The next morning, I woke up with the intention of making things right with Harry - not that they weren’t right before, but what had happened yesterday wasn’t necessary and could have been avoided by all means.
Sure, there were some things I didn’t understand like why he had this urgent need to protect and keep me safe from everything; but there were some things Harry didn’t understand himself - that he won’t always be in the position to protect me.
With my eyes still closed, I stretched my hand forward hopeful that it would land on Harry’s chest, torso or any part of his body really. In the place of Harry’s body was nothing but empty sheets under the blanket.
"Harry?" I called out, my eyes opening immediately revealing his empty room.
Had he... left me? Just because of last night. But he wouldn’t; that wasn’t like Harry. It seemed like he made a promise to himself to protect me or something, with the way he was acting recently, things were just so different.
I got out of bed and walked into the bathroom. I looked awful to say the least, my lack of sleep and nightmare last night along with the bruises and cuts covering my face certainly didn’t look decent. I had nothing at Harry’s to at least attempt to cover my bruises; I walked out of the bathroom and sat on the bed noticing a note with my name on it.
I picked the paper up and unfolded it, seeing Harry’s writing from the top to the bottom.
‘I know you wanted to talk about what happened last night. But I don’t want to talk about it. I’ve realised that it was all in my head and now I finally understand how ridiculous I’ve been acting the past few weeks. I just want you to know that I will do anything in my being to protect you. What I’m saying is if anything was to happen to you, I have no idea what I would do with myself. So the reason you are reading this letter is because I need to take care of some business and I mean what I say. Harry’
Five times. I had read Harry’s note five times, what did that mean? Apart from the obvious...
I sighed happily to myself, immediately forgetting what had happened last night - because it didn’t matter, it was irrelevant. It’s not that I’m not going to bring it up it’s that he didn’t want to talk about it for a reason and I wasn’t about to push him to tell me.
I got up and walked down stairs into the room remembering Jake placed my phone on the coffee table after Spencer called, I glanced at the time on the screen; it was just a few minutes to eleven. I texted Naomi to come and get me seeing as I had no way of getting home and I’m covered head to toe in wounds.
I got dressed and heard a beep outside after 10 minutes. I made sure everything was clean when I left and reminded myself that I needed to buy Harry a new mirror... oops. I ran over to Naomi’s car and she wasn’t surprised at all over my appearance mainly because she was the one I always came to when Spencer hurt me, but this time it wasn’t only Spencer.
She drove me to mine and on the way she asked me what happened this time, I explained and told her every detail I could remember. Her eyes widened when I told her about Harry and how he felt and she burst into laughter, I couldn’t help but join in.
“I knew he would like you, I could tell by the way he looked at you on the first day.” She told me as I unlocked the front door.
“Shut up” I laughed and swatted her arm, we were both caught off guard by my mum standing in the hallway.
“Where have you been and what happened?” she cried as she ran over to hug me. Shit, what am I supposed to tell her? I looked back at Naomi and her jaw was practically touching the floor. She knew I had never spoke to my mum about Spencer, maybe now was the time I should explain everything, but then what about my dad, what about the awful nightmare I had last night, what if she reacted the same?
I couldn’t risk it, I couldn’t lose her or my dad, they meant everything to me and I was so lucky to have them by my side no matter what. I had a sick feeling that this would change everything, I kept a massive secret from them, they knew I was with Spencer but they didn’t know all my injuries came from him.
No words came from my mouth and she cupped my shoulders in her hands and released me from her embrace to look at me. My lips were parted but my voice was mute.
“She bruises like a peach, doesn’t she?” Naomi joked and my mum laughed.
“You don’t say!” She giggled as she let go of me “Where did this come from though?” She pointed to my head, the cut that Harry tried to cover.
“I didn’t tie my shoe laces and fell over on the curb.” I explained, I was a terrible liar but my mum always seemed to believe me. I don’t think she believed everything I said but she always got the idea that if I wanted to tell her, then I would.
She told me how much of a clumsy person I was and left me and Naomi to go upstairs. “That was a close one” she exclaimed as I shut my bedroom door. “We haven’t been out in ages, do you want to go out tonight? Have some fun?” I thought about it for a second while getting out some clothes.
“Sounds good!” I said as I walked over to my dressing table, I still looked awful and I felt stupid for thinking that I’d look any better than I did before we left. Going out actually sounded fun, I was fed up of feeling like crap and some girl time wouldn’t hurt, I could forget about Spencer and Harry.
“Here, let me help” she said as she took the concealer out of my hands after my fifth attempt at covering my wounds she patted it over my bruises and laughed while she blended it. “So, where do you want to go?” she asked as she put down the concealer.
“I don’t mind, we can just go to a bar if you want?” she nodded and I finished applying my usual makeup. After I changed into the same as Naomi, a jumper and some leggings and she suggested a movie marathon before we went out.

