Strangers

Chapter 15: A Broken Nose For A Broken Heart

“I do tell you everything! Lola can you just fucking hear me out for like two seconds and then you can draw whatever relationship-ending conclusions you want, but don’t you atleast want to know why I did what I did? You know me, you love me and you’re not an idiot so you can clearly see that there is some reason why I wouldn’t tell my sister that her fuckhead boyfriend was cheating on her, I hated doing it but I had to!” He pleads, rather angrily.

“Tell me the truth or I swear to God I’m leaving and we’re done.” I gesture to the door, giving him my sternest ‘don’t fucking lie to me’ look.

“Do you want to sit down?” He asks, his head bending back to signal the direction of the living room.

“Nope.” I shake my head, pursing my lips.

“Fine.” He lets out a big puff of air. “The night before we got together, I repeat, before we got together, I slept with Gab. Ashton is the only person who knows, because he was staying with me at the time. He said he would tell you if I told Gemma about him cheating, and I knew you would be furious so I didn’t tell him.”
“Before we got together?” I clarify, my heart hurts, my head hurts, everything fucking hurts because this is like the most long-winded affair in the world and affects way more people than just Ashton and Gemma.

“Yeah, before.”

“And you sat by and let your sister get cheated on because you were afraid I would be angry if I found out you slept with one of my best friends again before we even got together officially?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“You fucking selfish bastard! Oh my God you absolute dickhead, Harry I don’t give a fuck if you banged the entire female population of London when we weren’t together, I mean yeah out of all the people in the world you could’ve not slept with Gab but I know why you did and I’ve fucked two of your close friends so I don’t really have a leg to stand on. Do you realise how fucking guilty I feel right now? Gemma has been fucked over and all because you didn’t want me to find out something that doesn’t even fucking matter?! God this is so fucked. Oh my god I’m actually going to kill you. Let me get this straight, your sister, your best friend essentially, who has literally always been there for you, has been in a relationship with a lying dickshit bastard fucker who has been cheating on her, and you sat there, letting it happen all because you were concerned about how it would affect your own relationship? Am I right? Is that correct?” I ask, my voice sounding slightly antagonizing.

“Don’t treat me like I’m a fucking guilty suspect that you’re trying to get to confess. This isn’t a courtroom and if you’re so passionate about convicting people for their crimes maybe you should go back to being a lawyer. What do you want me to say Lola? Yes? Guilty as charged? I did all of that and I’m fucking sorry okay, I shouldn’t have slept with Gab to spite you, I shouldn’t have kept this from Gemma, I shouldn’t have kept it from you, I shouldn’t have guilted you out about not trusting me when you had every right not to because I was lying.” He strains, his voice extremely pained  but also really fucking defensive.

“You lied to me, and it was easy for you!” I counter, my voice full of frustration and the anger that just hasn’t gone away. 

“It wasn’t easy! I didn’t want to lie, I wanted to tell you everything but I couldn’t risk losing you over a stupid one-time fuck! Did you ever consider for a second that maybe you’re part of the reason Gemma has been fucked over? If I wasn’t so scared of losing you, so scared of you overreacting and not trusting me than I never would’ve let him get away with it for so long! Don’t act so fucking innocent all the time!” He yells back at me. My fingers curl into a fist and before I know it they’re colliding with Harry’s nose, the sound of the impact sends a shiver up my spine and I retrieve my hand immediately, clasping it over my mouth in shock. I just fucking punched Harry!