Chapter 14: Doubt
Sophie’s POV
Niall was quick to tell the others about Anne’s incident after they saw the medics exiting his room.
“How could you let her get away like that?!” Harry reproaches once we’re back in his room.
“Hey it’s not my fault! I tried to stop her!” I protest.
“Yeah well you could’ve tried harder,” he huffs, sitting on the bed with his hands buried in his curls. “God we could’ve been in so much trouble if she actually made it out...”
“But she didn’t―”
“It was a close one!” He cuts off swiftly. “A very close one! And she got hurt! What if we would’ve been obliged to take her to the godamn hospital?! She would’ve told every fucking body about us!”
“Please stop yelling at me,” I ask him pleadingly. “I was worried too alright? I don’t want you guys to get caught either,” I admit.
He takes a deep breath, looking at me from under his mass of hair. “You’re right, I’m sorry,” he exhales after a few seconds, standing up and hugging me tightly. “I just really don’t want to lose you because of your sister... I don’t want to lose you at all in fact,” Harry mumbles, pulling back and kissing my forehead.
I look up at him, before joining our lips in a tender kiss. “I won’t leave you Harry,” I murmur resting my head on his shoulder, breathing in softly.
“We never know... Maybe you’ll be forced to leave again.” He persists, reflexively hugging me tighter.
“It won’t happen.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Don’t think about it alright?” I try. He huffs, pulling away from the hug.
“Yeah well it’s easier said than done,” he mutters angrily. “I’m so afraid I’ll come back one day and find you gone... for good.”
“Harry...―”
I stop in mid-sentence, Liam bursting in the room.
“Why the fuck did you think it was okay to untie Anne?” He enquires angrily, stomping towards me.
“I-I-I―”
“She almost fucking made it out! Because of you! I bet you didn’t even try to stop her!”
“Liam calm the fuck down,” Harry intervenes just as I’m about to reply. “We got her back.”
“Barely! If Niall wasn’t so keen on leaving early because of his headache, we wouldn’t have gotten here in time! We have to leave for tonight’s show soon, what do you think’ll happen then?! These shows last a good three hours! What guarantees Sophie AND Anne will be here when we’ll be back?!” Liam declares heatedly, both he and Harry turning to look at me at that last question.
“I have absolutely no reason to leave you guys,” I state frowning.
“Anne does. She’s the main problem here and you’re not exactly picking a side,” Harry replies tiredly, moving his hair out of his face.
“Pick a side? Harry I’m not exactly going to restrain her from doing what she wants... She can learn by her mistakes for all I care,” I say, placing my hands on my hips.
“Her attitude resembles your old one Soph... Maybe you could talk to her about behaving properly?” Harry proposes. “It might avoid her some problems...”
“Last time I tried she jumped off a balcony,” I roll my eyes.
“Yeah well you’ve got to keep trying because my patience is running thin with you sister,” Liam snaps, turning around to leave. “You have 45 minutes Harry before we have to go, you better find a way to keep them both put,” he adds before leaving the room.
The curly-haired boy sighs loudly, dropping backwards on the bed in exhaustion. He shuts his eyes.
“What are we going to do?” he mutters to himself, rubbing his temples. “Maybe if both of you are restrained―”
“You’re not planning on tying me up, are you?” I scowl.
“I don’t know...I don’t want to but I don’t really have a choice.”
“Harry you can trust me.”
“Anne’s the problem Soph... And unfortunately you’re influenced. When we were in the bus earlier, in your little amnesiac phase, you mentioned something about only trusting her. I don’t think you’re always acting out of your own free will.”
“I am I swear.”
“Then why did you untie her earlier?” He probes, cocking his eyebrow upwards.
“She asked me to,” I respond, grimacing a little. Thinking about it again, it did seem weird that I had agreed to her demand so easily... I think it’s because of Dad’s drugs. He did mention something about trusting family...
“See?”
“Harry you need to stop worrying so much,” I declare finally, pushing the possibility away.
“I’m trying Soph but you can’t deny that it’s possible,” he mumbles, closing his eyes.
I carefully climb on the bed and over him, placing my legs on either side of his body. “Harry I’m free of the drugs. Everything I do is out of my own free will.” My hands slide slowly down the length of his chest, grazing his manhood. He opens his green eyes in surprise. The shock is short lived though as he rapidly grabs the back of my neck, flipping us around.
