The Other Side of the World

Moments later a sudden rattle began to fill the elevator and it came to a complete stop.

“What just happened?” I said, about to freak out.

“I don’t know.” Liam ran and pushed every button he could. Nothing was lighting up.

“What are you doing? Don’t do that.” I pushed his hands away. “Stop it.”

“We have to do something don’t we? We have no idea what’s happening.”

“Clearly the elevator has stopped.” I sarcastically said. “Push that call button.”

I watched as he pushed it and we both waited in silence. “Hello! How may I help you?”

“Uh. Our lift is stuck….?” He said to her in confusion.

“Oh yes, it is. I’ll be sending help your way right now.”

“Miss, may I ask what happened?”

“We aren’t quite sure Sir, but just hold on okay? They’ll be there to find out what’s wrong.”

“How long will it be?” I cut in.

“Oh Miss, how many of you are in there?”

“Just me and him.”

“Well okay then, not sure the estimated time, but hopefully sooner than you think. They’re coming though!”

“Oh… okay.” I realized I was stuck in an elevator with Liam. “I swear if Harry had anything to do to with this he’s a dead man.” I muttered to myself.

“What?” Liam turned to me.

“Nothing.”

“Okay you guys sit tight.”

“Thank you Miss.” Liam took a seat on the floor of the elevator taking out his phone. “Well hell, no cell service.”

“Me either.” I said as I took a seat opposite of him.

Things got awkward and quiet for a little bit. We both had no idea what to say or where to even start. I could have easily broke down crying right there, but I didn’t.

“It’s really hot in here.” He finally said.

“Yeah.” I answered quietly.

“Hey look-“ We both said in unison. “You go first.” I insisted.

“No, no, ladies first.”

“Oh well, I was just going to apologize.”

“For what exactly?” He couldn’t make eye contact with me.

“For everything I guess.”

“You’re very specific.” His sarcastic tone was a lot meaner than anything else.

“Sarcasm, lose it okay? I’m being serious here.” I was irritated and just annoyed at this point.

“So you can use your sarcasm at any expense, but I can’t. Brilliant.” He said quietly, still not looking at me.

“That’s not it. Damn Liam! You think you can get away with anything all the time, but you can’t. At least not with me.” I stood up furious with him.

“And you…” He was finally standing up looking me straight in the eye. “You always find a way to play the victim. Always!” I got quiet as I saw the tear from his eye fall down his cheek. “You act like I didn’t fall in love with you either. You act like I wasn’t hurt when I walked away from you that night.” He took a step back away from me to catch his breath. He was getting really upset and I have never seen him that way before.

“It just-When I got here; it just didn’t seem like it okay?”

“Do you like him?”

“What? Who?”

“Harry.” He looked up at me with his eye all filled up with tears. He was trying to hold it all in, but I knew in a matter of time, he wouldn’t be able to anymore.

“No. It just happened. And it shouldn’t have. And I’m sorry for that.”

“You knew that seeing that would kill me. You knew exactly what to do to hurt me, and you did it.”

“Liam, I’m sorry, I’m really sorry okay? I’m freaked out. I panicked. I saw you and Danielle…..” I stopped. Having that situation play back in my head broke up heart all over again. “Seeing that didn’t help.”

“You shouldn’t have come.”

“I know. But I can’t do anything about that no can I?”

“Why are you here? Why did you even come back? I figured after this time we had, you’d be back to Cameron or something.”

I laughed to myself. “No, it’s taken all this time for all of it to be somewhat okay again.” Silence filled the place for a second. “Liam, if you said you loved me, why’d you leave like you did? Why didn’t you tell me you loved me back?”

He hesitated as I took a seat next to him, only a few inches away from each other. He grabbed my hand and started to rub his thumb against the back of it like he always did. “Because I knew I had to leave you. And I never planned on leaving you like that. But I knew that if I left you with an “I love you, too”… It would hurt a lot more than it did. I didn’t need you to go through any more pain.”

I sat there listening to his words; his words of honesty and truth. He was right and I realized I just need to hear it from him. I stared at our hands, realizing he was touching the spots where my burns and scars were.

“Does it hurt?” I looked at him confused as to how he knew. “Harry didn’t tell me, don’t worry.” He gave me a weak smile. “I know you better than anyone here Kaylin. When Harry said he needed to give that to you in the First Aid office, I knew exactly what it was for. I offered to take it to you because I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Oh.” It was all I could say, because I was so embarrassed that he knew. “Everything is different now, isn’t it?” I let go of his hand. We were both staring into each other’s eyes with our foreheads up against one another’s.

We both leaned in for a kiss. One that felt amazing yet wrong at the same time. He pulled away answering my question. “Yes.” It was all he could say.

I stood up and walked over to the opposite side of the elevator. I sat down wiping my tears away. I knew that the kiss meant more to me than it meant to him. “Do you love her?”

“Yeah.” He said quietly.

“Are you happy?”

“Yeah.”

