Strings Attached (Harry Styles FanFiction)

10. Forget

Cassie’s POV:

Pain. Stinging, throbbing, aching pain. It woke me up, fire branching out over my entire right cheek whenever I moved my head. Whimpering, I buried the left side of my face into the pillow, crushing my eyes shut, willing away the burning pangs. They refused, coming back tenfold.

“It has never been that bad before!” I jumped at the sudden sound of the deep voice. Cracking my eyes open, I surveyed the dark room, searching for the source of the noise. Nothing looked familiar. Everything was sleek and modern; dark leather furniture was expertly placed around the room, windows were everywhere, a huge flatscreen TV dominating the far wall. A reporter stood on screen giving a news story about someone getting... attacked? The volume was muted so I had no idea what was being said. Suddenly, a picture of a familiar guy with thick chocolate curls and piercing green eyes flashed across the screen. Harry. 

“Why do you care so much about her? You hardly know her?” A new voice questioned. I whipped my head around, TV forgotten, and I finally realized why I couldn’t find the voices. They were behind me. Where the hell was I anyway?

“Lou-,” Harry’s raspy voice groaned. The visual of him raking his hands through his curls popping into my mind.

“No. Don’t Harry. This girl is trouble. She knew what would happen but she did it anyway. She’s reckless... A liability.”

“I-I know but... I just can’t let her go.” My mouth was gaping. I was trouble? I was the one who was at fault here? None of this shit would have happened if he had just left me alone in the first place!

“The lads agree with me... I called them after you told me what happened earlier... so does Simon.”

“You had no right-,” Harry roared.

“He was going to find out about it sooner or later! It’s all over the press!”

“How can you blame her for everything when you don’t even know her?” I was stunned at the emotion evident in Harry’s voice.

“I don’t have to know her to see that she’s trouble, Haz. We have never gotten mobbed like that before. They are talking about sending us all out with security teams now. Eleanor is going to kill me!”

“We get mobbed all the time!”

“Not here! That only happens in the states! This is our home! I don’t care how much you want to shag her, dump her now before it gets any worse. There will be other girls, Harry, there’s always others.”

“Alright, thats it,” I grumbled, lurching to my feet, “You know, if you want to have your private little conversations where you blame all of the problems of you shitty rockstar lives on someone else, make sure they aren’t in the room!” I felt my face flush as my anger grew.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did we wake you Princess? Come on, Harry, the adults will finish this conversation in the hall.”

“Like fuck you will. This,” I roared, gesturing to the TV and the claw marks running down my cheek, “never would have happened if Harry here had just listened to me and left me the hell alone! And don’t you dare call me Princess.”

“Hush, child. The adults are talking,” Louis sneered, turning his back to me.

“Are you fucking kidding me? No! Fuck no! I’m not going to ‘hush’. This is such a load of bullshit!”

“I don’t give a damn about what you have to say! You almost had my best ma-!” 

“Enough!” Harry yelled, “Louis, leave. I can’t deal with this right now!” Louis glared at Harry in disbelief.

“You can’t seriously be choosing this slut over me-?”

“No, Louis stay,” I cooed, pushing past the two of them and heading for the front door, “Thanks for such a wonderful day, Harry,” venom poisoning my voice.

“Wait, Cass-” I heard Harry’s heavy footsteps following me out but I slammed the door shut before he even had a chance to finish his sentence. Hot, angry tears began to flow freely, altering my vision, agitating the raised red streaks on my cheeks as I fumbled my way out of the complex. I did not fucking sign up for this bullshit.

Harry’s POV:

“Wait, Cassie!” I yelled, following her out, before I could finish, the heavy wooden door slammed shut in my face, “Goddammit Louis!” I roared, spinning on him, “She was just starting to trust me!”

“She doesn’t give a damn about you, Harry. She’s just using you and you’re blind to it.”

“What the fuck do you know anyway.” Angrily, I pushed past him, forcing my way into the kitchen.

“That girl left okay. She left. I’m here. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

“I-I know Lou, I’m sorry. I just...” I broke off, raking my hands through my curls, pulling on the ends, the pain helping to clear the fog that had steadily begun to muddle my thoughts, “... I-I don’t know what it is about her. I can’t get away from her. I haven’t been able to get her out of my head. She’s with me all the time and it is driving me insane.” My legs gave out from under me and I collapsed, sliding down the wall to the ground, my head in my hands.

Louis sighed, coming to kneed in front of me,“You need to get some rest, Haz. Once you do you’ll be able to forget about her.” He clasped one hand lightly around my shoulder, a comforting gesture.

“But that’s just it. I don’t want to forget her.”

“You aren’t thinking clearly. It’s been a long day, just get some rest and ring me when you wake up,” Louis instructed, grabbing his coat off of the island in the kitchen, “El and I are going out for a bit tonight but we should be back before midnight, If you need anything just let me know.” With one last sympathetic glance, he turned and left, the front door clicking closed as he slipped out of my flat.

I don’t know how long I sat there, the entire day replaying over and over again in my mind. Why did she have to be so goddamn difficult? If she had just listened to me and walked away from that guy in the first place we wouldn’t be in this mess.

 Grunting, I hauled my aching body up, swaying on feet, the marathon I’d practically run earlier taking its toll. Measuring out a glass of bright amber liquid, I swirled the cup, bringing the chilled glass to my lips. The scotch burned, lighting a fire in the back of my throat, burning its way through my bloodstream. Tossing back the rest of the glass, I poured another. Then another. Halfway through my fourth the world began to swim, fading from light to dark. Focusing all of my energy on making it to my bed, I stumbled my way through my flat, falling face first on the huge mattress.

Bright spring eyes, raven hair, and lips red as rose petals smiled softly at me as the world descended around me, darkness enveloping my entire mind.

A/N: I really hope y'all like this chapter! What do y'all think will happen?! Comment your predictions please!

Please spread this story around!!!! I am working on fixing the ranking and getting it off of "R" so that it is discoverable again, but WattPad is sassing me.

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Thank you once again to @lexlexgarci and @ksteigenga1989 y'all have literally kept me sane while I've been working on this. I love y'all!!!!!

-Elle