“I love you, you know that right?” He whispers.
I nod, biting my lip. He groans and joins our lips, his arms wrapping themselves around my body into a tight embrace. My fingers dig into his hair.
I sigh and break the kiss, nuzzling in his neck and relishing the warmth he provided. He proceeds to pepper my neckline with butterfly kisses. I giggle.
Brusquely, he stops.
“I think I know what we’re going to do with you and Anne tonight,” he declares.
○♥○
I’m furious. How could they?! Not only did they fucking move Anne and me inside their tour bus with a bodyguard, but they also had to tie my foot to the couch’s leg? Like seriously?! I can’t even reach the fridge!
It had been more than two hours and I was now lying on my back on the bus’s floor, bored as hell, grumbling nonsense to Fate who was laid on my stomach. Just before they left for their show, Niall had placed a sleeping Anne in the big bedroom, if we can call it big, and locked her in there. I managed to pull Fate out of that room just in time as a means of entertainment.
“Is a little freedom to much to ask?” I mumble, caressing her head. She doesn’t move. I hoist myself up a little, realizing she’s sleeping soundly. I don’t blame her, it was nearly midnight and they still weren’t back. “God dammit Harry why can’t you fucking trust me,” I curse irritably. My cat awakes and leaves brusquely, sitting on the windowsill. “Oh come on,” I complain, looking at her. She doesn’t gawk back. I send my head backwards in exasperation. “Cats.”
I jolt upwards as the bus’s door finally opens.
“God dammit it was about fucking time,” I grumble loudly, pushing myself up to my feet.
“Your language Soph,” Zayn chides, being the first to walk in.
“Zayn, my leg,” I retort, glaring.
“Someone’s pissed,” Louis remarks, chuckling as he takes a seat on the couch.
“Yeah well someone’s been bored out of their mind Louis,” I reply dryly, watching as Zayn frees me from the cuff on my ankle.
“God that show was something.” The Doncaster boy lets out an exasperated sigh, passing his hand through his hair as Harry, Liam and Niall climb up in the bus.
“Oh no I’m not hugging you,” I shake my head as Harry advances towards me with his arms open. I sit on the sofa in front of Louis instead, irritated.
“Aww come on Soph don’t pout,” he coos, coming towards me. “It was for your own safety,” he tries, nudging my chin up. I look away.
“But was the cuffing necessary? And the bodyguard outside? No.” I snap, crossing my arms over my chest.
“What we’re you expecting exactly?” Liam probes, sitting on the small beside Niall who was digging in the fridge. “Hmm? What did you think would happen when you came back to us?”
“A little bit of trust wouldn’t have been too bad. I understand you can’t trust my sister, but you can trust me. You used to trust me all the time when we we’re in Ireland―”
“Sweetheart when we were in Ireland, there weren’t thousands of fans ready to jump on us at any second, nor was there management or hotels or tour buses. It was just us, a house, and one friend at school who knew about you,” Harry says calmly. “You’re expecting too much from us for the amount of time you’ve spent here so far... Please give us a little time to get used to this unusual routine and then―”
“Harry,” I beg, looking at him pleadingly. I could feel all five boys looking at me. “You can’t lock me here constantly...” I persist.
“Only when it’ll be necessary okay?” he exhales, clearly tired. “Look Soph I don’t want to argue with you right now....Can we just head to bed please?”
“In the bus? I thought we had a hotel room...”
“That little stunt Anne pulled attracted some attention. Attention we don’t need,” Zayn answers. “So we talked to Paul and asked if we could do some night driving and have more time in Atlanta tomorrow to stroll around instead. He agreed. So the nine hour of driving will be mostly done in our sleep. Fun isn’t it?” He smiles.
“I’m thrilled,” I say blandly.
“Great! Everybody to bed then. I’m bloody tired,” Louis announces tiredly, standing up.
My gaze diverts to Fate as the boys remove their shirts. “Hey I was wondering... what happened to the ducklings?” I enquire suddenly.
“We sold them,” Liam informs, rolling his shirt into a ball. “With the rest of the house.”
“Oh.” My gaze drops sadly, remembering my little Karma. I was going to miss that duckling...
“Are you comin’ in my bunk?” Harry mumbles in my neck, pressing his naked chest to my back as his arms wrapped around my body.
