“You’re a guy, right?” Darren asks after several minutes of pacing in front of the bench that Harry sits upon in the park. Harry gives her a look as if to say, ‘no shit, Sherlock,’ but doesn’t say anything otherwise. Darren lets out a frustrated groan and continues to pace.

“Calm down, Darren. You shouldn’t be pacing like that anyway with that boot on your leg.” Harry stands and stops Darren, taking her by the shoulders. “Seriously, sit,” he says and forces her back onto the bench before resuming a seated position next to her.

Darren pants to catch her breath, pulling her good leg up to her chest and slinging her corresponding arm over it. She runs her other hand through her hair a few times before taking in one last shaky breath. “Sorry, I just… I don’t know what to do. I mean-”

“You still haven’t told me what exactly you’re facing. Can you try to explain why you’ve been pacing for half an hour?” Harry says before Darren starts to confuse him with what she should do about whatever it is Darren is having problems with.

She sighs and takes her phone out and opens it to view the messages she received from Blithe. Harry looks over her shoulder as she taps on one of the pictures included with the message that reads, ‘I don’t know about you but doesn’t this look like more than a bromance? When was the last time you saw this dickhead you call a boyfriend anyway?’

Harry’s eyes widen. “You have a boyfriend?” Darren nods. This, he was not aware of, especially since she didn’t seem like the type of girl to be in a relationship. “And the problem is…”

“I haven’t talked to him since last week, and now Blithe has caught him with some guy and they look way too comfortable to be just friends, but I just don’t get it because I’ve been with him for… a long time, and we’ve… I know he isn’t gay.”

“You guys have what? What were you going to say?”

Darren doesn’t flush like most girls because the answer to the question is simple: they’ve had sex. Instead of being the typical I’d-Rather-Not-Talk-About-It kind of girl, she leans in closer to Harry’s ear and gestures him to move closer so that she cups her hand around her mouth and his ear. Without regret, or any emotion whatsoever, she whispers, “We’ve had sex.”

Harry cringes back in disgust. “Gross; you didn’t have to tell me that!”

Darren shrugs and sits back down, laughing. “You asked.” Harry shudders but eventually, after hearing her laugh, he laughs along. Hearing her laugh, and seeing her smile is a contagious disease that he can’t help but catch and suffer the symptoms as well; the symptoms of happiness, and what appears to be pure joy.

After the two have calmed down, they sit in the quietness of the park. The cool breeze sweeps pass them in soft and strong patterns, and some people talk casually in comforting sounds that fill most of the silence. Darren watches her surroundings, as she normally does – or did – in the mornings on her roof.

Eventually, out of tiredness, she leans her onto Harry’s shoulder. He tenses at first, but then smiles at the back of her head, in a non-creepy, but admirable way. Then he reciprocates, and leans his head on top of hers, wrapping his arm around her. She goes by unfazed, and together they look at the world around them.

After a few minutes of just sitting there in silence, Darren speaks up, her voice timid. “Do you think James is cheating on me?” She peaks her head up to look at Harry as he turns his head down to look at her.

He shrugs slightly. “I don’t really know the guy. Perhaps he’s bisexual? Even so, it would be wrong to be deceiving you and doing this behind your back – the other guy as well.”

“I don’t know what to do, and it scares me because I’ve never been scared of anything before… What should I do?” Darren sounds small now, like a small bird fallen out of its nest with no one to see, no one to hear. But someone is listening now, and she’s unsure because of all the background she has with James. At one point, he had fixed her from the tragedy she was living, but now Darren isn’t sure if he ever really fixed her, that maybe she is still the girl she was before him, just more concealed and hidden. Surely, that couldn’t be.

Harry thinks about an answer for a while, unknowing of what to tell the girl who appears to be happy, but seems to be fragile and subject to breaking at any moment. He thinks hard and frustratingly, as if his life depends on this answer, but he can’t think of one.

Harry shrugs in defeat and says, “I could beat him up for you.”

Darren just lets out a breathy laugh, and she leans her head back against his shoulder and closes her eyes, letting the comforting silence engulf her.

~

The next morning, without giving herself any second glances back or second thoughts of what to say or what she’s even doing, Darren knocks on the door of the flat that she has spent many nights in before but now feels foreign to even be standing in front of. There are muffled voices and the quiet sound of feet shuffling on the other side of the door before the dickhead – as Blithe put it – himself opens the door. He wears no shirt, just low hanging sweatpants, and a shocked expression.

