One. || h.s.

Three.

"It's crazy how much can change in three years," he says quietly and straightens up so he's leaning against the back of the bench, hands clasped in his lap.

"Yeah," I breathe, nodding my head in complete agreement.

"You look different. In a good way," he adds.

"So do you."

"Look, Sky," he sighs, turning his body towards me once again. "I want you to know that I'm not the person I was when we were together," he says softly, his eyes pleading me to understand. I cringe at the reminder that once he had been mine and I, his. "I've really pulled myself together, believe me. I've not fully changed, I'm still working at it but please believe me when I tell you that I am trying."

I watch him silently, confused by the look in his eyes that he truly wants me to assure him that I believe him.

"Why are you telling me this?" I ask slowly.

"I want us to be okay," he mumbles, his voice barely audible. He runs a hand through his dark curls and his eyes never leave mine.

I want us to be okay.

He should have thought of that before he put me through hell. No seventeen year old should ever have to experience what I did. I partially blame myself for dating an older guy but like he said, I seemed older than him most of the time.

"We'll be okay as long as you don't hurt my sister," I whisper. The smiles have now disappeared from both our faces as we enter a more serious tone in our conversation.

He frowns at my words, his eyebrows pushing together and the corners of his lips turning down. My response was obviously not what he wanted to hear but I don't think I'll ever be able to tell him that. I am certain that Harry and I will never be okay with one another. There will always be something hanging over our heads no matter how much we've changed.

"I would never. I've learned from my mistakes," he tells me, his voice somber.

I know exactly what he's referring to and my stomach churns uncomfortably. Mistake after mistake for a full year, that's what he is referring to.

"I still can't believe..." I trail off, shaking my head and diverting my gaze from him to stare out into the calmness of the park ahead.

"What?" He urges and moves closer to me on the bench. I don't move away this time; if I do I'll fall off the end.

"I can't believe you two are like... together," I say and crinkle my nose. The words taste sour in my mouth and I want to spit them out or thrown them up.

"Why's that?"

"You two are just so different... and she's my sister, you're my ex. It just doesn't seem right," I admit.

My chest aches as the words leave my mouth as the full force of the betrayal hits me. How could my sister, of all people, do this to me? She knows what Harry and I went though. She knew exactly how I would feel about them getting together, I'm sure of it.

Harry isn't just my ex, to me he's so much more. He's a huge part of my past, a part that defines me as a person and will stick with me throughout my whole life.

"We were different," he reminds me and I laugh unwillingly, but the irony of the situation striking me.

"Oh yeah, we were," I nod in agreement. It couldn't be more true. "How did this happen with you two anyway? Were you still seeing my family after I left or something?"

"Fuck no," he shakes his head, eyes wide. Hearing him swear makes me smile a bit and I know that the old Harry is not completely lost on him, the parts I liked anyways. "I couldn't face your family after you left, they probably wanted to murder me. I even moved out of Big Red and moved further downtown to get away from them."

"You moved out at nineteen?" I gape. Harry wasn't independent at all, he relied on everyone else for everything and never did anything himself. The thought of his struggling to live on his own as he realized that he had to do things for himself amuses me.

"It was hell at first, but I stuck to it. There was no way I was embarrassing myself and moving back in with my parents. I was still in my second year at university, though, so I was living in a really shitty place."

"You don't live there anymore?"

"No, I found a really nice place down the block that I could afford last year when I started my internship at Parker."

Harry and I had different majors, mine was graphic design and his was finance, but we both shared the same dream of someday ending up at Parker. Parker is the biggest marketing industry in New York and can send you in really great directions. It makes me happy to know that Harry pulled his life together enough to continue in school and finish doing what he always wanted to do.

"So anyway, that was last year. I was doing a coffee run for my team and I bumped into Jess. It was extremely awkward and I could have sworn she wanted to cuss me out right there in the middle of Starbucks. I pulled her out before she could, and since then we've been talking. We only got together a couple months ago before we knew you were coming home."

"That's it? You just started talking?"

That is extremely different than how Harry and I met, but I take it as a good sign that he's not meeting girls the same way anymore.

"Pretty much. Your mom wasn't happy when I showed up at your place," he chuckles, blowing at puff of air out of his cheeks from the memory.

"I can imagine..."

The smile fades from his face and his eyes turn thoughtful as he watches me. I can't tell what he's thinking, I never could. His mind is a puzzle I could never decipher and his eyes hide it all.

"Skylar." He says my name so softly that I almost don't hear him.

A shiver rolls through me at the sound of my name leaving his lips in his thick accent. I turn my head toward him slowly, apprehensive.

"I'm sorry -"

"Don't," I cut him off, standing from the bench immediately and throwing his jacket onto his lap as I stride down the path. I don't know what he was about to apologize for but I don't want to hear it. I've heard apologies fall off his tongue too many times to believe them anymore. His apologies mean nothing to me now, even if he has changed. His image will always be tainted with the memories that haunt me.

"Skylar, please," he pleads, his voice echoing down the path along with the sound of his heavy boots hitting the pavement as he rushes after me.

He reaches me and grips my elbow to turn me around to face him. At his touch, fire and adrenaline rush through my veins and open up old wounds I had hoped to keep closed. All I see is red and I clench my jaw as I instinctively rip my arm from his grip and raise my hand. I stop myself before my hand comes in contact with his skin when I see his wide eyes and shocked expression.

My mouth falls open when I realize what I almost did. I drop my hand to my side just as the tears start to well up in my eyes. I can't stop the many scenes that are replaying in my head from the times I followed through with my swing.

My knees buckle and I don't try to hold myself up as I crumble to the pavement in a heap of sobs and shaky breaths.