“I’ll go sleep with Anne in fact,” I declare. He freezes behind me.
“You’re angry after me.” He says, as if stating a fact.
“I’m hurt Harry,” I rectify, turning around to look at him in the eyes. “It’s not the same.”
“True, because then we would be having some hate sex,” he winks, more relaxed.
I roll my eyes, a faint smile on the corner of my lips. “Harry. Be serious.”
“Tsk tsk I know you sweet cheeks,” he murmurs. “You like sex as much as I do.”
“Maybe but it’s not always the solution Harold,” I tease.
“Talking either,” he mocks.
“Oi you two lovebirds stop arguing and go to sleep already!” Louis shouts from somewhere in the bunks. There’s a knock at the door just as we start moving towards the end of the bus.
“I’ll go get it,” Niall yawns, pulling himself out of the upper bunks and grabbing a shirt. My eyes move to his scarred wrists briefly before he’s descending the couple of steps leading to the door away from my line of vision. “Yeah? Oh hiya Paul.”
“You sure you boys want to leave tonight? The hotel managers are keeping your rooms booked in...”
“Yeah.”
“Are you completely sure?” He repeats.
“We’ll just spend more time walking the streets of Atlanta Paul. It’ll be cool. Besides, Louis’s all tucked in already and we’re all pretty much crashing in,” Niall answers.
“Goodnight Paul!” Louis shouts from his bunk.
“Good night Lou!” The man chuckles before huffing loudly. “Fine then. You guys seem bent on spending the night here. The driver should be here soon... See you in the morning lads!” he shouts the last part and the five boys reply with grunts.
“Night Soph,” Harry whispers, before bending down to join our lips. I return his kiss, my hands on his warm chest.
“Night Harry,” I sigh, breaking the kiss. He kisses me one last time and lets me go, heading to his own bunk while I walked to the small bedroom.
I watch my sister’s sleeping figure warily. Why did she have to get involved in all this again? Ah yes Niall had mistaken her for me and now they simply couldn’t let her go.
Shaking my head, I remove the track pants and slide under the covers beside her, keeping a certain distance between our bodies.
The bus rumbles to life and I shut my eyes, resignedly thinking of the days to come.
Niall was quick to tell the others about Anne’s incident after they saw the medics exiting his room.
“How could you let her get away like that?!” Harry reproaches once we’re back in his room.
“Hey it’s not my fault! I tried to stop her!” I protest.
“Yeah well you could’ve tried harder,” he huffs, sitting on the bed with his hands buried in his curls. “God we could’ve been in so much trouble if she actually made it out...”
“But she didn’t―”
“It was a close one!” He cuts off swiftly. “A very close one! And she got hurt! What if we would’ve been obliged to take her to the godamn hospital?! She would’ve told every fucking body about us!”
“Please stop yelling at me,” I ask him pleadingly. “I was worried too alright? I don’t want you guys to get caught either,” I admit.
He takes a deep breath, looking at me from under his mass of hair. “You’re right, I’m sorry,” he exhales after a few seconds, standing up and hugging me tightly. “I just really don’t want to lose you because of your sister... I don’t want to lose you at all in fact,” Harry mumbles, pulling back and kissing my forehead.
I look up at him, before joining our lips in a tender kiss. “I won’t leave you Harry,” I murmur resting my head on his shoulder, breathing in softly.
“We never know... Maybe you’ll be forced to leave again.” He persists, reflexively hugging me tighter.
“It won’t happen.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Don’t think about it alright?” I try. He huffs, pulling away from the hug.
“Yeah well it’s easier said than done,” he mutters angrily. “I’m so afraid I’ll come back one day and find you gone... for good.”
“Harry...―”
I stop in mid-sentence, Liam bursting in the room.
“Why the fuck did you think it was okay to untie Anne?” He enquires angrily, stomping towards me.
“I-I-I―”
“She almost fucking made it out! Because of you! I bet you didn’t even try to stop her!”
“Liam calm the fuck down,” Harry intervenes just as I’m about to reply. “We got her back.”
“Barely! If Niall wasn’t so keen on leaving early because of his headache, we wouldn’t have gotten here in time! We have to leave for tonight’s show soon, what do you think’ll happen then?! These shows last a good three hours! What guarantees Sophie AND Anne will be here when we’ll be back?!” Liam declares heatedly, both he and Harry turning to look at me at that last question.
