A/N: Harry and Cassie edit in the sidebar!
“Stop!” I squealed, jumping away as he tried to shove a handful of snow down the back of my down coat.
“What? You’re afraid of a little snow?” he laughed, tauntingly waving the mound of white power around in the air in front of me.
“Of course I am! I’m from Texas! This,” I gestured around at the winter wonderland that had appeared over night, “doesn’t happen! The closest we have ever come to snow is a giant snow cone machine spitting icy slush all over the playground when I was six!”
“Come on, it’s harmless!” he smiled, letting it slip through his fingers.
“No, it’s cold and wet!” I protested, standing a few feet away, arms wrapped tightly around my chest, uncomfortably rocking back and forth in my rain-boots, doing my best to ward off the chill I could feel steadily creeping into my body.
“So you’re trying to tell me that never once did you dream of making a snow man as a child?”
“Well yeah... but I was happy making one out of styrofoam balls in art class.”
“Of course you were,” he chuckled, shaking his head, “Come here.”
“No, you’ll shove snow down my back.”
“I promise I wont.”
“Pinky promise?” I hummed, dubiously watching the mischievous boy. Adrien grinned at me before stepping forward and linking his pinky with mine, raising his thumb to his lips.
“Seal it with a kiss.”
Cassie’s POV:
I woke with a start, hot tears streaming down my cheeks. Dreams about the bad times I could handle, I was used to them. It was the good memories that carried the true pain. I hated remembering how perfect everything used to be. My subconscious was throwing everything back in my face. It was tearing me apart, ripping into me bit by bit. Slowly, I sucked in one shaking breath, struggling to fill my lungs with the necessary air.
I couldn’t breathe, there was an unbearable weight crushing my lungs. It didn’t matter how much I shifted and squirmed, the weight remained constant.
“Christ,” I whimpered, pushing at the mass, trying in vain to displace it. Hysterical tears began to stream down my cheeks; I was trapped. I jolted suddenly at the sound of a very loud snore ripping directly into my right ear. What the hell?
“H-Harry, get off,” I whimpered, shoving uselessly at the bulk constricting my chest, “Harry please, wake up!” The boy beside me might as well have been dead. It didn’t matter how much I pushed or kicked at him under the duvet, his grip didn’t slack.
After what felt like an eternity of squirming, pulling, and shoving, I managed to free my right arm and I lashed out, smacking the sleepy boy as hard as I could. He let out an unintelligible slur of moans and assorted grunts but his hold on me loosed and I managed to slip out of the bed. As soon as I moved he flipped onto his back and the snores recommenced.
“Clingy bastard,” I grumbled, sitting up on the edge of the bed, rubbing my temples. My head was killing me and I had to squint to look around the unfamiliar room. Everything was way too bright. The sun needed to chill out. We all understood that it was morning, there was no need for it to go and put of a friggin firework display.
Doing my best to avoid the brightest areas, I searched the room for some sort of clock. What happened to that fancy digital clock/iPod dock thing that Harry always kept beside the bed? Were we in the guest room? Did he even have a guest room?
“Harry, where are we?” I groaned, scrubbing the last of the sleep from my eyes. My mouth tasted horrible and I just knew that my hair was a disaster.
When he didn’t answer me, I didn’t even bother to turn around before shoving the stubborn pop-star, “Harry wake up.” Still no answer.
“Jesus Christ, you’re impossible.” I turned to look at the comatose boy beside me. I couldn’t stop the smile that spread as I stared at him. He was passed out on his back, chest rising and falling slowly as he snored, arms raised above his head, crushing a navy clad pillow to his face.
Well now, since the normal ways of waking him up didn’t work it was time to get creative.
Grinning, I moved so that I was straddling his waist, inching the dark sheet slowly down to expose his bare chest. He groaned slightly as the cool air hit him and I chuckled, blushing slightly as I daringly peppered his chest with feather soft kisses. He shifted under me and I knew I was on the right track. My bravery grew and I flicked the tip of my tongue out and swirled it around his left peck. A quiet moan sounded from beneath the down pillow and I knew my game would end soon.
Before I could over think it, I slipped my fleece over my head, adjusting the neckline of my tank top. I’d never thought of doing anything like this before, but it was exhilarating. I knew that when he finally saw me his head would be swimming, bright jade eyes glazed over with sleep, pupils dilated due to my alternative techniques.
This is what he gets for the damn ice shower.
