♡BRIAN'S POV♡

I walked along back to the bookshop with my hands in pockets, whistling a tune and smiling merrily at strangers. I was in the best mood and it was all because of one beautiful woman. My Lola was taking the leap and coming with me to America.

I felt the old me, the arrogant, self centred me, laugh at such a thought. The old me would have scoffed if someone had told him that he would take a girl home with him after a couple of days of knowing her. The old me would have brushed off he
the idea, punched the offender, then gone off and slept with some groupies.

But I had changed. Lola had opened something inside of me; she had reached in and pulled out this kind and protective man that no one else had known was in there, and all she had used was her flawless personality. She made me a better person and although I knew that we hadn't known each other for long, I couldn't deny the connection between us. And I didn't want to. She was the one for me.

I grinned at a lady who was looking at me and turned the corner to the bookshop. I couldn't see Zack where I had left him so I headed over to the counter where Lola had been buying her books but she wasn't there anymore. Frowning, I walked back out of the bookshop and scanned the crowds of people for them.

"Brian!" a shout came from behind me and I turned to see Zack striding towards me, running a hand through his short hair. His face was twisted with panic and a bolt of terror shot through me because Zacky never got scared. Something was very wrong.

I jogged to meet him halfway then put a hand on his shoulder whilst he got his breath back. I peered round him, seeing if Lola was behind him but I couldn't see her familiar blonde hair anywhere.

"Zack, where's Lola?" I asked him nervously, unsettled knowing that my steady friend had been rattled.

He lifted his head, and his guilty green eyes could barely meet mine. My throat closed over and I clenched his shoulder tighter with my hand, relaying the importance of my question.

After he still didn't reply, I repeated my question, stabbing the words at him with a fierceness I didn't even know I possessed.

He dropped his gaze again and mumbled, "She ran, Brian."

The words hit me instantly, almost as if I had known what he was about to say or had predicted the situation. They knocked the feeling out of my legs and I again found myself holding tighter onto Zack 's shoulder, but this time it was to keep me standing.

"You'd better be joking, Baker," my voice didn't reveal my crumbling insides but instead it held a a very full and very dangerous threat.

His entire body slumped and he stared off into the distance, too ashamed to look at me, "Don't be mad, Brian. One minute she was fine then when she saw you were gone she just legged it. I tried to stop her but she's surprisingly fast."

"Shit!" I cursed angrily, letting go of Zack. I frantically resumed searching the crowds for Lola as Zacky stammered out apologies.

"Where would she go?" I whispered to myself.

"I dunno," Zacky must have overheard me as he felt compelled to reply. "But she seemed really upset. Like the kind of upset that drives you to escape. My guess is she's out of this airport."

"Fucking shit!" I screamed and turned to kick the wall as hard as I could. My foot crashed straight through the flimsy wall, creating a sizable hole and causing people to stare at me as if I was crazy.

But maybe I was crazy. I certainly looked it, standing rigidly with my chest heaving up and down with frustrated breaths. And maybe it was crazy that I had expected this girl to follow me to the other side of the world after only a few days but I had truly believed she would come.

Maybe this was why I had never properly committed myself to a relationship before. It wasn't worth this pain that was lancing through my heart and tearing at my mind. Why would she leave me? Why would she give up on us? I'd thought we'd had something so unique but she obviously didn't reciprocate. So I was left looking like the fool.

Zacky put his arm round my shoulder and pulled me away from the damaged wall.

"C'mon, we'll go and look for her and she'll turn up eventually," he tried to comfort me but I shrugged him off and walked ahead of him.

I wasn't sure if I was seething mad at Zack for losing her or at Lola for choosing to leave me, or if I was just devastated. Raw emotion swirled inside of me, pushing me on to search hard for my girl.

---

We ended up searching for an hour and a half, to no avail. She was nowhere and every time we went somewhere and ended up with nothing, my desperation grew. Eventually Zacky called it quits and pleaded with me to go to our gate otherwise we would miss our flight.

I couldn't do it. I couldn't leave her. But I couldn't find her and I had no way of reaching her because she'd switched her phone off. There was absolutely nothing I could do and it was eating at me that I was so helpless.

"I'm going to have to leave her Zack," I stated, sounding empty and lost. My eyes saw nothing and I floated beside Zack because my legs had stopped working a long time ago.

"I'm going to have to get on that plane and go home without her," I realised to myself, but the words didn't connect in my mind and I saw Zack shoot me a look of sympathy.

I had no choice but I wasn't sure if I had the will to leave Scotland now. Dare I stay and continue looking for her even if there was no guarantee of finding her? No, my friends needed me and I needed them. I couldn't split up from them.

"I'm going to leave her," I decided, my voice catching on the poisonous words as if my body knew it was the wrong choice. My shoulders hunched and I curled in on myself, covering my face with my hands. Zacky silently embraced me , holding me up when my legs finally had enough and gave out. I heaved in breaths of air and shuddered out ragged sobs, although my eyes stayed dry. My tears were only spilled when my heart was broken; the last time I cried was at Jimmy's funeral.

We stood together, two men, one whole man and one slightly fractured man, and I prepared to leave a small part of myself in this airport.

Then we headed to our gate to fly home. But it didn't seem like home anymore.

Notes

Sorry guys it's a short chapter tonight but it's a dramatic one!!!

So Lola's gone?!?!? And Brian's leaving without her!
What do you think of that?

Thanks guys for the support and comments so far!!!! It's awesome, keep it coming!:):):):)

Thanks again,

L xxx