“I have absolutely no reason to leave you guys,” I state frowning.
“Anne does. She’s the main problem here and you’re not exactly picking a side,” Harry replies tiredly, moving his hair out of his face.
“Pick a side? Harry I’m not exactly going to restrain her from doing what she wants... She can learn by her mistakes for all I care,” I say, placing my hands on my hips.
“Her attitude resembles your old one Soph... Maybe you could talk to her about behaving properly?” Harry proposes. “It might avoid her some problems...”
“Last time I tried she jumped off a balcony,” I roll my eyes.
“Yeah well you’ve got to keep trying because my patience is running thin with you sister,” Liam snaps, turning around to leave. “You have 45 minutes Harry before we have to go, you better find a way to keep them both put,” he adds before leaving the room.
The curly-haired boy sighs loudly, dropping backwards on the bed in exhaustion. He shuts his eyes.
“What are we going to do?” he mutters to himself, rubbing his temples. “Maybe if both of you are restrained―”
“You’re not planning on tying me up, are you?” I scowl.
“I don’t know...I don’t want to but I don’t really have a choice.”
“Harry you can trust me.”
“Anne’s the problem Soph... And unfortunately you’re influenced. When we were in the bus earlier, in your little amnesiac phase, you mentioned something about only trusting her. I don’t think you’re always acting out of your own free will.”
“I am I swear.”
“Then why did you untie her earlier?” He probes, cocking his eyebrow upwards.
“She asked me to,” I respond, grimacing a little. Thinking about it again, it did seem weird that I had agreed to her demand so easily... I think it’s because of Dad’s drugs. He did mention something about trusting family...
“See?”
“Harry you need to stop worrying so much,” I declare finally, pushing the possibility away.
“I’m trying Soph but you can’t deny that it’s possible,” he mumbles, closing his eyes.
I carefully climb on the bed and over him, placing my legs on either side of his body. “Harry I’m free of the drugs. Everything I do is out of my own free will.” My hands slide slowly down the length of his chest, grazing his manhood. He opens his green eyes in surprise. The shock is short lived though as he rapidly grabs the back of my neck, flipping us around.
“I love you, you know that right?” He whispers.
I nod, biting my lip. He groans and joins our lips, his arms wrapping themselves around my body into a tight embrace. My fingers dig into his hair.
I sigh and break the kiss, nuzzling in his neck and relishing the warmth he provided. He proceeds to pepper my neckline with butterfly kisses. I giggle.
Brusquely, he stops.
“I think I know what we’re going to do with you and Anne tonight,” he declares.
○♥○
I’m furious. How could they?! Not only did they fucking move Anne and me inside their tour bus with a bodyguard, but they also had to tie my foot to the couch’s leg? Like seriously?! I can’t even reach the fridge!
It had been more than two hours and I was now lying on my back on the bus’s floor, bored as hell, grumbling nonsense to Fate who was laid on my stomach. Just before they left for their show, Niall had placed a sleeping Anne in the big bedroom, if we can call it big, and locked her in there. I managed to pull Fate out of that room just in time as a means of entertainment.
“Is a little freedom to much to ask?” I mumble, caressing her head. She doesn’t move. I hoist myself up a little, realizing she’s sleeping soundly. I don’t blame her, it was nearly midnight and they still weren’t back. “God dammit Harry why can’t you fucking trust me,” I curse irritably. My cat awakes and leaves brusquely, sitting on the windowsill. “Oh come on,” I complain, looking at her. She doesn’t gawk back. I send my head backwards in exasperation. “Cats.”
I jolt upwards as the bus’s door finally opens.
“God dammit it was about fucking time,” I grumble loudly, pushing myself up to my feet.
“Your language Soph,” Zayn chides, being the first to walk in.
“Zayn, my leg,” I retort, glaring.
“Someone’s pissed,” Louis remarks, chuckling as he takes a seat on the couch.
“Yeah well someone’s been bored out of their mind Louis,” I reply dryly, watching as Zayn frees me from the cuff on my ankle.
“God that show was something.” The Doncaster boy lets out an exasperated sigh, passing his hand through his hair as Harry, Liam and Niall climb up in the bus.
“Oh no I’m not hugging you,” I shake my head as Harry advances towards me with his arms open. I sit on the sofa in front of Louis instead, irritated.
