Out of Time (One Direction AU)

Chapter 8

I stared at Harry's outstretched hand in front of me. His rings were shining from the party lights and his long fingers were opened, waiting for me to put my hand in them. I glanced up at Harry's face again, not sure what exactly I was supposed to do. He looked down at me expectantly.

"C'mon," he said, raising his eyebrows slightly.

How did he even know I was here? We hadn't made any plans tonight as far as I knew. He didn't call or text either because my phone had been with me the whole time. I don't know how he could have known I was here unless he actually went to my job. Could he actually have gone out of his way to make sure I hadn't come here? And now he was seriously going to make me leave?

Harry clearly wasn't leaving here without me and I was at a loss for what I should do. The shock at his audacity to do this left me speechless.

Thankfully, Niall spoke up before I had the chance to say anything. "She doesn't have to go with you if she doesn't want to."

Harry was obviously bothered by Niall's out of place comment. His hand fall back down to his side limply as he turned to look at Niall. I saw his nostrils flare the tiniest bit.

"Listen, man," Harry said. "Don't get in this, okay? It's between me and her," he motioned toward me with his head.

"All I'm saying is that you can't boss her around and tell her what to do," Niall says, lifting his hands up as if in surrender. "I get that you're her boyfriend and all and I don't want to pick a fight with you. But Diana's a big girl and she can do what she wants."

Harry moved toward Niall and I decided now was a good time to speak up before anything serious happened. I stood up and got in front of Harry, placing my hands on his chest to stop him from walking to Niall.

"Stop," I said. "It's fine. I'll go. I wanted to leave soon anyway."

Niall left his cup on the floor and got up to whisper in my ear. "You don't have to go. Just tell him you don't want to."

"It's fine," I told him. "Don't worry about it. I'll talk to him later."

Niall shook his head, unconvinced. He opened his mouth to say something but Harry interrupted before he could say anything.

"Alright, lets go," he said.

He grabbed my left wrist harder than I expected, his fingers digging into my skin, and turned to leave, not giving me a chance to say goodbye to Niall. He dragged me around the side of the house so we wouldn't have to go inside and pick our way through all those people. His grip on my wrist never softened or faltered.

"Ow, Harry, you're hurting me." The music was loud but it was as if he chose not to listen to me on purpose. "Harry, let go, you're hurting," I said.

He kept walking, making his way to the front of the house. The whole time, I'm trying to get him to let go of my wrist or at least hold it softer but all my attempts failed. I felt the pain numbing around his hold.

"Harry, please!" I tried yelling. Obviously everyone around me was too drunk to help so I had to do this myself. I felt his fingers tight on my skin and was sure it was going to leave a mark. His rings were hot against my skin and his skin soft against mine. But that did nothing to lessen the pain of his tight grip. I struggled to keep up with his fast pace, walking down the sidewalk now to where he parked his motorcycle. I tried pounding on his arm. The music subsided the farther we got from the house so now he was obviously ignoring me on purpose. "Stop! You're hurting my wrist."

Harry finally did stop but only because we had reached his motorcycle. He let go of my wrist and I immediately brought it up to see the damage. There were long, red finger marks left from Harry and the throbbing pain was unbearable. No one had ever grabbed me like that before, not even my parents.