Basic Need

Ch 5: The Breakdown

"Are you sure Alexandra didn't come to pick her up?" Harry asked Alice's mom for the second time.

"Positive," her mom nodded yet again.

"What's up with her?" Harry wondered out loud without meaning to.

"She said at breakfast that she didn't want to be a burden anymore. That's all I know." Was the worried response he got.

"OK, thanks," Harry told her hastily before turning on his heels and grabbing his phone.

"Alice, pick up," he pleaded through the phone, "Pick up. Pick up!"

She did after the third tone, "Hey Harry," she greeted him with a wavering voice.

"Where are you?" He demanded to know.

"I'm in front of the school building, near the parking lot," she admitted as he got into the car and ignited the engine.

"Let me guess," he told her in a worried tone, "you can't get in."

"Yes, I can't, Harry," she choked on a sob, "I thought I could be normal again if I willed myself to."

"You are normal..." he argued right back.

"No, I'm not." She now sobbed openly.

"Yes, you are," he countered hotly, "You just have not found the right psychiatric yet."

And as he said that, he suddenly thought of asking Blake or Maria the favor of breaking her cursed condition if that was possible.

"Wait for me," he commanded while driving through the city, uncaring if a cop caught him talking on the phone.

"It's not like I can do anything else," she hiccupped.

With that, they hung up.

While Harry was going over the speed limit in order to catch Alice before a breakdown – for he was sure she was on the verge of one – a car dropped Kyle near the parking lot.

To say he was pleasantly surprised to see his prey without her bodyguard would be the understatement of the year.

He walked towards her, a fake smile adorning his face, and greeted her with a soft "Good morning."

Her eyes bulged, and she managed to choke on a small "Hey."

"Waiting for the watchdog I presume?" He taunted.

Alice wanted nothing more than to tell him in a stern voice "Don't call him that." But she couldn't find her voice. She just nodded.

She shifted her eyes to the ground, wishing Harry would arrive soon... but he was probably stuck in traffic.

"Let me walk you to your locker," Kyle offered.

Alice, albeit extremely scared of him, thought it might be better if she wasn't left alone with a total stranger and if there was a bit of a crowd surrounding them. And so, against her better judgment – which would have been to wait for her neighbor – she started walking hesitantly towards the school building.

When Harry arrived at school, panting, searching for his beloved, and he couldn't find her, he started panicking.

Several despicable scenarios went through his head, among which an abduction orchestrated by Jeremy Butler, but as he went about the parking lot like a mad man, searching for her, he heard a piercing scream.

He knew that scream.

He could remember it from two years ago.

It came from the school. And he shoved many of his classmates in his way to Alice's locker, to where he supposed she was for some reason.

He found her there, on the ground, her back against the lockers, her head buried in her knees, a small shocked crowd surrounding her and a dumbfounded Jeremy standing near her.

"What is wrong?" He was asking her in a fake concerned voice. And as he reached out a hand to touch her, Harry slapped it away.

Harry knelt beside her and held her in his arms.

She screamed once again, only to be shushed by Harry's soft, "It's me. It's me."

"Harry. Oh, Harry..." she sobbed into his shirt. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"About what?" He stroked her back in a soothing manner.

"I will never stop being a burden to you..." she let out on a resigned sigh.

Before she could continue, he told her firmly, "Who ever said you were a burden?"

It was but a rhetorical question though. "Let's get you up and out of here. Can you do that for me?" He asked softly.

She nodded, and thus he got up and then made her rise to her feet as well.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" He shouted at the crowd.

As if they were waiting for his command, they all went their own way – all but Kyle or rather Jeremy.

"What's wrong with her?" He had the nerve to ask.

"None of your damn business," Harry bit out while holding the now calm Alice. "And if you got a beef with me, take it up with me, understood? I don't want you near Alice anymore or so help me god..."

"Something the matter?" The principal appeared at the hallway where the three students stood.

"Nothing," Kyle instantly denied before going to his class.

"Alice is unwell," Harry told the principal with contained anger, "I'm taking her home."

"I'll assume you won't be coming back to classes," the principal smirked.

"You assume right."

And with that the raven-haired beauty left with the neighbor she had grown to love as a best friend but who loved her with all his being.