Brokedown Palace

The entire day I had been nervous about coming to work, scared that Louis would once again be sitting infront of me nodding his head to the words that I sang, but there was still no sign of the boy as I took my place on the familiar stage.

Taking in my surroundings, I was always surprised that people were actually in the crowd, maybe not to hear me specifically sing, but that they stayed when I played.

I began aimlessly plucking the strings to warm up my fingers and hummed along to the chords.

Every bit of nerves washed away from me as I found my rythm within the song, words began to flow, and once again I was lost in the story being told through the song.

The set went by quickly, but instead of hurrying off like I usually did I walked over to where Al was smiling proudly at me from behind the bar.

"Good job tonight kiddo." He slid a beer in my direction,

"Thank you again for giving me this, I know you don't need me here and I appreciate it." I said giving him a warm smile.

"I don't think you understand what kind of effect you have on people when you're up there on that stage Dylan." He said seriously before walking away.

I softly smiled to myself and began to pick at the label that surrounded the cold drink in my hand.

"He's right you know" A deep raspy voice came from my side.

I first ignored the man, but then he kept talking.

"Not everyday you see something like that, what's your name?"

My eyes looked up only to find emerald ones staring back at me. A goofy grin plastered underneath them.

"Well thank you, but I was just actually heading out. I'm sorry" not wanting to let him know that I knew who he actually was, and what he was trying to get at. My heart rate was already beating unhealthily against my rib cage as I grabbed my bag off the bar stool.

I walked out of the bar and started to make my way back to my car only to stop in my tracks,

"Louis, please. Please, stop coming here. You and your friend." I said softly.

Louis came out from behind the dumpster then,

"It is you."
He took another step closer to me, and in response I took another step back.

"Louis please, don't do this. How'd you even find me?" I asked with a hint of anger in my voice.

His look of disbelief faltered and anger replaced it.

"Are you kidding me?"

His voice started to raise, " I haven't heard anything from you in four years. Nothing. Not a phone call. Not a card. Nothing, I-I thought you were.." He trailed off now.

"Well I'm not, I'm fine so please what do you want?" I asked growing desparate. I couldn't bear to lose the life I created here now it was quiet and safe, I didn't want to lose any part of it.

He sighed, " I want you back, you're my bestfriend still after all these years please come back with me." His voice now pleading.

"I can't do that." I said looking down. I could feel my heart sinking even lower into my chest at this point, when I noticed a small tear falling from his hurt eyes.

"Look whatever this is, whatever you're still going through. I live it every single day too Dylan," I sighed knowing that as much he thought this was true, it wasn't, "so please at least come talk to me again sometime. I have been looking for yo every single place that we go, I have had people looking for you everywhere. Now that I've found you again I can't just walk away and lose you again." Tears now flowing freely from my own eyes.

He walked toward me again, but this time stopped inches away from me, and took a hold of my hand. In it he placed a small piece of paper with an address written on it, "Please just come see me, I won't bother you here anymore but I think you owe it to me to come." He breathed.

All I could do was simply nod as I watched the broken boy walk back into the bar as I got inside my car.

****************************************************

A month had passed had passed since my last encounter with Louis, and he seemed to have kept his promise. I never saw him at the bar again, or his cheeky curly haired friend.

I was relieved but at the same time couldn't seem to shake the pain my chest when I looked out into the crowd and didn't see my once best friend's face.

It was a normal day, no actually it was a beautiful day. There was no rain, which was unusual for this country it seemed like. There wasn't even a cloud in the sky.

I should have known there was something wrong or even off, nothing not even the weather could be perfect without having a catch.

I walked the route to the center the way that I did so many times, and everything was how it should be.

It wasn't until I walked through the front door that I felt something different in the air.

It was not warm, and was not happy. The receptionist was not at her desk. My stomach was uneasy at the sudden change of atmosphere, and when I noticed the red flashing light that lit up on the pannel of room numbers I felt my entire body freeze.

Room 122.

I took off into a sprint down the hallway to get to his room in time to see him being wheeled out of his room by about 4 doctors with the same solemn look on their faces.

"No" I whispered, "NO!" I screamed. They only kept wheeling him by me and I sank down against the wall as his nurse came over to my with tears in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry Dylan we did everything that we could for him."

I couldn't even reply as I stood up and began walking off in the opposite direction down the hall.

The man that took me in, gave me his house, took care of me when no one else could was gone. Just like that he was gone.

My whole body was numb as I stepped back outside.

I walked slowly back to my house, only stopping when I reached my front door. I walked through the threshold and took in the room infont of me, the memories all came flooding back to me and I quickly ran to the bathroom throwing up all of the contents of my stomach. I rested my head on the porcelain bowl quietly sobbing.

I reached up to flush the toilet and stood up rinsing my mouth out in the sink. I grabbed my tooth brush, and walked out of the bathroom into my room.

Grabbing my suitcase from the top of my closet I threw everything I could into it.

I then called for Cat and of course he came running towards me right away. I scooped him up and with him in one arm and my suitcase in the other walked out of the house.

I pulled the piece of paper out from the seat next to me. I looked down at the address on the now crumpled piece of paper, and pulled out of the drive way.

****************************************************

Harry's P.O.V

I mindlessly flipped through the channels for the hundredth time this morning. I sighed giving up settling on some old movie that seemed to be in Spanish.

Nothing had been the same since the day that I had went with Louis to that old bar. He has still yet to talk to me about it, but I couldn;t seem to get the mysterious girl out of my mind. She was beautiful no one could deny it, but there was something behind her eyes which seemed to make her stand out even more.

A soft knock at the front door interrupted me from my thoughts and I got up knowing that Louis wouldn't be leaving his room anytime soon.

I walked to the front door only to open it to see the beauitful mystery standing right infront of me, a cat and a suit case in her hands, and red swollen eyes.

"Is Louis here?" She asked quietly.

Notes