***

HARRY’S POV

I felt awful for leaving Wren after what happened last night but I didn’t want to have to talk about what was going through my mind and I needed a clear mindset before meeting Jake. I knew she’d be okay if I left her, otherwise I wouldn’t have and if she read the note she will know that.
I got out of the car after I pulled up to Jake’s flat and waited for him to answer the door. He looked just as pissed as I was when he answered, I followed him into the kitchen and understood why he wanted to move; his place was a mess and his flat mates were dickheads.
“So are we really going to do this?” He sounded nervous but up for it, even if he wasn’t going to help me I would go alone. Spencer can’t get away with hurting Wren like that, especially in front of me.
“Yeah, you’re not dropping out are you?” He shook his head.
“So, how are we going to do this?” He added and I thought for a while before answering.
“I have a plan, come on.” I said as I got up off from the kitchen table, we walked out the door and got into my car.
The drive to Spencer’s was mostly quiet except from when I explained to Jake what we were going to do. Whether he was the one to throw the first hit or I was, I was there to tell him to stay away from Wren and if I found out that he came near her again, I would kill him.
We pulled up outside his house and I followed Jake up to the door, as he knocked my adrenaline rushed through my veins. The door was still cracked from yesterday; I was parted from my thoughts as I heard the heavy footsteps of the mentally damaged twat that was walking towards the door. As soon as he looked at us I could tell he was irritated.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” He was close to shouting. I watched the anger develop through his body before replying.
“Stay the fuck away from Wren, if you touch her ever again then I swear to god I’ll be the last thing you’ll have to deal with.” My voice sounded harsh and cold as I got closer to his face.
“What are you going to do if I don’t? She’s mine” He laughed looking at me and Jake; I clenched my fists digging my fingernails into my palm. “I’m the only one who can have her whenever I want and however I want, she doesn’t want you and your petty friend. She’s just using you like I use her.” I looked over at Jake as his fist connected with Spencer’s jaw before shoving him up against the wall of his house. I had never seen Jake so angry, he was skinny but strong which he’d proved many times before but I didn’t think he’d be the one to throw the first punch.
Spencer mirrored Jake’s actions and he stumbled back as I grabbed Spencer’s hair and slammed it against the brick of his house, he fell to the floor and I climbed on top of him. My fists began to hammer against his sculpted face and I wasn’t planning on stopping until he couldn’t breathe.
“You’re going to kill him Harry, stop!” Jake shouted after I’d hit him about twenty times, he shook me off of the bleeding man under me.
“That’s the point!” I shouted, kicking Spencer in the stomach before walking down the uneven wooden porch steps. “Stay the fuck away from her! I mean it!” I continued as I walked over to the car wiping my bloody knuckles on my black skinny jeans and slammed the door behind me.