“Aww come on Soph don’t pout,” he coos, coming towards me. “It was for your own safety,” he tries, nudging my chin up. I look away.
“But was the cuffing necessary? And the bodyguard outside? No.” I snap, crossing my arms over my chest.
“What we’re you expecting exactly?” Liam probes, sitting on the small beside Niall who was digging in the fridge. “Hmm? What did you think would happen when you came back to us?”
“A little bit of trust wouldn’t have been too bad. I understand you can’t trust my sister, but you can trust me. You used to trust me all the time when we we’re in Ireland―”
“Sweetheart when we were in Ireland, there weren’t thousands of fans ready to jump on us at any second, nor was there management or hotels or tour buses. It was just us, a house, and one friend at school who knew about you,” Harry says calmly. “You’re expecting too much from us for the amount of time you’ve spent here so far... Please give us a little time to get used to this unusual routine and then―”
“Harry,” I beg, looking at him pleadingly. I could feel all five boys looking at me. “You can’t lock me here constantly...” I persist.
“Only when it’ll be necessary okay?” he exhales, clearly tired. “Look Soph I don’t want to argue with you right now....Can we just head to bed please?”
“In the bus? I thought we had a hotel room...”
“That little stunt Anne pulled attracted some attention. Attention we don’t need,” Zayn answers. “So we talked to Paul and asked if we could do some night driving and have more time in Atlanta tomorrow to stroll around instead. He agreed. So the nine hour of driving will be mostly done in our sleep. Fun isn’t it?” He smiles.
“I’m thrilled,” I say blandly.
“Great! Everybody to bed then. I’m bloody tired,” Louis announces tiredly, standing up.
My gaze diverts to Fate as the boys remove their shirts. “Hey I was wondering... what happened to the ducklings?” I enquire suddenly.
“We sold them,” Liam informs, rolling his shirt into a ball. “With the rest of the house.”
“Oh.” My gaze drops sadly, remembering my little Karma. I was going to miss that duckling...
“Are you comin’ in my bunk?” Harry mumbles in my neck, pressing his naked chest to my back as his arms wrapped around my body.
“I’ll go sleep with Anne in fact,” I declare. He freezes behind me.
“You’re angry after me.” He says, as if stating a fact.
“I’m hurt Harry,” I rectify, turning around to look at him in the eyes. “It’s not the same.”
“True, because then we would be having some hate sex,” he winks, more relaxed.
I roll my eyes, a faint smile on the corner of my lips. “Harry. Be serious.”
“Tsk tsk I know you sweet cheeks,” he murmurs. “You like sex as much as I do.”
“Maybe but it’s not always the solution Harold,” I tease.
“Talking either,” he mocks.
“Oi you two lovebirds stop arguing and go to sleep already!” Louis shouts from somewhere in the bunks. There’s a knock at the door just as we start moving towards the end of the bus.
“I’ll go get it,” Niall yawns, pulling himself out of the upper bunks and grabbing a shirt. My eyes move to his scarred wrists briefly before he’s descending the couple of steps leading to the door away from my line of vision. “Yeah? Oh hiya Paul.”
“You sure you boys want to leave tonight? The hotel managers are keeping your rooms booked in...”
“Yeah.”
“Are you completely sure?” He repeats.
“We’ll just spend more time walking the streets of Atlanta Paul. It’ll be cool. Besides, Louis’s all tucked in already and we’re all pretty much crashing in,” Niall answers.
“Goodnight Paul!” Louis shouts from his bunk.
“Good night Lou!” The man chuckles before huffing loudly. “Fine then. You guys seem bent on spending the night here. The driver should be here soon... See you in the morning lads!” he shouts the last part and the five boys reply with grunts.
“Night Soph,” Harry whispers, before bending down to join our lips. I return his kiss, my hands on his warm chest.
“Night Harry,” I sigh, breaking the kiss. He kisses me one last time and lets me go, heading to his own bunk while I walked to the small bedroom.
I watch my sister’s sleeping figure warily. Why did she have to get involved in all this again? Ah yes Niall had mistaken her for me and now they simply couldn’t let her go.
Shaking my head, I remove the track pants and slide under the covers beside her, keeping a certain distance between our bodies.
The bus rumbles to life and I shut my eyes, resignedly thinking of the days to come.