Facade [h.s]

twenty-four

He closed the call, staring at the phone for a few seconds before throwing it on the couch. I looked at him, waiting for him to speak, wondering what Indigo had told him. It was clear that she had said something, but his silence went on for so long that I found myself wondering if he would've told me at all.

"You're fucked" he then said, and I raised an eyebrow, definitely not having expected those words to leave his mouth. "Joel seemed to be a bit drunk, so maybe we would've got away with it" he continued, "but Callie definitely wasn't, and thanks to your performance she understood what happened fairly quickly."

I pursed my lips, looking down. I was sure I could've got away with it when it came to Callie, but it'd just turned out that she was way more perceptive than I'd expected her to be, which truly was an issue. She was pretty and belonged to a fairly rich family, she alone probably knew way more people than Indigo and I combined - which meant that not only we would've had to be careful around her, but around everyone else as well.

"And Indigo tried her best to distract her, so she also realised it's probably her fault you know" he added. "So congrats, you screwed us all up in the span of twenty minutes."

"How many times do I have to tell you I did it to protect you?" I replied, frustrated that he didn't seem to be able to see the point. "You know what, you can say he threatened you a lot of times, but how many were they where he held an actual weapon against you? He took that bottle while talking to you, Harry. I don't know if you know, but Joel doesn't drink while having important conversations" I explained quickly. "That bottle would've ended up on you, or in you-" I interrupted myself, looking away. "Fuck."

"That wouldn't have happened, Raine" he replied, seeming a bit annoyed by my words.

"Oh really?" I said, "then tell me why his first reaction when I walked in was to break it against the table and charge you with it. Did you think he would've stopped, Harry? Maybe right in front of you, given you a big hug and walked away?" I shook my head. "You do not approach someone with a weapon unless you want to hurt them."

"Raine-" he said, his voice seeming a bit softer, but I shook my head, letting him know that I wasn't done.

"And what do you think would've happened after you would've ended up hurt? He didn't want to call an ambulance because someone accidentally overdosed and died in his house. Do you really think he would've called one after having stabbed someone with a broken bottle in his own house? He wouldn't have done that, and he would've made sure nobody else would've been able to do that either!"

"Raine."

"And I'm sorry for deciding that I didn't want to risk something bad happening to you. Haven't you thought that maybe sometimes all you can do is choose between two bad outcomes? Yeah, he knows I know now, but at least you aren't fucking hurt!"

"Raine" he said softly for the third time, covering the few steps that separated us and slowly intertwining the fingers of his right hand with mine, successfully shutting me up. "I'm fine. Nothing's going to happen to me."

I looked into his eyes, realising just then that I'd been nervously crying the whole time. "I just want you safe, Harry" I told him quietly, "I've already lost people in my life, I don't want to lose you too."

He brushed his thumb against my knuckles reassuringly. "You aren't going to lose me, thunderstorm."

I let out a little laugh at his words. "That damned nickname" I commented, and he smiled at me.

"I'm not dropping it, so you better get used to it,  thunderstorm."

I sighed as he pulled me into a hug, resting my cheek against his shoulder and wrapping my arm around his neck, taking a deep breath and taking in the faint musky smell of his cologne. "I missed you tonight" I whispered to him, and he hummed.