SHE (bk 1)

FORTY-SIX

Harry had lost count.

He had lost count of all the shots he had taken from the whiskey bottle sitting on his coffee table. Hands reaching out to pour another as it spilled slightly, his eyes closing heavily before he threw another one back .

"So fucking stupid," he muttered to himself as he threw the shot glass against the wall of the living room, eyes watching it shatter. Instead he took the bottle and began taking large gulps straight from the source, mouth gagging as he swallowed it.

His hand reached out for his phone and looked at a text message taunting him, "Stupid...don't do it," he placed the phone back down and took another sip. But once again he was picking up his phone, finger already pushing call before he could stop himself. He already messed up big yesterday, might as well continue the streak.

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EARLIER THE DAY BEFORE

"What did you do?," the words hung in the air without an answer as everyone stared at the blonde girl looking up at Harry. Her eyes were huge and glossy but her hands stayed balled at her sides, nails digging in to her palms. "Where-where-"

Harry immediately cuts her off, "I um I fixed the damage Max did to your diner...so I thought while I was at it I would just remodel it for you," he immediately gulps as her wild eyes look up to where the old sign used to be. The old one was painted terribly and chipped, a little tacky for Harry's taste. A new lit up one, that was indeed very expensive, now sitting in its place.

"No no no no no," Clementine immediately ripped the keys out of her jacket pocket before struggling to find the right one, hastily pushing the door open to reveal a new place. The walls that were once painted wacky colors like bright red and light green now held a dull gray and the counter tops that were painted a red color now were a sleek midnight black.

Everywhere the blonde turned was new, not a single thing registered to her, not a single thing screamed her mother.

"Where-where is everything? Where did you put the old stuff?," her eyes hastily turned to Harry as his family slowly piled into the diner behind him. "Where are the newspaper articles? The tables and chairs? The menus? The counter tops? Or the sign Harry what did you do with the old sign?," tears had begun to fall from her eyes as they watched.

Terror was written across her face and her chest was gasping for air, "Harry please answer me."

"I-I...Clementine they threw it out I thought this would be a new start for the you and the diner," Harry's words proved to be even worse than she could have ever imagined. Her mouth stayed open as if she couldn't close it, eyes continuing to pour tears.

"Clementine sit down," Gemma ushered to her side to coax the blonde into a chair, her head sitting in her hands as they watched her. It was hard to see.

Clementine took a deep breath before peering up at Harry, "My-my mom made that sign you threw away so easily and those old tables and chairs? We painted them together when I was younger, and the hideous red counter tops? My mom picked that color. Those newspaper clippings on the wall over there...they were all of the times my mom was in the paper for having the diner. We made the menu together and worked on everything in here together," she gasped for air as she looked around at a place now unrecognizable to her.

"You-you threw away everything my mother worked so hard to make...you just threw it away," she cried out gripping the table as she tried to find a way to breathe normally. Max had ruined the place and hurt her beyond belief but she was going to fix up the place once she had the courage to come back. "Did you keep anything?"

The silence enveloping the room was enough of an answer for her as her tears turned into sobs, "This is my first Christmas without her and you decided to completely erase her from the place she built as a present?," her words tore Harry in half and stung worse than anything he'd known.

Clementine was holding back everything she was feeling for the sake of his family but she was bursting at the seams. "Clem I-I had no idea all of that was your moms...I am so sorry I-I," Harry had no idea what else to say other than that he was sorry.

The blonde felt resentment run through her veins as the man stared at her speechless. He had turned her mothers quirky and colorful diner into a Hollywood nightmare, dull colors and plain ideas surrounded her. None of it shared the vision her mother had, it was all gone. Her mothers legacy was in a trash heap somewhere downtown, Clementine's heart dropped at the thought.

She could never have any of that stuff back, it was gone forever.

Her sobs turned into gasps for air as she realized it was all gone, and there was nothing she could do about it. "Please leave," her words were barely comprehensible but Harry heard her loud and clear.

His lip twitches slightly as he fought back his own tears, he hadn't meant to cause her any pain. But it was clear from her wandering eyes and endless tears that he had done the wrong thing. "Clementine just let me fix this-,"

Her eyes shoot up quickly as Gemma sucks in a breathe, "How? How can you fix this?," she was using a tone he had never heard and one he had hoped he never would. A tone she used with Max, "Are you going to bring my mother back from the dead to repaint the sign? Or go through every trash heap in New York City?," she was right there was not a thing he could do to fix it. He fucked up.

Harry's mouth opened and closed as she stared back at him, eyes blazing with a terrifying anger. Who would have thought his sunflower would be looking at him like this? With hate.

"I-I," Harry stutters out before immediately retreating out of the diner and down the street. His breath was puffing out as he sprinted as fast as he could away from her. He didn't want to leave but he also had no idea how to comfort her, how to make her feel better.

He was the one that hurt her and it killed him worse than he could have ever imagined.