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Authors: Leona Norwell

Finding Harmony (3 page)

BOOK: Finding Harmony
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It’s around 45 minutes before I even notice the tall, slender frame standing out on the balcony.

 

Eager to see who it is, I finish up my conversation with some girlfriends and make my way out.

 

It’s as though the years haven’t changed him one bit

             

“Freddy?”

 

He turns around abruptly, looking a little startled.

 

I can’t articulate how glad I am to see him. He looks so well, his face glowing, his smile infectious. He was the polar opposite to how Trey was looking right now.

 

“Oh, Harmony. Hey. Uhm, Happy Birthday!"

 

I let out a little chuckle at him.

 

We stand awkwardly for a while, neither of us knowing quite what to say to one another.

 

“Ah, come here you”.

 

He laughs at me and doesn’t hesitate to pull me into a big bear hug. God how I’ve missed those German bear hugs.

 

“Aww, Freddy I’ve missed you so much”.

 

“I’ve missed you too!”

 

We stand there for a while, content with just being in each other’s presence again.

 

Eventually we pull away from each other and we sit down.

 

“So… You look well, how’ve you been?”

 

“Yeah everything’s been ok, what about you? I was so sorry to hear about Juliet…”

 

The very mention of her name sends a surge of pain jolting through my body. He can see how uncomfortable it is for me to talk about her and swiftly moves the conversation on.

 

“Anyway, I hope you don’t mind me being here. I ran into… Leo? Is that his name? Earlier today, we got talking and he invited us round. He’s a pretty cool guy”.

 

“Us?”

 

“Yeah, Trey and me… Trey wasn’t really in the mood for a party tonight, Harmony, I’m sorry he didn’t come, he just wanted to stay in”.

 

I can’t help the disappointment creep over my face. Was Trey really not in the mood for a party or did he just not want to see me?

 

Freddy takes my hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze.

 

“He’s not been himself in a long time. I don’t know what’s gotten in to him”.

 

There are a million things I want to ask Freddy, like why was Trey not himself? Where had they been the past four years? Why did they never get in touch with me?

 

Freddy cups my face in his hands and looks intently into my eyes, as though he were looking into my soul and reading my thoughts.

 

“How about we do coffee tomorrow, I’ll tell you everything you need to know?”

 

“Yeah, I’d like that”.

 

He smiles at me earnestly and gives me a quick kiss on the cheek.

 

We sit out there for a while longer until I can’t wait any more and I have to ask him.

 

“Freddy, do you think I could…”

 

He interrupts me mid sentence as though he’s been waiting all night for me to ask him.

 

“Yeah, I think he’d like to see you. I know it’s all been a bit confusing but he has missed you, Harmony, every day”.

 

I get up and rub Freddy’s shoulder before making my way back inside the apartment and slipping out the front door as discreetly as I can.

 

I was pleased, if not a little pissed off to learn that Trey had missed me. If he’d missed me so much why couldn’t he pick up the phone and call me? I would’ve come running in an instant.

 

I make my way along the hall, straightening my dress and fiddling with my hair.

 

When I get there, I take a deep breath and knock loudly on the door. There’s a short delay but eventually the door opens.

 

Trey stands in the doorway looking a little surprised and a tad anxious. His short brown hair is a little messy; he’s got a black tight t-shirt on and the most hideous pair of blue sweat pants I’ve ever seen.

 

He’s absolutely beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Three

 

 

 

   “Hi Trey. Do you mind if I come in for a little while?”

     He looks at me closely, his eyes probing me and analyzing my every movement.

 

When he’s convinced it’s safe to let me in, he hesitantly steps aside and lets me pass through into the hallway.

 

His apartment is pretty similar to mine; only his is far messier. Clothes are strewn across the floor, empty pizza boxes and beer bottles clutter the large coffee table in the middle of the living room and the air is stale from cigarette smoke.

 

It was a typical bachelor pad, although I was sure this wasn’t Freddy’s mess.

 

As I made my way over to one of the leather sofas, I couldn’t help but look for signs of Miranda. Was she Trey’s steady girlfriend or just…sleeping with him? She certainly didn’t look like girlfriend material to me but then, she did seem awfully possessive of Trey. I suppose in due course I’d find out.

 

I sit down on the sofa and Trey moves over and takes a seat on the other one directly opposite me.

 

He was such a mess, so many different personalities all rolled in to one body, I wondered how he managed to contain them all. That night at the club he was fierce, dangerous, formidable and intimidating, then for the briefest of moments I would see the old Trey in him but right now he looked broken, weak, vulnerable, a mere shadow of his former self.

