Damaged » h. styles au

Chapter 76 - Scarlett

One, two, three.

“I’m in love with someone else,” the words spurted off my mouth, taking too long to reach Tyler’s ears. After long, long seconds, he seemed to take it all in, though, eyes widening and hands clenching into fists at his side. “Tyler, I’m so-”

“You what?!”he whispered, voice rasp. And I could feel it. The way his breathing became ragged, how his chest rose and fell faster, how he was trying his best to not come towards me because he would kill me. “What did you just say?”

“Look, I didn’t mean to- I wasn’t looking for someone, Tyler, I swear. All those years, I was, like. I was with you, and I thought that was it, you know? I thought it was what it was supposed to be, but I turned out to-”

“Who is him?” he asked, this time closer to me, eyes closed, the tension between both of us rising. He didn’t really wait for an answer. “Damn, Kirsten. This is it. You are with me. When I went travelling I wanted to give us a temporary break, not a definitive one!” and by now he was yelling, opening his eyes, and, well. Guess it.

Throwing his mug against the wall. I really wouldn’t bother cleaning that.

“Oh my God!” he yelled again, eyes widening with some sort of realization of his own. “You were with him the whole time, weren’t you?! You were cheating on me this whole time! Kirsten, you- How could you?!” by the time he finished the sentence, he had his hands around my shoulders, shaking me furiously and I couldn’t help the tears that were falling down my eyes.

It was cheating, yes. But it didn’t sound that awful until it actually came out of his mouth. I didn’t- I hadn’t planned for things to go like this, damn. I just.

“Who is him?” he repeated his previous question, this time looking into my eyes as if waiting for an answer. “Tell, me Kirsten! Is it that d–ck who brought you home once?” at the look of shame I gave him, he laughed humorlessly. “You whore,” he mumbled quietly, more to himself than to me. “If he at least looked decent, I could give you some credit. Now, have you seen him? You sure he’s even a dude?”

I managed somehow to escape his hands, going to the other side of the room, cornering myself against a wall. “Tyler, please, don’t do this. I know I’m wrong and that’s why I’m telling yo-”

“You are wrong!” he shouted, going to grab whatever it was and throwing it dangerously close to my head, scattering it against the wall with a deafening sound. “I don’t give a f–ck about your explanation, Kirsten. You’re dumb, is what you are. You couldn’t even choose a decent guy to cheat on me with! You see why you need me? Damn you can’t make good choices in life!”

And. Fine. I could say that didn’t affect me. I could say Tyler was a jerk and half of what he said, at the least, was extremely selfish and spontaneous, but either way, still. I had heard that my whole life, I had believed I couldn’t make in on my own during my whole life, and I still probably knew I couldn’t make it by myself, but I had the chance to have someone better by my side, and maybe. Maybe, I could do it, then.

“Okay, fine!” he breathed out, hands going through his head desperately as he wandered from one side to the other, running his hands down and rubbing his eyes. “Fine. Fine,” he was probably trying to assure himself that things were, indeed, fine (even though they obviously weren’t), but apparently it wasn’t working. “Fine. Look, we can solve this. I’ll pretend you didn’t tell me a thing, you’ll kick that chick’s – you believe it’s a guy’s – ass and we’ll be just fine. Yeah, let’s just move on. Couples have issues, don’t they? We’re fine.”

Tyler looked as if he was desperate, really trying to find a solution to the whole thing, when I knew I had the right one. He laughed relieved with himself once he was done with his thinking, sitting on the couch with his hands still massaging his temples, and laughed a bit more. It was absolutely scary the sight of him at the moment.

Silently, I slipped down the wall, resting my head against my knees.

“Tyler, no.”

I heard the moment he stopped laughing, going to serious and audibly swallowing down the lump in his throat. He didn’t make a move to leave the couch, though.

“What do you mean, no?”

“I mean-” I took a deep breath, standing up and getting closer to the door, holding the knob for support and also to make things easier (or a bit less hard) “-I’m. I told you this, Tyler, because my point was to let you know I can’t- Can’t do this anymore.”

Tyler looked terrified. He looked lost, out of himself, as if he’d just witnessed a murder right in front of his eyes. My heart felt as if it was about to leave through my mouth.

“I’m sorry, but. Um, I- I did my best to help you, all these years. And you kind of ignored everything I’ve ever wanted, and so,” inhale, exhale “So I’m leaving, now. Whenever you stop hating me to the point you want to kill me, you can call me and we can talk this out properly.”

He opened his mouth to say something, clearly angry, but too shocked to move. I nodded as if I understood his reaction, then opened the door. The snow was falling thicker, but it wouldn’t be too bad of a walk until I reached Harry’s flat. It wouldn’t.

“I’ll come get my things later, so, if you don’t mind being just a bit nice, try to keep them intact. But just if- If you at least care a bit about me. Or if you are thankful for what I did, at some point in your life. I don’t know.”

I got no reaction from him, so I exhaled one last time before I walked out the door, still crying completely against my will.

The walk to Harry’s flat wouldn’t be too bad. It wouldn’t.

Just that it would.

●•Author's Note•●

dedication goes to: @The_New_B first off, thanks for all the lovely comments throughout the story. I read all of them, and I loved them. I'm glad you caught up. And, yeyyyyyy! You're a perceptive one, aren't you? You were right. And you were the only one to get all the hints together for what was going to happen in this chapter. Hopefully you liked it?

note: 1. FINALLY! After decades you got the early update and I'm so happy because I'm pretty sure you all loved it and I really hope you did. 2. Now you know why she was crying at Harry's doorstep. AND FINALLY. DO I HEAR ANGELS SINGING? Yeah that's just probably y'all crying of sheer happiness. Just took her 76 chapters to break up with him, not much. Hope you liked it, though :) 

next update: Tuesday (December 10th) 

900 votes again for early update. Best comment gets a dedication :) Love you lots, really. - Dani xx