I let my fingers explore lower, tracing his abdominal muscles and down his v-line, before skimming the band of his boxers, my eyes never leaving his shielded face.
“You know, I could get used to this,” He moaned, his voice thick with sleep.
“You wouldn’t wake up so I had to get... creative,” I giggled, trailing my lips back up his chest and sucking lightly on his collarbone.
“You didn’t give me a good enough reason to until now, Sweetheart.” I stopped. I knew I was tired, really fucking tired, but I swore my ears were playing tricks on me.
“What did you just call me?” I scoffed, moving away, lifting my hand to tug the pillow away. I wanted to see the dimpled, fox smile I knew plastered his face.
“You know, if I’d known you were this... adventurous in the morning I’d have stayed at yours more often.” I swore my blood went cold.
“What the fuck?” I gasped, ripping the pillow away from his face. The second my gaze connected with His golden one, I scrambled off of Him, wrapping my arms around my chest, cowering against the locked door. There was no way in hell I ever would have gotten into bed with Him last night.
“Did you drug me?” I shrieked. My skin was already beginning to crawl and I felt bile rising up in the back of my throat. He’d drugged me last night and tried to get me to sleep with Him.
Oh my god. Did I sleep with Him?
“What? No, Cassie! Of course I didn’t drug you! You know I wouldn’t do that!” He yelled back, scrubbing His hands across His face, a gesture I remembered as a tell for when He was getting irritated.
“No, no actually I don’t. I used to think that you loved me and you proved me wrong. I used to think that you could never hurt me and you almost broke every bone in my body. I used to think that I’d finally escaped you and then, bam! You show up and ruin the life I’ve built for myself here.”
“Calm down, you’re overreacting and you’re going to wake up my neighbors,” He groaned, throwing the duvet back. My eyes widened at His lack of clothing. He was completely naked aside from incredibly tight navy boxers... What was with Him and navy?
“No, Adrien. I will not calm down and how dare you tell me that I’m overreacting! You put me in the fucking hospital!”
“That was an accident!”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was possible to accidentally kick your girlfriend so hard that her chest concaves and one of her ribs punctures her lung!”
“I did what?” His face paled and horror filled His dull honey gaze but I didn’t relent.
“Stop it!” I screamed, stalking up to Him. He had a serious hight advantage, nothing compared to Harry, but it was still significant enough for me to have to try and balance on my toes and still be inches below His chin, “Quit acting like you don’t know! You did it on purpose!” Hot, angry tears pooled in my eyes, blurring my vision. I’d never actually yelled at Him before. It felt good- freeing.
“No... I-I... I didn’t mean to...” One massive hand lifted into the air and I smacked it away before it even had a chance of reaching its destination.
“You left me lying on the ground. I couldn’t breathe, Adrien! I almost died!” The tears burst free as the pain from that night assaulted my mind. The paramedics had arrived right before I blacked out. One of our neighbors had heard the fight and called 911 but they were too afraid of Adrien to come and stop what was happening themselves. I was grateful that they’d helped at all but I couldn’t help but be livid with the fact that they’d refused to come over themselves even after He’d left. I knew that they had heard me scream. I could hear them going at it every other night like I was in the same room. They obviously knew what was going on but their cowardice overpowered their morals.
“Cassie, I-... I’m so sorry... I never meant-.”
“No. Stop. Sorry isn’t good enough. I’ve moved on. I moved across the world to get away from you but obviously it wasn’t far enough,” I huffed, wiping uselessly at the moisture pooling up in my eyes. I pushed past Him and retrieved my fleece from where I’d mistakenly thrown it earlier.
“Where are you going?” His voice broke as He reached out to gently catch my upper arm.
“I’m getting the hell away from you,” I spat, ripping my arm away from Him and unlocking the door. I ignored him as I tore through his apartment.
I must have been completely shit faced last night. My stuff was everywhere. One shoe was in the kitchen, the other stuffed into the side of the couch. My beanie had somehow managed to have gotten hung on one of the blades of the ceiling fan; how it made it up there was a mystery to me. Thankfully, my phone was on the bar and my ID, flat key, and debit card were safely tucked into my sports bra. I gave up looking for my headphones when Adrien came up behind me, catching a hold of my hips and spinning me around.
“Please just stop and let me explain,” He pleaded, gold eyes desperate.
