Harder Than You Know (Austin Mahone and Alex Constancio)

Chapter Thirteen

~Alycin P.O.V.~

I sighed and looked in the mirror, looked at my hair. "Look, I never said it would be easy." Natalie said, patting my shoulder. 

"I'm sick of living in a web of lies." I mumbled, splitting my hair into three very uneven sections. I started brushing it again.

"Only a couple more years." 

"Natalie, I wasn't kicked out, and you know it." I lowered my voice to a whisper. "And I'm so sick of telling everyone that my mom was such a horrible person."

She shrugged. "I didn't make you do squat." 

"Well, it doesn't matter now. My parents hate me, my sister will never trust me again...." My voice trailed off. And yet, they want me back....

"That's all true. But, you have me. And that's what matters." She said slowly, moving from behind me and sitting on the bed.

"You don't even care?" 

"Ally, it's not like that." 

"You and I both know it is, Nats." I sighed again, and watched her in the mirror, setting down my brush. Her expression was unreadable. 

"We can fix this, if you want to." She sighed, laying back on the bed.

"No, this is my life now." I muttered. "There will be no 'we'." She nodded and went back into Austin's room. 

We had been through this a thousand times. And it always ended with me thinking In all honesty, at this point I didn't deserve to be loved. I was the worst daughter ever, the worst sister ever, and the overall worst person ever. 

And when my mom called and said she forgave me and she wanted me to move back in with her, when she told me she still loved me, I was going to say yes. It had brought me to tears. Then Natalie came running out screaming and I had just said 'I'll think about it, mommy' and hung up. That should have clued her in to a yes. But it might not have. I never knew with my mom.

So, of course I was in a good mood when I woke up. Not all hope was gone. In fact, quite a bit was still there. I tried to get back to that place as I stood up and fixed my shirt. Alex came barging in like he always did. 

"Hey,"

"Hey," I said, walking over and giving him a hug. 

"You okay?" 

"I'm fine." I smiled a real smile. "Just perfect." 

"You can tell me stuff, you know." 

"I know," 

"So, a couple people are coming over later. Michelle is going to have a type of grill out thing." 

"Oh, cool." I said. 

"Yeahh." He seemed kind of awkward. I looked up at him. 

"Alex," He looked at me nervously. "What's wrong?" 

"Uhm, Rob is bringing his new girl over." 

"Really? Who?" The sound in his voice told me that it wasn't good news. 

"Her name is Erin. I'm pretty sure you might know her. She's my ex." 

"Oh, perfect." I groaned. Now it was time for me to live up to a promise. Which really sucked more than anything, you know? Because, I didn't really want to mangle her face. That would look bad on me. Everything would look bad on me. I turned and looked back at the mirror. "Just perfect." 

This one is short, but I think that it's okay.... Next one is Ariel's and I hope she's got an idea of how to do this. :P :) xoxo -Bree