Strawberries and Cigarettes ~ {h.s au}

chapter forty

He pulled apart, the reality of the situation hitting once more as he said, "What are we going to do?"

"I'll handle Louis and Robin," she announced, turning her body around so her feet were back onto the floor of her bedroom. "We're done with this, and if they have a problem with it, they can take it up with me. This is Robin's mistake to fix, Harry. Not yours."

"Marley-" Louis started, but was cut off by a quick response from the girl next to him.

"No Lou," she said, shaking her head as she held onto Harry's hand tighter. "Can't you see, this shouldn't have happened in the first place. We're in too deep, this isn't fair to any one if we keep playing this game."

"It's not a game Marley," Robin interjected, causing Harry to roll his eyes at the man in the same fucking uniform that made Harry's blood boil at the sight. "We're so close, we just need a little bit more time-"

"We don't need anything," she said, the tone in her voice becoming more angry with every word she spoke. "Look at us."

She used the hand that hadn't been holding Harry's under the table and raised it up, motioning to the group sitting around the table with a look of disbelief on her face. "Louis, you're about to leave for university next month, you can't risk getting involved with this because it could take away everything you've worked for. You've already risked so much, I can't just sit here and watch you throw it all away because of me."

"Mar," Louis said softly, shaking his head as he spoke. "I'm not doing this because of you. I'm doing it because you deserve more than this. You want to talk about something not being fair. What's not fair is that you've had to put up with this for years."

"Exactly," she said, her voice much calmer now than it had been just moments ago. "This is my life Louis. The more we push Dean, the worst it will be for all of us. For luke. For Cole. We can't just think about me anymore, Luke and Cole deserve more than that, you deserve better than that."

"They deserve to know that their sister is safe," he announced, narrowing his eyes at her.

"I'll be eighteen soon, Lou," she said, relaxing once Harry's thumb moved smoothly along the backs of her knuckles. "Then I can legally take care of them, we will be able to get out of here for good and never look back."

"Is that really what you want?" Louis asked, his voice harsh as he stood from the table. "To just leave? To stick it out for a few months and then forget about the rest of us?"

"It's not safe Louis," she said softly, but was interrupted by his voice once more.

"It's not safe because of the reason we're all here Marley. Dean is the why you're not safe."

"We can't do this anymore," she whispered. "All it is doing is hurting everyone in the process."

"Harry," he said, turning to the boy who had stayed silent the entirety of the conversation. "Is this it, then? You're done, just like that?"

"We can't do this anymore Lou," he said, but once again Louis' voice sliced through the air as a dry chuckle escaped his lips.

"Wow, this is actually rich coming from you Harry," Louis snapped, taking everyone in the room off guard as the grip he had on the girl tightened. "In all of our years of being friends, I have never asked you for anything. I stood by and watched you drown yourself in booze, girls and drugs. I've dug you out of more holes than I will ever be able to count, and now all I asked was for you to do one thing. To put your fucking pride aside and help me with something that was important to me... and you can't even do that?"