“No, Adrien,” I hissed, the hysteria in my voice slipping past my control, “I’m done! I am so far beyond done. You can tell me your’e sorry and that your’e different now all you want, but that can never change what happened! I trusted you, hell, I loved you and then you went and fucked everything up.” I had thought that I was done crying over Him. No matter how many times I swore to myself that I was finished, that He couldn’t hurt me anymore, I let it happen over and over again.
“I’m finished, Aid. I never should have stayed here last night.”
“But Cassie, we-.”
“No. Just-Just don’t.” I pushed past him, stopping only to grab his aviators before I slammed the front door closed behind me.
I didn’t bother to wipe away the tears as I hurried out of the complex, the mirrored lenses hid them well enough. I didn’t stop until I was at least a block away and even then it was only because people were starting to stare.
I had known I looked like shit when I’d left Adrien’s flat, but then I hadn’t cared. I’d only wanted to get out. Now, it was a different story. Thanks to dear Harry Styles, my face was plastered all over the british media. The last thing I needed was to have some dick reporter run a story about Harry’s ratchet girlfriend leaving another guy’s apartment at 8:00 a.m.
I picked a restaurant at random, ducking inside and hurrying back to the bathrooms. I almost doubled over as a wave of nausea hit. I just had to choose this place. It was the same damn cafe that started this whole mess. Swallowing the bile that had risen in the back of my throat, I blasted the tap, splashing my face with the frigid water. The temperature alone left me gasping for air but I didn't mind, it was clearing away the last of the daze the alcohol had put me in as well as the mascara streaking down my cheeks.
By the time I turned off the water my lips were blue and my teeth were chattering but I felt alert. I stared in horror at the mirror image. Midnight circles rimmed bloodshot eyes, accented horribly by sunken cheeks. My hear was a matted, tangled rat’s nest and god did I need a mint. I now understood why Adrien needed that drink last night. I looked like death.
I hissed in pain as I struggled to comb through the knots expertly tied into my hair. If my mom saw my head she’d joke about just shaving it. There was no way I was going to get all of the tangles out.
A good thirty minutes later I’d tamed the animal on top of my head and managed to plait it into a simple braid that hung down to my lower back. I pulled on my beanie before daring to look back into the mirror. The braid had helped, but not by much. I could only hope and pray that fall break had ended for the local schools and all the pre-teens were back in classes.
Sucking in a deep breath, I ducked my head and stepped back out into the restaurant, shoving the aviators higher up on the bridge of my nose.
What had I been thinking going for that “run” yesterday? I should have just sat my happy ass in my room and turned on my Beats. Sure Niall and Gwen sounded like strangled dogs going at it but Dr. Dre could have fixed that. If I hadn’t have left my room I wouldn’t have run into Adrien, I wouldn’t have a splitting migraine, and I wouldn’t be freezing my ass off on a twenty block walk home. Oh and hell maybe then I wouldn’t have left my favorite pair of running headphones at my psycho-ex’s apartment.
I settled for making a mental shit list for everything that had gone wrong lately to entertain me while I forced my way through the congested foot traffic.
1.My hair hated me.
2.My face looked like shit. My body was rebelling from being mistreated and I felt like I was going through puberty all over again.
3.My body chose this week of all weeks to remind me that Eve ate the fucking apple and I was now blessed with the beautiful gift of the possibility of childbirth that manifested itself with cramps from hell and cravings for the weirdest shit ever.
4.My psychotic, abusive, manipulative, stalker ex-boyfriend had followed me across the Atlantic Ocean and now he wanted me back.
5.My roommate and her boyfriend were probably going at it on my couch while I was walking through the freezing London sleet.
6. and I pissed my current boyfriend off so much that he accidentally hurt me and then.... I might have broken up with him.
Well shit fuck. Well isn’t that just a silver lining.
I practically jammed my key into the lock when I finally made it up to my flat, barreling in, throwing my beanie down on the sofa and my shanghaied aviators in the garbage. I didn’t even bother to look around the flat before stalking into the kitchen. I had tunnel vision and even though I was soaking wet and probably had a good case of hypothermia the only thing I could think of was the pint of Ben and Jerry’s Coffee Heath Bar Crunch that I had bought the week before in anticipation of a moment precisely like this.
“Where the hell have you been?” I rolled my eyes at Gwen’s attempt to discipline me. Honestly, she was the last person who should be lecturing me about staying out all night. I took my time before turning to face her, digging in one of the drawers by the sink for a spoon and shoveling a rather large chunk of ice cream into my mouth.
“Chill out, mom,” I groaned around a mouthful of coffee and heath bar.
