The Spaces Between Us | hariana | liriana

|28| Where's Ari?

"Lock me up, and keep me hidden somewhere, that you can find me."

-Don't Be Gone Too Long

Chris Brown ft. Ariana Grande

ARIANA'S POV

I open my eyes, and I'm in a dark room. My head throbs, and I bring my hand up to rub my temple. But my wrists are tied together. I stand, and I can vaguely see a light coming from behind a door. I run to the door, and bang on it.

"Someone help me!" I yell, and the door swings open swiftly.

I would feel relief, but the person who answers it slaps me across the face. I fall back, clutching my stinging cheek. I look up at the person, and gasp in horror. Perrie. Edwards. From Little Mix.

She smirks. "Surprised, bitch?"

"Perrie, I thought we were friends. Please, help me." I beg her, but she just laughs in my face.

"Let him in." She tells someone, then slams the door shut again.

"No!" I scream, trying to open the door. Then I hear another door open from behind me. I slowly turn, and to my surprise, it's someone I never thought I'd be happy to see.

"Graham! Please help me!" I say to him as he approaches. Some type of intercom system comes on, and Perrie speaks through it.

"Dumbass! He's not here to help you, he's here to finish what he started when you were 17." She says, and my blood runs cold.

He continues to approach me, and I back away, now knowing his motives. He backs me into a corner, and i slide down to the ground. He crouches in front of me, and caresses my cheek. I turn my face away from him, letting out a whimper. He grabs my chin, forcing me to look into his eyes.

"I'll make it quick." He tells me, and I push his hand off me. "It's not like I'll be your first, like I was supposed to be." He unties my wrists, as I back myself as far into the corner as I can go. Which isn't far enough from him.

He tries to slide the sleeve of my dress off my shoulder, and out of instinct, I slap him. He chuckles sickly before I feel his fist hit my cheek full force. I gasp from the sudden attack, and excruciating sting, as I fall flat on the ground. He next uses all his strength for his leg to hit me in the stomach. The wind is knocked out of me, and a few stray tears slip out.

He smirks. "Worthless whore." He spits at me. "I'll be back soon to fuck you." A door slams behind him, and relief washes over me.

Safe. For now...

Now as I'm lying on the cold hard ground, I can't help but wish, hope, beg that this nightmare will be over soon.

HARRY'S POV

The phone might as well be glued to my ear as I wait for Alexa's response.

"Shit. I should've kept my eye on her. Do you think it's A?" She asks.

I grab my jacket and my keys. "Obviously you're too intoxicated to realize you're stating the obvious, Lex."

"Okay. So what do we do?"

"Does Ari know anyone else at that party? Preferrably with a big mouth?" I say as I pull out of the driveway.

"I don't know. She was talking to Liam for a while. Maybe he knows." She suggests, and my grip on the steering wheel tightens.

"Alright. Stay on the line, I'm heading over to pay him a visit. I'll get you a name when I can." I tell her.

"Got it." She agrees, and I speed off down the road.

--5 Minutes Later--

I walk into Liam's place, and the whole group is gathered. Their laughter fades out when they see me. The girls give me dirty looks, muttering incoherent probably offensive things. I ignore them, walking straight over to Liam, and get right to the point.

"Liam, you and Ari were pretty close. I need to know if she told you about any people she knew. Talkative friends?" I say, and Nicki scoffs.

"Going after the girl's friends now? That's low. Don't you think you've hurt her enough?" She says.

I swallow the lump in my throat. "I know I fucked up Nicki, and I'm having to pay for it every second of everyday. Please, you don't need to throw it in my face so just fuck off. Right now, she just disappeared from a beverly hills party, and i'll be damned if she has to spend another second in the hands of that bitch A with me just sitting on my ass!"

The group stares at me in pure shock. None of them say a word.

"You've fallen for her, haven't you?" Louis asks, but instead of answering, I stare at the ground.

Liam sighs. "She said she knew a girl named Indiana Evans. Apparently, Indiana was a good gossip and always knew what was going on,"

I send him a serious nod, then turn away from them, pressing the phone to my ear.

"Lex, look for an Indiana Evans." I say.

"On it. Call you later." She replies, and we both hang up.

ALEXA'S POV

I search around for the unknown girl, when a waiter spills a drink on me. He apologies, and I tell him it's fine.

I go into the bathroom, taking some paper towels and wiping my dress. A blonde girl comes in, and takes one look at me, and says, "the waiters got you, too?"

I nod. She sighs, "It's really dumb 'cause I was gonna tell everyone how I saw a girl getting carried away by a bunch of weirdos in hoodies into the woods, and now this--"

My eyes widen as I analyze what she just said. "Wait was this girl rather petite, with red hair?"

"Yeah, she was!" She says enthusiastically.

"Who are you?"

"Um. Isn't it obvious? I'm Indiana Evans." She says in a 'duh' tone.

I nearly jump for joy.

"Do you know where they were headed?!" I ask.

"Yeah, they went to an old abandoned building, I can take you there." She suggests.

"TAKE ME!" I scream, and she grabs my wrist, and we run out of the bathroom.

--15 Minutes Later--

After a long sprint through the woods, which we got lost in twice, we finally get to the building.

We sneak to the side of the building, and look through a window. I'm filled with joy when I see the vague figure of Ari. The joy is quickly replaced with pure rage when I see Graham kick her in the stomach.

Suddenly remembering, I pull out my phone and dial Harry's number.

He picks up immediately. "What's going on?"

"Harry!" I say.

"What's wrong? Why are you breathless?"

"We found her. But you won't believe what's going on..."

*A|N: okayyyyy my phone is still being a bitch so.....yeah. OMFG THE AMAS!!!! 1D MAH BABIES!!!! THEY DESERVED ALL THEIR AWARDS!!! AND ARIIIIII HER SLOW RENDITION OF PROBLEM BREAK FREE, AND THEN INTO LOVE ME HARDER IT WAS FLAWLESSSSS!! AND THEN BANG BANG ADFVHAHFDSJF I SCREAMED WHEN SHE DROPPED HER ASS DOWN TO THE FLOOR I CAN'T IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL. AND MY FRIEND IS LIKE "SHE CAN'T DANCE" AND IM LIKE "FUCK YOUR LIFE" I CAN'T. SHE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO WIN ANYTHING FOR EVERYONE TO SEE HOW SHE'S QUEEN. WAS ANYONE ELSE THINKING ABOUT THE FACT THAT HARRY WATCHED HER DANCE LIKE THAT. IN MY MIND, IM LIKE, "IT WAS PROBABLY BONER CITY FOR HARRY LIKE ONE ERECTION IN THE BUILDING" anyways let me stop fangirling. I've been working on a trailer for this book, and im almost done. I just have to connect it to YouTube, then connect it to Wattpad. Bang Bang just came on Pandora.*

~Ashley(;