Parson Upton
Year 2023, Month September
Chicago, Illinois
~~

It’s hard to say what I thought of Harry after the small kiss we shared in the penthouse I didn’t know about until I was brought up there, but I couldn’t seem to make up my mind. Did I like him? Did I still hate him? Did I regret the kiss? Did I love the kiss? So many questions roamed through my mind as he talked to me at lunch, staring at me like I always wished for a man to look at me… but still… something didn’t feel right… was it just because it was Harry? I couldn’t seem to answer any of these questions without changing my mind about one of them.

“I think you deserve a break,” Harry said to me as we walked outside and into the backyard, his fingers sweeping over mine every few seconds, “I think you need to just go take a bath in the penthouse, and enjoy yourself.”

“That does sound… rather nice…” I said, smiling at him and making him smirk, swinging me off of my feet in a quick motion, bringing my legs around one of his arms and holding my waist in the other. It was a bridal embrace, and I always wondered what it would be like to be held like that… now that I know… I honestly don’t want to be put down.

“Well then you can go have a day all to yourself because I want you to be absolutely comfortable,” he said, setting me down and smiling down at me again. Oh gosh, he’s going to kiss me… oh gosh. He then positioned his forefinger underneath my chin to force me to look at him and placed a sloppy kiss on my lips, sending a heatwave through me and making me flutter my eyes closed, “Don’t be too long though. Ed and Zayn will be joining us for dinner in the grand dining room, and we will laugh and cry because of the passion we’ve shown for each other, yes?” he seemed to be mocking an old ballroom dance teacher as he circled me around the garden and made small gestures of showing me off to Ed and Zayn… except they’ve both already seen enough of me… especially Zayn… “I think I should leave you be now… until next time, my princess…”

My heart dropped to my feet as he quickly walked away from me, washing the smile right from my face and immediately making me need that bath. I ran into the House and up the stairs I remember Harry taking me up and towards the small elevator door I remembered. What I didn’t remember the last time I went in there was Zayn sitting on one of the beds.

“What are you… doing in here?” I asked him and he looked up from where he was staring and I took a step back, hovering my hand over the elevator door button.

“I told you that I had to tell you something,” he said and I shook my head, “Please, Parson. Just bare with me, I’m not going to hurt you, at least not at the moment. I know you don’t trust me, but things can’t be going on the way that they are between you and Harry.”

I crossed my arms and he swallowed, “Since when do you have a say in that?”

“You’re telling me that you’d rather be with him than with me? I can provide you happiness and security, Parson, and all he can provide you is a hand to hold and bitter kisses. That’s not happiness or security,” he said and I went to say something but he finished with, “I’m going to tell him what happened between us so you’ll have no other choice but to choose me over him.”

“No, Zayn. He’ll kill you as soon as you tell him,” I said as he tried to push me aside to run to Harry but I shoved him forward and he slammed his hands beside my head on the elevator door, making me gulp, “I didn’t let him kill you… when he told me he was going to. He told me he was going to kill you and I told him not to. You can’t walk up to him and tell him things were going on between us because I begged him not to kill you, and by you telling him what happened….”

“You begged him not to kill me when you ran away from me, didn’t you?” he asked and I hesitated, but then I nodded my head and he took a step back, walking back over to the bed he was sitting on. “What all did he tell you?” I was silent for one second and he yelled, “What all did he tell you, Parson?”

“He told me about his ex-wife,” I said honestly and he laughed.

“Oh did he now?” he asked and I nodded, “Did he tell you the truth, about Jolene? About poor, little, innocent, Jolene?” I nodded again and he went to say something but the elevator door opened behind me and Harry walked in, smiling and holding a bag of seed.

“I thought we could plant these―” Harry stopped talking when he looked up and saw Zayn in his penthouse, and I covered my mouth when he looked between us, “What’s going on?” When we didn’t say anything, Harry looked at me, “Parson? What’s… going on? Please tell me what’s going on. I don’t…”

“You don’t what?” Zayn barked and I slapped my hand against my forehead, “She was just about to tell me what you told her about sweet, old Jolene.” Harry dropped the seed in his hand and it spilled all over the floor. I furrowed my brows and slowly made my way over to the window, which happened to be right behind Zayn, “Should I tell her the truth, or do you want to tell her? Because I know for a fact that you didn’t tell her at your mother’s death place…”

“Shut the fuck up, Zayn,” Harry growled and I swallowed hard again.

“Harry,” I threw my arms up when Liam walked into the penthouse and shook my head, “I think there’s something you need to see… something I’d rather not say out loud… it’s on the video cameras and it just happened a few minutes ago.” Harry was hesitant to answer, but then he shook his head and Liam said, “It’s about―”

“Just fucking leave!” Zayn yelled and Liam put his hands up before he backed out of the penthouse and Zayn looked back at me, “So Harry, would you like to tell her how you killed your precious little, Jolene?!” Zayn screamed as loud as he could and my heart shattered. I didn’t know who to believe, “Oh wait, I just told her.”

“Parson, you can’t believe him,” Harry said and I swallowed, shaking my head and running my hands through my hair.

“How you, beat her senselessly for kissing all over the man who killed your mother,” Zayn kept talking and I felt vomit rising in my throat.. I kissed Louis… so would Harry beat me? “How you tied her to that bed over there and told her things that a man would find horrifying,” tears fell from my cheeks and at that point, I was believing Zayn… Harry grabbed his gun off of his belt and pointed it to Zayn, making me cry harder, “How you purposely left bruises on her skin so that she would know not to do anything that betrayed you again!”

“Zayn you better shut the fuck up or I’m going to kill you,” Harry snapped, cocking his gun and taking a step closer to Zayn.

“Didn’t you kill her, Harry? Didn’t you shoot her in the backyard after raping her for pleasure? Didn’t you throw her beautiful, bruised body into the lake down the road? Tell me! And tell Parson because I bet she’s dying to know!” Zayn screamed and I couldn’t handle myself anymore, I needed to leave the room before I started to sob.

All of a sudden, we all heard gunshots outside and I gasped when Zayn ran right towards Harry, taking the gunshots as a perfect distraction. I covered my mouth as I watched Zayn try to physically take the gun from Harry’s hands, making me wonder what in the world was going to happen, but also making me wonder what those gunshots were outside. I don’t know who it could’ve been… and it was scaring me.

“Just because you both shared a kiss doesn’t mean you both love each other!” Zayn yelled at Harry, and Harry elbowed him in the chest, but Zayn didn’t lost his grip of his arm or the gun, “She’s the one who had sex with me!”

My gasps filled the room when the gun in Harry’s hand went off and the elevator door opened behind them. Only… I couldn’t see anything… there was only pain…. physical pain.

“No!” I heard someone yell, but then I looked around the room and heard buzzing in my ears, noticing that I was too shocked to see or say anything.

“Parson?!" it sounded as if more than one of the men I held almost dearly to my heart had called out my name as I felt my lower rib soak when I realized that the bullet that had been shot through me ripped through my skin, and I began to panic. When another gunshot went off, I heard a voice I hadn’t heard in months, “Parson…” I had to be hearing things, was I going into shock? I felt my body growing colder and I looked down at my bloody hands from holding them so close to my ribs, “I promised you I would protect you the day I first met you… and dammit, I’m keeping my promise.” I winced when my head hit the cold floor and I felt tears streaming down my cheeks when I saw a familiar set of blue, shocked eyes: I was forced to speak…








“L-Louis…?”

Notes

You all saw this coming....
I thought you deserved it....
Until next time....


Kal xx