Chapter 13: Looking for Taylor (Harry’s P.O.V.)

I had no idea why the hell Louis had come running into my room like a banshee. He was trying to explain something to me, but he was talking way too fast for me to understand anything. The only thing that I understood was that we needed to leave right away. I decided now to argue with him and threw my shoes on. When Louis was in this state, there was really no arguing with him. His mind was made up.

The others gave the two of us weird looks as Louis darted out the front door. I shrugged my shoulders at them before closing the door behind us.

“She said that she had to find her.” Louis continued to babble as he sped down the street. “She said something’s wrong. She must be hurt.”

“Whoa!” I exclaimed, “Lou, slow down for second mate. Explain everything from the beginning.”

Louis took a much needed breath before he began to explain, “I called Ann, and-“

“Ann?” I raised an eyebrow at him, “Who is Ann?”

“The beautiful girl that we picked up the other night.” He said, “She was working at the Starbucks that I stopped at this morning. She left her number on my cup.”

I nodded my head, “Nice.”

“But that’s not important,” he urged. “I called her so we could talk and maybe get to know each other some. I was wanting to try and ask her out on a date. But then, she said that she was going to try and figure out where her friend Taylor was. Before she could call or anything, she got a text message that worried her.”

I looked at him a little worried. This was about Taylor, the Taylor that I couldn’t get out of my brain.

He continued, “It took me a bit to get her to tell me what was wrong with the message. Finally, she said that the message wasn’t from Taylor and that she must be in trouble. I asked her how she knew this and she said that she could tell just by the content of the message.”

“What did the message say?”

He shook his head, “I am not completely sure. Ann got a little hysterical after that, saying that she had to go find Taylor and how she should have known better, she wasn’t making a lot of sense.”

I nodded my head at what he had said as I turned back to look out ahead. It was clear that something was wrong if Ann had freaked out the way that Louis said she had. The whole thing made me nervous as different thoughts ran through my head. What could have happened to Taylor that scared her friend so bad? What had been in that message?

My mind kept running in overdrive, creating images of Taylor bloody, dead, and other ways that I never wished to see. My heart ached as I thought of what we would find when we got there.

“Louis,” I asked. “Are we going to meet Ann and find Taylor?”

“Yeah,” he replied. “She said that she might need my help. I thought I should bring you along.”

I went back to staring ahead without responding to what he said. Ann thought she would need Louis’s help? Why? Could Taylor be that bad off?

I tried to calm myself as Louis made a left turn before slowing down. I scanned the area, hoping to get a glimpse of Taylor standing next to Ann; the both of them just waving at us as they smiled. But that wasn’t what I saw. I actually saw nothing.

Louis pulled the car over to the side of the road. As soon as we were parked, he grabbed his phone, looking at something.

“This is where she said to meet her,” he mumbled as he looked around.

As if on cue, a car pulled up the curb not that far from us. A girl with long wavy brown hair stepped out and ran over to the curb kind of frantically. She scanned the area as she swiftly move toward an alleyway that I had overlooked.

“That’s her,” Louis said as he stepped out of the car and headed toward her. I quickly followed suit, trying to keep up with his fast pace.

“Ann!” Louis called. She looked toward him and moved to meet him. “What’s going on?”

Ann didn’t answer. Instead, she pulled her phone from her pocket, pressed a few buttons and handed it to Louis. He read it, his expression changing as his eyes scanned her screen. He passed it to me before he headed off for the alley.

I stared down at the message that was on the screen: You need to come get your little bitch of a friend. Alley on Hopson between Sixth and Seventh.

The words both worried and infuriated me. I handed Ann her phone back before taking off after Louis. We darted down the alleyway, looking around. I hoped that we would find Taylor just standing there, waiting to laugh at us for falling for her joke even if it wasn’t funny.

My hopes were dashed as a pair of black converse came into my view. I quickened my pace, stopping next to them. To my fear, it was Taylor. She was laying on the ground, dressed in skinny jeans and an off-the-shoulder black shirt that fit her perfectly. But that wasn’t what caught my attention first, all I could see was the red from the blood. There was blood everywhere, and it looked to be Taylor’s. She was covered in bruised with a bloody lip and a deep cut along her hair line.

“Taylor!” I exclaimed as I knelt down beside her.

Louis and Ann had caught up to me now and watched as I placed a few fingers to her neck. I found a pulse and was relieved that she was alive.

“We need to get her to a hospital,” Louis said as he came over to help me lift her up without moving her too much.

“No!” Ann said abruptly. She was shaking her head, “We can’t.”

Louis and I looked at her. “What? Why not?” Louis asked.

Ann just continued to shake her head, “Just put her in my car and I’ll take her home. We can’t take her to the hospital. Just trust me.”

With that, Ann turned around and headed out of the alley. Louis and I looked at each other for a moment before he began to lead the way back to the cars, Taylor in my arms. He opened one of the back doors to Ann’s car and I slid in, keeping Taylor in my lap.

“I’ll follow,” Louis said as he closed the door behind me and ran back to his car.

The entire ride I could do nothing but stare at Taylor. The lights of the buildings slid over her gorgeous face, revealing the dark bruise and gruesome cut she now carried. I wanted to know who had done this, but I wouldn’t say a thing except how this was all her fault. I decided to stop asking and just try and take care of Taylor, even though wasn’t really anything that I could do.

“Hang in there,” I mumbled to her softly. “Everything is going to be alright. I promise.”

Notes

Sorry that I'm a day late with the update, but at least I didn't forget completely. I hope you all enjoy. Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading. Later, Kiki