Strangers

Chapter 15: A Broken Nose For A Broken Heart

“I shouldn’t let other peoples relationships get me so worked up?! Are you fucking kidding me right now?! Maybe you should let them get you more worked up because I would think that if I had a sibling and I found out they were being mistreated and betrayed I would be really fucking furious and do whatever I could to minimize their pain, not expand it!” I am practically screaming, I feel so on edge because the anger is pulsing through my veins so rapidly it’s prolonging my enraged state- it’s impossible to imagine not being mad about this.

“Would you let me talk for a second?! You know how much I love Gemma so I’m sure you have figured out there was obviously a reason why I didn’t step in and stop it, alright?!” He defends, his voice rising.

“This ought to be good.” I scoff, turning away from him and shaking my head- already dismissing whatever bogus reason he has.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He huffs, dragging his fingers through his hair and his chest rising up- his muscles visually full of tension.

“That you’re a really fucking good liar. You’ve been lying to me for months.”

“I haven’t though! I just chose not to tell you something, that’s not lying. It was for your own go-“
“Oh fucking shut up right now, don’t you dare say this was for my own good, you kept this from me- and from Gemma- for some fucked up reason that only benefits you and you know it!” I screech, my arms flailing around wildly in exasperation.

“Well you woulnd’t know that would you because you won’t fucking let me tell you!”

“Because I don’t want to know! I don’t want to know what you possibly deemed a good enough reason to hide this. She’s your sister! You let her be completely humiliated! Do you even realise what you’ve done? How she must feel? He’s been cheating for months and you knew and did nothing! And what’s worse Harry is the way you treated me when I showed concern about that relationship! She was getting all hyped up at the thought of him proposing which we both know was never going to happen in light of his recent actions, and you just sat there and let her get her hopes up! You treated me like some pushy, intrusive bitch when I voiced my own opinions on him, you told me to butt out and leave it alone and now I know why, you knew that if I actually scrutinized the situation I would see that something was really fucked up. You lied to my face, you made me feel like shit for doubting Ashton when you knew that I was right! I have always been!”

“Charlotte you’re really overreacting.” He says, his voice completely relaxed in contrast to my voice which sounds so strung out and hyped up it’s probably inaudible.

“I’m overreacting?! How fucking dare you say I’m overreacting when you have been lying to my face for months! DO you know how angry I feel when I think about Niall’s party? I knew you were all acting shady as fuck, and when you told me there was nothing going on I didn’t believe you and I was fucking right not to, so yeah forgive me for going and asking Louis straight after that to double check. And you made me feel so freaking guilty for doubting and not trusting you! You fucking lying piece of shit! We sat on your roof and I apologized and I felt absolutely horrible, I thought I was jeopardizing our relationship just because of that very little thing when all this time you were the one jeopardizing our relationship! If you can even fucking call it that…” Red hot fury has my nerve endings standing on edge, every realization stings me again and again as I recall all the conversations we’ve had in the past couple of months about Ashton and Gemma- all of which he was lying.

“What does that even mean? Of course what we’re doing can be called a fucking relationship.” He says gruffly.

“Can it? I was under the impression that in a relationship you told the other person everything, leaving absolutely nothing else out and trusted them wholeheartedly but clearly that isn’t the case here.” I wave my hand through the air indicating the space between us.