After - 3 (FANFICTION)

Part 4.

Hardin's POV

"Hardin you huge fucker, have a fucking shower already" mark yells at me while I'm flat on my back on the couch.

"Shut the fuck up Mark" I groan and roll on my side. ugh my head hurts, fuck.

"Dude, you've been here nearly two fucking weeks, and the only time you left this place was to get a cast on that fucked up hand of yours. you can continue to piss your day away but have a fucking shower first."

"Fine, fuck off." I sit up and grab my rental car keys and head to the boot I grab a clean black shirt, boxes and new jeans. Fuck I smell worse than a fucking garbage bin.

Walking back upstairs I go straight to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror I don't even know who's staring back at me.

Fuck my hair is flat and oily, pupils are bloodshot, deep dark circles under my eyes and I look like I've lost weight.

I jump in the shower and it seems to have sobered me up quite a bit. Sobered me up to the point where all I see now is watery grey/blue eyes staring at me hurt and betrayed.

Fuck I miss her, fuck I love her with all my heart, why did I treat her like that in front of them and say that fucked up shit like she means nothing. Why did I make her leave me here when all I want is to be with her. Fuck I need to ring her, where is my phone? I haven't looked at it since she drove away with tears in her eyes. It's probably got no battery. I'll need to charge the fucking thing. Shit I need to find it. No I don't, she needs better. She needs someone not as fucked up as me. Fuck it where's that vodka. Stepping out of the shower I dry off fast chuck my clear clothes on and head to the kitchen, I need to drink the sight of her beautiful sad face away from my head.

Tessa POV.

Landon and I walk into our new apartment, it's small rustic and very New York. I can't believe we are in New York!

Landon being Landon tried to give me the bigger room which makes no sense to me as I'm small compared to him so I don't need heaps of space. Just a place to sleep and a couple draws for my clothes. He finally agreed to take the big room after a 30 minute stare down and me refusing to move any of my bags from the small room and I had already began putting my stuff in the closet.

The apartment came 98 percent furnished which was lucky for us all we need to do is buy some kitchen utensils, cup and plates and some bed sheets and pillows and things to decorate our place and then we are good to go.

Once Landon has unpacked all his clothes we decide it's time for us to check out our new neighbourhood. Our apartment is in Brooklyn it's absolute chaos, super loud and busy compared to what I'm used to.

As we are walking, I remember I need to text zed.

I pull out my phone but there's already 2 messages.

Theresa, Hope you have a safe flight text me once you land. From my mum oops I didn't see that text earlier I quickly respond and let her know I'm safe and have unpacked and am just exploring our neighbourhood.

The next message is from Zed

Hey beautiful. Hope your flight went alright, text me when you get some free time, I know it must be busy unpacking and sorting out everything :)

Zed is so sweet, I honestly don't know why after the couple times I've rejected him and everything with Hardin I'm surprised he even wants to still be friends.

I quickly text him. My flight went well, I slept most of the flight and I'm just out exploring the town now.

He responds that he'll FaceTime me once I get back to the apartment so I can show him my new place. I happily agree.

I turn my attention back to Landon, we stopped at Bed Bath and Beyond and got our new sheets some kitchen ware and towels and once we finish we stumble across a cute little boutique that sells photography and art just a couple stores away we found a big beautiful portrait of Central Park and we both decide we love it but just before we leave i spot a big framed picture of all the subway lines and I automatically fell in love it's kind of dorky to have in your lounge but it suits us. We decide that the Central Park portrait will go in the hallway and the subway lines will go in the lounge. We end up catching a Uber back to our apartment. Once back I tell him that I'll chuck our sheets in the washing so we can take it down to the laundromat to dry after.
While we wait I FaceTime Zed. He answers straight away.

god! He's good looking even through a small screen.
I notice he must be shirtless cause I notice his tattoo on his chest straight away.

"Hey" He says smiling so wide I see his tongue

"Hey, is now a good time to show you the place?"

"Yeah, yeah of course"

After I walk through the whole place room to room even the bathroom. Showing him through the little screen. He says it's nice, very small and very New York. Nothing like Rachel and Monica's apartment on friends but perfect for me and Landon.

I give him a run down of what I did for the day and he tells me he went to work for a few hours but he didn't do anything special he tells me that there's a party tonight at the frat house like usual but he told Tyler he'll sober drive him so he has to go. After we finish talking I realise we spoke for nearly an hour.

I jump up and check on our sheets. I yell for Landon to check if he's ready.
We decide to eat while our sheets are drying at the laundromat. Luckily we have one two doors down from us. And a pizza place next door to the laundromat. We grab a couple slices and sit and wait.

"Tessa, don't get mad at me okay?"

"Okay what's up?"

" I tried calling Hardin after you found your dad, he didn't answer but I rang him like 50 times and they all went straight to voicemail. That means his phones off, but once he comes to and he checks his phone he's going to call me back. What do you want me to do?"

"Oh Landon don't worry, it's okay it's understandable I mean Hardin was the only person I wanted to see when all that went down. But I'm okay now. Don't tell him anything please, don't tell him I'm in New York with you when he does finally decide to call you. I don't want anything from him not even an apology, I just want to move on."

"Will it be okay if I tell him the reason I called?"

"Of course I don't want you to lie for me just exclude me from any further talk with him"

Landon smiles at me then says
"You're stronger then you know"

"Trust me, I'm not. If I was to hear his voice now I would crawl up on his lap and tell him I'm sorry even when I'm not the one who needs to apologise I'd tell him I forgive him for everything and believe anything that comes out of his mouth, but I'm trying not to so I need as much space as possible from him for now."

Landon nods and gives me a sympathetic smile.

"Tessa, I know he loves you. He's just to damaged to let that love be stronger then his self hatred, at some point he'll realise the he messed up and come running back like always but right now I'm proud of you for putting yourself first, I'll always be your number one supporter okay I'll always in your corner Tess."

I can't respond to Landon if I do I'll be a big mess so for now I'll grab my best friends hands and smile and blink away the tears that are forming.

Boy, I have the most wonderful best friend.