***

Naomi helped me pick out an outfit; she chose a navy dress skater dress with black lace covering the material.
“And these heels!” she added, I laughed before I spoke.
“Are you sure we should wear heels?” I asked and she nodded. I packed all of my things into a bag to take to Naomi’s to get ready.
I said goodbye to my mum on the way out and told her I would most likely be staying around Naomi’s so she shouldn’t expect me home. We walked over to the car and she drove to hers, she only lived three minutes away, making it almost impossible for us to never be there for each other.
After a few minutes of laughing and gossip we arrived at her house and rushed upstairs to start getting ready. I made her let me choose her outfit considering she chose mine. I picked a little black dress which complimented her body perfectly and some lavender heels.
“You have to wear it!” I told her as she scrunched her nose, she knew she would look good in it but didn’t want to admit it. After five minutes of arguing over the clothes she finally agreed and got changed.
I slipped on my dress and left the heels for last minute, I was never good in anything but flat shoes. Naomi got out the pre-drinks and started to do her makeup, after ten attempts of lining her eyes she shouted at me for making her laugh by dancing around in the background of her mirror.
An hour went past and we were ready to leave. Naomi said bye to her mum and we rushed to the car, almost falling over the uneven path. She drove to a bar named The Bumper, slightly tipsy already we couldn’t help but laugh as we walked in; everything seemed so much funnier in her company.
We walked over to the bar and ordered two apple ciders. The bar was a lot different from usual bars and pubs which is why we liked it, it wasn’t as crazy as a club but wasn’t as boring as a bar. It was in the middle, it was big enough to fit about 100 people in and it was full almost every night.
The redheaded barmaid handed us our drinks and we walked through the dance floor into one of the booths. We caught up some more and I forgot how fun it was to be with girls, being surrounded by boys was too much drama and whoever said that it was less, lied.
Two hours went by and it was half nine, we decided that we were drunk enough to go and dance without caring what people thought. We ran over to the dance floor, squeezing through grinding couples and gagging at a few who were clearly eating each other’s faces. Naomi was the funniest dancer, especially when she was drunk. She genuinely didn’t care what anyone thought when she was around me, whenever we were with each other we wouldn’t bring boys or try and flirt, it was purely girl time. Naomi had been around Spencer a few times but she didn’t like what he did to me so that added to the list of reasons she despised him.