“Cassie. You’ve been practically catatonic for the past week and then you disappear over night and you’re telling me to chill out? I thought that you’d gone for a dive in the bloody Thames!”
“Well if you’d have tried to call me maybe you could have saved yourself a night of pointless worrying... oh wait, I’m sorry. You were probably too busy banging the Irish one to notice.” Shit.
“Take some fucking midol already will you? You’re being a cuntbag.”
“Cuntbag, really? Come on Gwe-...” I paused, paying attention to the flat for the first time since I’d come storming in. Standing in the shadows was a very distinct head of curly hair, “What’s he doing here?” I groaned, shoving my empty spoon in Harry’s direction. I mentally chastised my heart for giving a frustrating flutter. Traitor.
“I called him. I didn’t know where you’d disappeared to and I thought that maybe you had gone to shag and make up.”
“You know, Gwen, not all problems can be solved by fucking everything that breathes.”
“Yeah, but it makes life interesting.” And that’s why I had been so exceptionally glad when I’d found out Gwen was looking for a roommate. No matter what shit I said to her she always let it go. Quite a handy thing if you turn into a raging bitch when you’re on your period.
“Touché,” I grinned at her before shoving another spoonful of dessert into my mouth.
“You,” I motioned towards Harry with my spoon again, “Nice to see you but it’s time for you to go pretty boy.” He quirked an eyebrow up at me before crossing his arms defiantly across his chest. Fine. Two can play that game. I mimicked his stance, breaking it only to take another bite of the melting treat.
“Gwen, could you give us a moment,” his voice was cool but there was an edge to it. I was seriously going to have to do something about my heart. It refused to listen to me. It was pounding out of my chest and ever cell in my body screamed for me to just jump on top of the curly haired boy and kiss him. Stubbornly, I stood my ground.
“You kids be good now, don’t wake the neighbors!” she cheered before winking suggestively at me and ducking into her room.
“Where were you?” he asked. His body language was in complete contrast with his eyes. I could tell he was only trying to give off an air of indifference to keep me from seeing how worried he’d been. That’s why we worked so well together. I was doing the same. I’d missed him, but I wasn’t ready to give in. He’d crossed a line. He needed to realize that.
“I went for a run.”
“All night? Come on, Cassie. Enough with the bullshit.”
“I stayed with a friend?”
“Who?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“Well tough shit.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m not one of your little fangirls, Harry. I’m not just going to tell you anything just because you ask.”
“What? No, Cassie. I’m just worried about you okay.”
“Why?”
“Because... because I love you. Okay, I love you. I know I never should have grabbed you the other day and you have no idea what I have been going through. I hate myself for hurting you, Angel.” Flutter. Hundreds of freaking flutters. My heart was seriously abandoning me. It was batting for the other team now. I was on my own.
“I... I know. I’m sorry,” I whispered, ducking my head to hide the tears steadily pooling up.
“Please, Cass. I’m so sorry,” his voice broke but I didn’t dare meet his gaze. I knew that if I did it would be over. He would win. My subconscious was telling me to look, screaming for me to. I ignored it, nodding once instead. The wood flooring creaked under his weight as he stepped forward. I let out a breath that I hadn’t known I was holding the second his arms wrapped around me. Home. Home. Home. My heart kept screaming at me. Cassie, you’re home.
“I forgive you,” I whispered, I didn’t know if he had heard me because I barely heard it myself but he must have because familiar lips pressed tenderly against my forehead, smoothing out the lines that had been carved there for the past week.
“I forgive you,” I repeated, my voice stronger as I slowly relaxed, “but you need to go.”
“What?”
“I need time, Harry. We have to take baby steps.”
“Okay.” I could hear the same heart break in his voice that I felt in my own. I did need him but I also needed a break from everything.
“I need a shower,” I sighed, gulping in as much of his familiar scent as I could before disentangling myself from his arms. He nodded but made no move to leave.
“If I told you to go home, would you?”
“Probably not.”
“Sleep on the couch then. It’s more comfortable than the hall, plus it’s less creepy,” I flashed him a small smile before turning and walking down the hall. Well, now I could cross at least one thing off my shit list.
A/N: SILVER LINING! So I literally wrote this chapter today. I havent done this since February. This chapter is seriously one of my favorites! Please make predictions for what will happen!
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I really hope y'all liked this one! Now it's time for me to go to bed. I'm fucking exhausted.
♡Elle