“Tell me you don’t love me anymore. Tell me that kiss didn’t mean anything. Tell me you’ve moved on.”

“Kaylin, I can’t do that…”

“Say Liam. Just say it.”

“I don’t. It didn’t. And I have.” At that moment, the doors to the elevator had opened. We both stood up with tears in our eyes. We found everyone waiting for us hoping we were all okay. I think most of them were hoping I didn’t kill Liam or the other way around.

I quickly ran out of the elevator, shoving people to get out of the way. I wanted to get as far away from him before I truly broke down.

“Kaylin! Pleast wait!” I stopped and turned around. The sea of people parted a way. Liam stopped where he was with the fear of coming closer that I might just run from him. “Can we finish talking about this?”

I looked straight into his eyes, “I thought about you every day since the night you left me in that hallway. I read your letter every morning when I woke up and every night before I went to bed. I never moved on. I never stopped loving you, I never tried to move on, and I never forgot about anything that happened all those times we spent together.” I paused to catch my breath and stop myself from crying. The place was full of the people but everyone was dead quiet that you can hear a pin drop. “Liam, it never changed for me like it changed for you. You wish you never hurt me, and now I just wish I never fell in love with you.”

Still looking straight into his eyes, at this point I wasn’t even crying anymore. I gave him a weak smile and shrugged my shoulders.

“You told me you know me better than anyone here, which is probably true, but you forgot I know you just as well. Settling for comfortable isn’t who you are. The world and life have so much more to offer you, Liam Payne. So much more.”

I walked away with the room still completely silent. All you can hear were my heels clanking against the floor.

--
Harry’s POV
--

She walked out of the place leaving everyone speechless, especially Liam. I pushed through the crowd trying to go catch up to her, but Liam walked in front of me, stopping me from going any further.

“You can’t leave her like that. You can’t leave her alone.” I said trying to catch my breath.

He slowly stepped aside letting me go after her. “Harry!” he called out after me. “Make sure she’s okay. I have some things to sort out and take care of.”

“Yeah mate, you go do that.”

I ran outside to find Kaylin getting into her car. “Kaylin! Wait!” I caught up to her and held the door before she could even close it. “Scoot over.”

“Harry, what are you doing?” She said to me.

“I’m coming with you.”

“And what about the after party?”

“Hey Georgie! Oh they won’t miss me. It’s okay.” I said still trying to catch my breath.

“They won’t miss you? Are you crazy? You’re… Wait, how do you know Georgie?” She was really confused.

“Back to the hotel please.” I had finally caught my breath and comfortably sat next to her. “Where do you think Zach got this guy?” I smiled at her. “You do realize we are staying at the same hotel right?”

“Uhm no. What is this?”

I laughed. “Oh come on Kaylin, you think Zach would let you come out here without at least one of us knowing you were coming.”

“Oh” The tone in her voice was low. She was looking down at her hands with no emotion on her face, but soon enough a smile came and that’s when she realized I was in on the trip the whole time.

“Come on Kaylin,” I put my arm around her. “Let’s hang out for a little bit.”

Before we knew it we were at the hotel. With everything that has been going on, Kaylin and I walking into the hotel together would raise much speculation. So Georgie took us to the back and dropped us off.

“Thanks G, we’ll see you tomorrow.” Kaylin didn’t say a word the rest of the ride back so we went to her hotel room in silence.

I laid on her bed as she went to the bathroom to change, still no words were exchanged.

She walked out dressed in her pajamas ready to go. Her eyes were still a little puffy. She sat on the bed and reached for a bottle of pills on nightstand. Kaylin took one out and swallowed one.

“What’s that?” I asked her.

“My medication for my…” She hesitated to tell me. “Just my medication.”

I realized they were her antidepressants. “How long?”

“I was diagnosed a week after you guys left.”

“Oh.”

“Harry, it’s not that big of a deal. I’m surprised Zach didn’t mention it.”

“Yeah, no he didn’t.” Seeing how different she is, seeing how much things affected her got me thinking. I was worried. But I thought I shouldn’t think much of it.

“Are you going to tell me what happened in the lift?”

“The truth came out. That was it, I guess. We kissed…”

“And…”

“Nothing I guess.”

“So that’s it. It’s done?”

“I really don’t know.” She got quiet for a minute. “Let’s watch a movie.” She said quickly changing the subject.

I turned on the tele, not wanting to force anything else out of her. I flipped through the channels to see what was on. Within five minutes I could hear Kaylin’s heavy breathing. She had fallen asleep.

I slowly got up to make sure I wouldn’t wake her. I gave her a kiss on the cheek and tucked her in. She looked so peaceful. I realized there were two things she enjoyed in life. Taking a shower and sleeping, because both those times she’s alone. Those are the times she’s completely alone with herself.

I walked past the table in her room to find an extra room key. I slipped it into my pocket knowing she wouldn’t realize it would be gone. I decided I would come see her in the morning.

I looked back at her one more time before closing the door behind me.