Dearest Juliet (Harry Styles)

Twenty Eight: Ripped Apart

"Juliet." She had said softly, and it made my stomach turn into knots.

I dropped her hand and stepped back immediately feeling as if touching her was wrong. So horrendously wrong, "What?" I asked, begging, pleading with her to take it back. To say it isn't true. To tell me that she hadn't lied all this time about something that I would have held so dear to me.  

"I'm sorry, Harry." She begged, but I just put my hand out to stop her from talking. I didn't want the big spiel about how she was sorry. I just wanted answers.

"What do you mean you know my Juliet?"

She paused for a moment, wondering if she should answer, "We had treatments together." She answered finally. "We had the same cancer, and Juliet became my friend." 

I shook my head vigorously, "No, that's not possible. You never-" I swallowed, trying to form my thoughts, "You're lying! I never saw you there! I was there. For everything, I was there, but you-you were never there!" 

"Not all the time. You couldn't be, but you tried. That's why you bought her Kingston, remember?"

"How come I don't remember you then?" I asked, trying to ignore the fact that she knew about Juliet's teddy bear.

"We never met, and I looked so different then, Styles. You probably wouldn't have recognized me anyway." 

I tried to pull up the image of her when we had first met. When she was sickly skinny and her cheeks were hollow. All the images of her with that desperate look on her face where she had looked familiar. I had seen her before, I had known that all along, but that's why I couldn't place her. She was just a passing shadow against those hospital walls. A form just a few seats down from where Juliet sat. A girl wearing a sparkling scarf that now hung on her wall. It all connected now, and I knew that she was telling the truth. 

"How come we never met?!" I yelled, but then I stopped abruptly, dropping my mouth open, because I knew why we hadn't met. Of course I knew. Juliet was clever, and she always had a plan. A master plan to make sure that I would be okay.  

Andie was a part of her plan. Us meeting wasn't an accident or a twist of fate. Her helping was always part of the plan. Every time she said that something kept pulling her back to me, she was talking about Juliet. Andie was just the best card that Juliet could have played, and I completely fell for it. 

But I had to hear her confirm this for myself. 

"She didn't want us to." Andie whispered.

I nodded for I had already figured this out in my head, "Did she make you promise her something?" 

She wiped the tears away from her face, "Don't make me answer that, Harry. Please."

"When she was dying and you were walking out completely healthy, what did she ask of you!" I yelled, not caring that I was tearing her apart with every word.

"Shut up!" She screamed through her tears, "You aren't aloud to paint it as if I skipped out of that hospital while she died!"

"You have to stop acting as if I care about how I'm treating you! Now, what did Juliet ask of you!?" I screamed at her, the blood boiling in my veins.

Andie gave up the fight with a sob and came closer to me. Always courageous, she laid her hand gently on my chest as if silently begging me to stop. "She asked me to make you better."

"I was nothing but a promise to you." I whispered, looking down at her hand on my chest. I couldn't bear it. The touch that just made my heart race minutes ago was now as if it was fire burning me to my core.