Escaped

Chapter 51

Escaped: Chapter 51

"... And Zayn, here's yours," Harry said, tossing him the faked passport. "Last but not least..," he walked over and handed it to me.

Eleanor and Perrie didn't need them because they weren't criminals or missing persons.

I stared down at it.

Louis walked over to me and grasped my shoulder.

"Congratulations," he said. "You're officially a criminal."

"What? I am not!" I said, smacking him on the arm. "I'm a missing person."

"Well now," Liam said. "Your mom probably went to the police and since it seems like you may be here by choice, the cops probably consider you a possible accomplice."

I huffed and crossed my arms.

Liam slipped an arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him, chuckling.

"I figure it'll look suspicious if we all leave together," he said, addressing the group. "So we should go in groups of two or three and meet up once we get there."

We all kind of nodded.

"Zayn and Perrie," he went on. "You guys will go with Harry. Eleanor and Louis, you guys can go together. And Niall, you'll be with me and Charlotte."

"Okay," Louis said, clasping his hands together. "Let's do this."

-

We boarded the plane with nothing but our carry ons.

Niall took seat by the window, I was in the middle, and Liam had the aisle seat.

I sat down between them, bouncing my knees. I was a little nervous because I had never been on a plane before.

Niall shifted back in his seat preparing for a nap. He looked at us and chuckled.

"Just like old times, eh?"

I smiled.

"I like this much better than the old times," I said.

"Me too," Liam said, kissing me on my forehead where he had hit me with his gun all those months ago.

It was so strange to think of those two as the same person: the one who wounded me and the one who made it better.

I liked to believe he wasn't the same as he was; that I'd changed him.

-

Niall had been asleep for about an hour and I was leaning up against Liam's shoulder, drifting off.

He seemed to keep shifting a little and then looking at me.

He opened his mouth a few times, to say something, but then he'd close it again.

"Liam," I said, sitting up. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," he said. "I was just thinking... uh, I mean, I know our lives are really, ya know, crazy. And dangerous. And I know it's my fault-"

I cut him off.

"No way are you starting this again," I said.

"Just let me finish," he said, almost pleading.

I looked at him, sternly, but didn't say anything.

He intertwined our fingers and I felt that his hands were caked in sweat.

"Things are going to get better from here, at least, I hope they are. And even if they aren't, even if we are running for our lives and getting shot at every single day, I want you by my side for all of it." He took a shaky breath.

"Charlotte Hale," he said. "Will you marry me?"