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Hope in Disguise

Chapter One

Running. That has been my life for the last three years. Pack up my bags, find a place to eat and sleep for the night, pack up again and keep moving. I never stayed in the same town for more than three days because I knew that he would be able to find me. He said he always could and I believe he could actually do that. He had all the money in the world, of course he could. However today, I arrived in London and decided to stay here for a while. The city was big enough and if I kept moving around the city I don’t think that he could find me. I had spent most of the day traveling so when I walked into the city limits I completely and utterly starving. I had used most of my funds in the first year and a half and I was slowly refusing to use money so I could use it when I absolutely needed it. I don’t know what part of town I was at but I walked into the first place of business and groaned when I noticed it was a pub. There all kinds of people everywhere which made it easy to blend in. I made my way to the bar and sat on a stool and ordered a pint of the house draft and tried to plan my journey from here. I somehow managed to find a newspaper lying around and grabbed it. Since I decided to stop running, I needed to look for a place to stay and I had managed to keep enough money for a deposit and first month’s rent, hopefully. I was quietly looking at the ads when the bartender spoke up.

“You must be new,” he said I looked up from my paper.

“I’m that obvious aren’t I?” I asked and saw that I was looking at a dark hair, blue eye, tattoo cover lad.

“Just a little love,” he said, “Jax Henderson.”

“Scarlett Taylor,” I said giving my real name for the first time in three years.

“You look like you have a story,” Jax said.

“Doesn’t everyone?” I asked and he just smirked.

Before he could respond to my comment, five lads came into the bar and you could hear the chattering lower just a bit. All five lads were covered in tattoos and all looked pretty menacing. They made their way over to a table that was occupied by a group of men twice their size and the men all moved out of the table. I’m assuming I was the only one staring because I was broken out of my haze when I heard a plate being set in front of me. I quickly looked up at Jax who gave me a small smile.

“You look like you haven’t eaten in a week,” he replied, “And don’t worry about tonight. It’s on me.”

For the first time since leaving home, I had meet a truly genuine person. I gave Jax a small smile and thank you which just made him smile.

“The lads you were just staring at are people you don’t want to make mad at you,” he said.

“I don’t?” I asked confused but figuring they were in a pretty powerful gang that could make you disappear without anyone knowing.

“You don’t,” he said, “That there is the gang called One Direction. The kid with the curly hair, his name is Harry Styles and he’s the leader. Louis is the boy who’s sitting next to him and he’s second in command. They have the most powerful gang on the east side of London.”

I just nodded my head and looked at the sandwich that was on the plate.

“I didn’t know what kind of food you liked so I had the cook make you a grilled cheese if that’s okay,” he said and I nodded my head.

“Thanks,” I said, “You don’t have to do this, you know. I’m a complete stranger.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said.

“Jax!” we heard a voice bark and he gave me an apologetic smile and rushed off to do his work.

I had just finished my sandwich when someone slid onto the barstool next to me. I looked over to see that the curly haired boy was sitting next to me. He was pretending he wasn’t looking at me but I could see out of the corner of my eye when he thought I wasn’t looking he was looking at me. I hadn’t spoken a word to him because I didn’t want to say anything that would cause him to hate me as well.

“Did you just move here love?” he spoke and I must say his raspy voice was an additional thing to make him more appealing.

“Kind of,” I replied, “I haven’t decided if I’m going to stay or not.”

“When did you get here?” he asked.

I looked up at the clock to see it was already eleven and mentally cursed myself.
“Three hours ago,” I said.

“And after three hours you’re going to let that decide if you are going to stay in London or not,” he said.

“Pretty much,” I said looking at him for the first time to see him looking at me with shock.

“Why don’t you let me show you around to make you change your mind then,” he smirked and I gave him a small kind smile.

“Thank you for the offer but. . .” I started.

“You have a boyfriend,” he replied rolling his eyes, “Love that’s not a problem at all.”

“No,” I said, “I was going to say that you probably have more important things to attend to.”

I then slid off the barstool and grabbed my small backpack that had everything I considered important to me.

“I really don’t love,” Harry said and I just shook my head.

“I’m fine,” I said, “but I would like my wallet back.”

Harry then just stood there shocked and amazed. I just gave him a small smile as he handed it back to me and I looked at him.

“You might want to tell your friends that tried to pickpocket me that they need to put the bag exactly how they found it,” I said, “They had it slightly moved to the right and was facing the wrong way when I just picked it up.”

I then put a couple of pounds on the bar under my thank you note to Jax and headed towards my exit.