Before he has the chance to speak, Darren cuts him off. “We need to talk.” He gulps nervously, but nods at her demand, stepping outside the door and shutting it. Darren steps back to leave space between them, and the boy shoves his hands into his pockets, fearing the words that may follow.

“So what did you want to-”

“Who is this?” Darren asks, holding up her phone screen with the picture that Blithe sent her. He takes the phone and squints at the picture to get a clearer view. Darren folds her arms and taps her foot impatiently, her expression hard and stern.

The man just glances up and laughs – seemingly at Darren. This act infuriates her, and the top of her ears becomes the color of her hair. “He’s my new flat mate, Dare. You weren’t very content with the idea of moving in, and I needed some help with the pay, so I found myself a flat mate.”

Suddenly, Darren feels really stupid, and she can swear she feels her heart clenching. “Then why do you two look so…” She waves her arms around as her way of trying to explain their closeness.

“I had to make sure I’d be comfortable living with him, so we went to grab some coffee and got to know each other, you know?” James says with a smirk. Darren looks down at her shoes, shuffling a little uncomfortably.

After a moment of awkward cutting through the air, James sighs and wraps his arms around Darren. “I know I’m a bit late, but Happy Birthday, Dare. I’m sorry for being an ignorant ass of a boyfriend.” This act of pure apology makes Darren’s heart warm, and she wraps her arms around him as well, burying her face into his torso.

“It’s okay; I love you,” she says, but saying that makes her heart clench again like she’s lying to herself.

James kisses the top of her forehead and lets his lips linger there when he whispers, “I love you, too.”

~

Harry continues to glare at the wall as he has been for the past seven hours since he woke up. He only spared time to shower and eat, but even then he continued to give everything the stink eye. He doesn’t know why exactly, but a part of him is angry for some reason, like he just wants to go on a rage and throw things.

The reason for his unbreakable anger is a result of one thing – or person, rather. Until yesterday, he hadn’t known about Darren’s boyfriend, and even though they’re only friends, Harry can’t help but feel angry about it. He can’t figure out if his anger is a result of her not telling him straight forward in the beginning, or because of the possibility that they could have been more than friends.

He growls at the thought. ‘No. Darren is just my friend.’ Likewise, Leanna was his friend at first, but they became closer. ‘She can’t be more than a best friend. I can’t let it happen again.’

The troubled man pushes his head into the palm of his head to relieve the headache that he feels coming on. Then, someone knocks at his door. Huffing, he uses his hand to push up on his knees and stand to open the door. He doesn’t even see who it is before they march their way in, passing him with rowdy greetings at the door.

His band mates crowd his living room, kicking their feet up on the coffee table and opening bottles of beer that one of them must have brought in with them. Harry closes his door cautiously in confusion as one of them turns on his Xbox console and starts up the Fifa disc.

He walks onto the side of his living room so that all can see him. “What are you doing?”

“Playing Fifa,” Louis tells him in a “duh” tone of voice.

“I see that,” Harry says exasperatingly, “but why are you in my home? What happened to all of your homes?” Louis and Zayn claim to have been kicked out of their homes while they all claim that Harry’s residence is just central to them all. Harry just rolls his eyes and takes a beer and a seat, not bothering to argue about this situation.

He kicks his feet up and takes a large swig of the alcohol and glares now at their game. His anger may have dissolved for a minute there, but he’s still not over it. Liam can see this though, and he gets up and takes a seat next to his distressed brother.

“Something is wrong,” Liam states, just knowing, not questioning. Harry glances at Liam in the corner of his eye and takes another swig. “It’s not because we’re here; you love us too much.”

Harry scoffs. “Is this your way of getting me to tell you?” Liam tilts his head to the left, then the right, just smiling as his way of saying yes. “I was out with Darren yesterday after the meeting. We just… talked.”

“And you’re mad because?” Harry puts his bottle to his lips and mumbles incoherent words into his sips before pulling back from the bottle. “Sorry, what was that?”

Harry scratches the back of his neck, thinking of how stupid he will sound. “She has a boyfriend…”

Liam snickers. “It sounds to me that someone might be a little jealous.”