 

It was heart wrenching to watch but I had absolutely no sympathy for him if this fall from grace had occurred purely because the band had split up and the fame and media abandoned him. My sister had died, I’d been to hell and back, that was a real reason to turn my back on God, life, and everything…. not because you’re no longer on the front cover of magazines any more.

 

He leans back into the sofa and stares out the window, as though in some sort of trance, completely ignoring my presence here.

 

“Trey…?”

 

He doesn’t respond.

 

“TREY!”

 

His head shoots round. Now I’ve got his attention.

 

“Dang, Trey, look at you…”

 

“What?!”

His eyes narrow and that same ‘dark’ Trey from the club returned. He had this defiant ‘screw you’ attitude. The tone of his voice was daring me to push his buttons, daring me to provoke him and then deal with whatever beast I’d un-caged. It was like he wanted to have an argument, to fight with me and shout me down.

 

He was aggressive; there was a hunger deep within him. I suddenly felt like a lamb to the slaughter.

 

But this was Trey we’re talking about. I could hold my ground with him… I had to.

 

“You’re a wreck, Trey; a complete mess… look at the state of you!”

 

“Oh, I’m a mess? Because the last time I checked, Harmony, you weren’t doing too good yourself!”

 

“Yeah, well at least I didn’t project my troubles on to anyone else, have you even stopped once to think about what you’ve done to Freddy? What you’ve put him through with your vast carelessness? The poor guy’s been worried sick and you don’t even care! You’re a selfish jerk, Trey, and if it wasn’t for the fact that Freddy was your brother, he’d probably have abandoned you along with everyone else!”

 

I could hear the venom in my voice as I spat the words out at him unrelentingly.

 

Trey wasn’t the only one with a troubled dark side.

 

He looks at me, almost in disbelief of what I’d just said. I’d obviously hit a nerve.

 

It was probably a little harsh but it was true, well except the last bit, I knew Freddy would never leave Trey.

 

     All the same, I’m stunned and a little disgusted at my own callousness. It was a side to me that even Trey hadn’t seen. I think it would be best if I left him alone, I should never have come round in the first place, whatever happened to keeping ‘a safe distance’ from one another? I felt terrible for the things I’d said, and guilty. I wasn’t raised that way.

     I stand up and hastily bolt towards the door; I needed to get out of there as quickly as I could but before I can even turn the door handle, his cold fingers wrap around my wrist, his nails digging in to my veins painfully.

 

He takes a firm hold on me and shoves me up against the wall, my head banging against it achingly as I collide with it. He’s got me pinned. No escape.

 

     Trey had never once laid a finger on me and all of a sudden I’m struck with such savage brutality. Did he hate me that much?

     It was hard not to tremble a little beneath him; he was so much taller than me, so much stronger…

 

“Why? Why do you care, Harmony? What has my life got to do with you now, anyway? You gave up the right to care about me when you walked out on me!”

 

I wanted to remind him that I didn’t walk out on him. Our break up was a mutual agreement. We both decided that we couldn’t follow our dreams and pursue such demanding careers whilst we were together. It might have been instigated more on my part but he told me he understood - he had no right to make me out to be the villain.

 

But that would only cause another argument. I didn’t want to argue with him anymore, it was exhausting.

 

He gives me a firm shake, trying to force an answer out of me. I had to tell him the truth. The truth was dangerous but he had to know.

 

“Because…”

 

His eyes burn in to me, a tiny flicker of the old Trey reappearing in them.

 

“…because I love you. I’ve always loved you, I never stopped…”

 

He releases his grip on me and his hands fall to his sides. He backs off a little but still keeps his closeness with me.

 

I didn’t know if it was the answer he wanted to hear or not, whether it shocked him or pleased him but it was the truth. I cared about why he was messing his life up so much because I still loved him, I still felt drawn to him, and I still felt like he belonged to me and me to him.

 

The tears pinch at my eyes and it takes everything in me to try and hold them back. It’s silent for only a minute or two but it feels like forever as I wait nervously for his response.

 

“But… what about Leo?”

 

“You don’t just stop feeling something for someone because you start feeling something for someone else…”

 

I look up at him and the sight alone forces the salty tear water to start streaming down my face.

 

He was looking at me the way he always use to look at me, the way every young girl wants to be looked at.

 

He lifts his hand up to my face and carefully wipes the tears away under my eyes. I place my hand on his and as if he’d just read my mind he moves his arms and wraps them around my waist, pulling me up in to a tight embrace. I’d been waiting for this hug for years, yearning for his touch, to feel him close to me once again, to breathe in his sweet scent.

 

“I’m sorry”, he whispers in my ear so softly, so heartfelt.

 

BOOK: Finding Harmony
5.1Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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