Before you go... //h.s

How to save a life

'He's Harry Styles! The most beautiful, talented man who probably exists and he's slumming it with you,' she screams and I duck my head, hoping the ground will swallow me out of this situation, 'you're just a fame whore. I bet you don't even like him and are just hoping to get famous. That's pathetic. You're pathetic. I mean look at you, look at your hair,' she turns her nose up slightly, judging something I had never hated before. I hated many things about myself, my hair I had always tolerated and now I was so unbelievably insecure about it.

Where is Ash and why hasn't he heard this.

'You fucking c**t!' she screamed and one of the customers, an older gentleman who came into Split Bean at least three times a week and was familiar with me to the point we talked about our lives and his grandchildren while I made his coffee each day finally got up, walking towards her with hands faced out and upturned in a placating gesture.

I stayed silent, fighting for breath and struggling to think of any words as the insults were shoved at me. All the worst things I'd ever thought about myself, someone was screaming in my face.

My palms were sweaty, slipping as I held them together tightly. My head and heart were pounding unbearably fast and each breath choked down my throat, barely reaching my starving lungs.

Was this all a result of being papped with Harry?

'Miss, I really don't think that's appropriate,' he began politely, and she shoved, literally shoved, him off.

'Harry deserves so much better than some low coffee shop worker! I mean he's dated some of the most famous women on the planet so what the fuck is he doing with you. You're the fucking ugliest person I've ever had to lay my eyes on and you don't have anything to give him, you...' but her screaming rant is cut off by Ash who finally emerges from the back.

Took him long enough.

'Okay I'm going to have to ask you to leave the property, otherwise I will have to call the police,' he told her seriously and she looked at him, hatred clear in her eyes and looked him up and down.

Ash's teddy bear like persona could easily meld into a growling, real bear when he defended his friends. That was the front these girls were seeing right now. It was scary but honestly, she fucking deserved it.

She spat at Ash so bloody rudely before spinning on her heel and storming out. Her friend gave me an apologetic look, mouthing 'sorry' before following.

If the friend knew what was good for her, she would leave the blonde behind and find better friends.

My erratic heartbeat wouldn't calm down and my wild eyes searched over Ash and the frequent customer in panic, my frazzled brain almost wondering whether they were going to attack me.

Tap your foot on the ground 8 times and they won't hurt you.

My subconscious popped into action and I stopped there, panting as though I had just run a race while I tapped my foot desperately against the floor.

Out of my blurred vision, I saw the older gentleman turn to Ash, muttering quietly about how disgraceful that was and if there was anything he could do to help please just ask. Ash nodded, thanking him before turning to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

I stiffed slightly, before realising it was only a friendly gesture and allowed him to lead me to the back room where he handed me a glass of water and sat with me, murmuring things that I wasn't focusing on to help calm me down.

It took a while, longer than I'd like to admit but eventually my breathing evened out to a normal rate and my brain stopped beating desperately to free itself from my skull.

'Iris,' Ash said, trying to get me to look at him while I kept my tear-stained eyes on the trained carefully on the ground.

'Iris,' he repeated, placing a gentle hand under my chin to get me to look at him. 'That girl was out of control okay, no-one thinks that. Harry loves you, I love you, you have so many people who care about you Iris, don't let this one bring you down,' he mutters, before wrapping me in a comforting hug.

I'm so fucking lucky to have a boss that's also a really good friend.

I try to absorb his words, to believe them. But it just seems so much easier to believe that girl's words of hatred than Ash's comforting words, even if I know he's right.

'Okay, Iris, I think you should go home, have the rest of the day off and I'll call you later to check up, yeah?' he says quietly to me, also like he's afraid one word will set me off into another panic attack. He's probably right, I still feel like I'm teetering on the edge of the precipice right now.

Poor iris :(((

How to save a life - the fray, go and listen if you haven't heard it because it's honestly so good ! !

and...yeah i guess thanks for reading it makes my day when i get votes xxx and also i think this story will be around 55-65 chapters so we're a bit over halfway through but there's a lot left to come so i'm really excited to write it <3