“I am not jealous!” Harry blurts. He sighs and runs a hand through his curls. “I’m just a bit mad that she hadn’t told me until she was asking for boy advice. He’s either gay, a cheater, an arse, or all of the above as far as I know.”

Liam laughs and pats his ‘not-jealous’ friend on the back. “I’m sure that’s why.”

~

“Hello?” Darren calls out to no one in particular as she walks into the front of her home. The boys’ car wasn’t in the driveway, and all but one kitchen light was off as she noticed when James dropped her off just seconds ago. “Anybody home?”

She turns on a few of the nearby light switches and walks further into the main living area. All appliances are turned off, and if the boys had gone, they would have left a note on the entrance table near the key bowl as they usually do. Darren can’t help but think about how strange this all is.

‘Perhaps they’ve just gone out on last minute notice and didn’t have time to leave me a note…’ she thinks, trying to come up with a solution to this mystery. Rather than panic irrationally, she decides to not question their absence and call up Blithe to talk about her make up with James.

When she pulls out her phone, she is alarmed to see several missed calls from both of her brothers, as well as her sister, mother, and Rhys, though no voice mails are left, and no text messages have come through if they had left a message.

She slides her thumb across one of the names urgently to call one of them back. If there is trouble within her family, she has to know whether she wants to be apart of the family or not. Darren may have gone through a lot of bad times with her involvement in this family, but they are still of the same blood.

“Dare, is that you?” a frail voice asks. Meek sobs come over the line, and the voice of Emmy Lou is shaky.

“It’s me, Lou-Lou. What’s wrong?”

“P- please come to the ho- hospital.” Darren’s pupils grow bigger, and her heart is on edge, pounding rapidly in her chest. She searches for words that ask ‘why?’ that ask ‘who?’ but she can’t process her tongue. Emmy Lou sobs loudly now, unable to talk further. Darren hears the phone being passed on before Finn’s voice is loud and clear on the other end.

“You need to come here, Dare,” Finn tells her. Darren can tell he’s trying to sound strong, but she can also tell that he isn’t doing well himself.

“What’s going on, Finn? I- I don’t understand; I-”

Before she can start rambling, Finn cuts her off. “Listen to me. I don’t care if you’ve neglected him for the past seven some odd years, you are going to get someone to take you here, and you will not protest.”

“Tell me who’s in the hospital first, Finn.”

“It’s Dad.”

Darren frowns. “And why should I care?”

Even over the line, Darren can hear Finn’s groan of distaste in this conversation. “Look. You may not care, or want to listen to me try to explain why you should, but let’s face it. He wasn’t the best father to you, but he’s the only father you’ve got. You may not want him, but he’s your God damn blood-”

“Oh really, now? Last time I checked-”

“Shut up for a minute, Dare! I don’t care about your petty dispute with him; he’s still the man who loved you unconditionally for at least the first thirteen years of your life.”

Darren gulps back unwanted tears that threaten to fall with this scolding. “The first thirteen years of my life were all lies. I owe that man nothing,” she spits, trying to stay strong but choking on her words.

For the next few minutes there is a silence. Darren isn’t sure if Finn hung up on her yet, but she doesn’t want to check, continuing to hold the device to her ear. Seconds pass before she hears a couple voices and then some shuffling. The phone is passed.

The new holder breathes unsteadily, heavily, into the receiver. Darren pulls the phone from her ear and checks to make sure she isn’t just hearing things from a disconnected phone call. She isn’t.

“Darren,” a voice says finally when she puts the phone back to her ear. Darren takes a sharp breath of air, holding it in her throat. “You may not owe me anything… but I think I owe you an apology – one that is face to face.” A fit of coughing follows and there is muffled shouting before the person continues. “It’s up to you to come, and if you don’t, I will understand.”

The line goes dead.

Notes

Sorry it took me a while to update. I got a minor case of writer's block after forgetting my intentions for the Blithe-James text situation thingy, but then I remembered them, so it's all good :)

Should Darren worry/care and go to the hospital?
What does she have against her dad?
Aren't you all just so happy Jarry is on good terms? ;)
Or should Harry beat James up like he originally suggested?
Is James even telling the truth?

Thank you, thank you, thank you for 86 subscribers! You're all super amazing! If you guys comment, I might consider updating again this weekend, but only if there are multiple comments coming from more than just the same amazing person who comments every time and vote!

~A