hours ago-