After The End: Book 2

36. Nothing

Harry's POV

Cory looked horrified, which made sense given my behavior. I'd been so caught up with being annoyed at her for existing in my vicinity that I hadn't considered in that brief moment what might happen after I'd answered the phone.

Gemmas voice flowed through the speaker into my ear. "Holy shit you answered," she said a little awestruck. "You little shit, I've been calling all day."

"Who is that?" Cory asked nervously. She reached for the phone to hang up, but I held it out of her reach. Hanging up was probably a good plan. My thoughts were way too disorganized for me to be giving value to that thought.

"My sister," I said numbly.

"Harry?" Gemma sounded confused.

"You have a sister?" Cory frowned.

"You genuinely just never listened to me," I complained. We had been together for over a year. How did she not know that?

"Harry?" Gemma tried again. "Who is that."

"My assistant," I lied, finally speaking into the phone. "She fucking sucks though."

"Harry," Cory warned in a hushed voice. "Please hang up the phone."

"Where have you been all day?" Gemma demanded. It was very hard to concentrate on talking to her and Cory simultaneously.

"I've been busy being a fucking rockstar," I spat. "My phone bill didn't appreciate you acting like you were obsessed with me all day."

"Harry," Cory gripped my arm hard digging her nails into my arm. "Hang up."

"You're acting ridiculous," Gemma snapped back. "Mum tried to give you a chance and you're shitting all over it!"

"Mum can go to hell!"

I didn't know how badly I was screwing up. I was drunk and slurring and making a complete ass of myself. There wouldn't be any coming back from this. I had been content to cut my mum out but I was throwing things with Gemma down the drain too. My relationship with Gemma was too timid and careful and I was ruining it.

"What happened to you?" She asked incredulously. "I thought you were getting somewhere. You used to beg for mum to talk to you."

"And she wasn't there," I practically yelled. "I'm so sick of people trying to make me responsible for the fact that she's a shitty mum. Fuck Ann!"

"Wow," my mums voice flooded through the speaker into my ear. My entire body stiffened. My blood ran cold. I watched Cory take in the change in my demeanor. I wondered how much she could hear coming out of the phones speaker.

"Harry," she said again. "Hang up the fucking phone now. I am begging you."

"Hello mum," I said in defiance. How many years had it been? I was too drunk to remember.

"How can you say those things about me?" She inquired. She actually sounded hurt. That felt rich coming from the original perpetrator of hurt.

"It's quite easy," I muttered.

"I tried to forgive you," she started seriously. She had a tone to her voice that had always shaken me to my core. She was authoritative and harsh. She spoke like she was angry at you, no matter what. I had spent so much time trying to not hear that voice criticizing me again.

"I don't need your damn forgiveness," I snapped. Cory went for the phone again and I dodged her. "Let me have my mommy issues in peace," I shot at her in a whine.

Her eyes had gone wide. "That's your fucking mom?" She asked horrified. I had already said that. She never listened.

"After all this time, this is how you want to be?" My mum asked. The coldness was leaching into her voice, dry and targeted.