***

It had just gone two in the morning when we finally gave in and decided we were too intoxicated to carry on. I hadn’t eaten much that day apart from the junk food during our movie marathon; Naomi was too drunk to drive so we had to walk to the twenty four hour corner shop on the way home.
“Do you want anything?” I asked as I got to the door of the shop, stumbling over my heels.
“I’ll come in with you.” Her words were slightly slurred and she laughed at my attempt to walk.
After fifteen minutes of wondering around and choosing food we ended up picking up crisps, sweets and some water. I could see the cashier trying not to laugh at our drunken states as we wobbled out of the store, Naomi winked at him as she walked out the door and fell to her knees, still laughing. I handed her the carrier bag and pulled her arm around my neck to steady her as she stood up.
My phone had run out of battery so I used Naomi’s to call a taxi to come and pick us up. We were waiting for about five minutes and decided to walk over to the bench next to an old park. Not many people were around apart from the occasional group of people walking past, most likely coming from other clubs and bars in the area.
Naomi had started to drift off on my shoulder; I grabbed her arm and started to shake it to wake her. I could hear a group of boys getting closer to us as she screwed her eyes tighter and opened them, adjusting to the harsh light of the street lamps. I heard someone call my name but I didn’t turn around, I had no idea who it was as the voice was merged with laughter coming from the other people around and passing cars.
I heard the voice again, this time closer and Naomi turned around.
“Oh shit” she slurred and grabbed my arm to cross the road, who was it and why didn’t she want me to see?
“Where are you going?” they called and I stopped right on the edge of the curb and turned, making Naomi jolt backwards and loose her grip. It was Spencer, of course. Who else wouldn’t she want me to see?
“Home, why are you following us?!” I shouted, I didn’t plan on seeing him again and the alcohol had somehow made me more confident in speaking back the same way he does to me. He walked closer towards me but I didn’t move backwards.
“Your friend Harry came and spoke to me this morning.” His voice was deeper and colder than I’ve ever heard it before.
“So what” I spat, I wasn’t in the mood for this, it was coming up to three in the morning and I was already feeling hung over. When he stopped he was illuminated by the street light, showing his black eye and busted lip. Did Harry do this or was it his dad? Harry wouldn’t... would he?
Naomi burst into laughter “Your medicine doesn’t taste nice does it?” she observed his face and stood next to me, crossing her arms. I could see the frown form on his face under the orange hue of the street lights. I couldn’t see his eyes but I knew he was angry; his chest was rising and falling rapidly. I thought he was calming down as his fists unclenched but I was mistaken when he grabbed Naomi’s dress and pulled her towards him, his face extremely close to hers.
“Shut the fuck up!” He screamed and pushed her back as she punched his chest to escape; her eyes had started to over flow with water as her tears fell down her cheeks.
“What is your problem? What do you get out of hurting other people apart from relief? The relief that lasts for five minutes until you feel regret. You’re so envious of everyone else who doesn’t get hurt on a daily basis so you feel the need to change that not only physically, but emotionally and I feel sorry for whoever you’re with next having to put up with that...” I thought it would be crying at this point but instead I was in his face, throwing back everything he had ever dished out on me. I continued after taking a few breaths “Actually, I don’t. I hope no one ever loves you, I tried to make things work with you, I tried and all you ever did was hurt me over and over, I can never forgive you for the things you did to me. I can never get those two years back that I spent trying to fix the broken boy that I loved.”
His frown had transformed into a concerned look, that same look I always saw in his eyes, that stupid sympathetic look that always made me forgive him, it didn’t last thirty seconds before his pupils began to dilate, I knew better than to stand in his face and try to stop him, I grabbed Naomi’s arm and tried to run, our heels letting us down as Spencer caught up and grabbed my wrist, I heard the crunch of the bone as he twisted it around, as I screamed the tears I didn’t think would come were soaking into my dress.
“Stop, you’re hurting her!” I heard Naomi scream as she cried; his grip only got tighter on the crushed bone and my tears were pouring from my eyes. His group of friends had come over as they noticed all the commotion, one of them faced Naomi away and tried to calm her down and the other three tried to get Spencer off of me. As he let go my I supported my wrist with my other hand, it was undoubtedly broken. I looked up at Spencer and one of his friends had him restrained while the other two were pushing against his chest to stop him from coming at me again. Spencer was a lot more built than his friends but the three mixed together were stronger.
Unfortunately for them he was just getting angrier and if I learnt anything front being with him it’s that the more you try to stop and restrain him, the less he cares and the stronger he gets. He turned and punched one of his friends in their jaw and watched as he fell to the ground. That was enough for the other two to back away. Naomi turned as she heard the poor man cry for help on the floor, I got down to help him but Spencer grabbed my hair, stopping me from getting any lower.
“Let go of her Spencer!” Daxton shouted. He was one of Spencer’s old friends that I had met a few times. Naomi had ran over to the boy on the floor and the other two boys were just staring, unaware of what to do. I didn’t blame them, if I was in their position I wouldn’t want to get involved.
Spencer shot a glare at Daxton, and loosened his grip on the ends of my hair just to hold the strands closer to my skull. My cheeks were blemished red from the embarrassment and my eyes were sore. Was this all my fault? I always forgave him and maybe that was the reason he carried on... because he knew I would always come back to him, no matter what he did I loved him.
I was in agony, this was the worst I ever felt and I didn’t think it could get any worse. Daxton and the two boys started to approached us. Had they ever seen him like this? Naomi had taken the boy with the busted lip and possibly broken jaw over to the bench and was watching me and Spencer in horror as she was on the phone, most likely to the police.
Spencer threw me towards the road as the boys attempted to control Spencer again. He went to push them away from him but Daxton caught hold of both of Spencer’s hands in his and pulled them behind his back, the other two boys holding his chest the exact same way as before, I was trying to balance myself from Spencer's push but I fell back off the curb and stumbled over my heels. My head was pounding, I wasn’t sure if it was the arguing or the alcohol. I got up and heard Naomi scream and watched Spencer’s face drain of colour. The boy with the broken jaw had his eyes closed in pain and was curled up on the bench and the other three were holding Spencer back, facing away.
Before I could think anything else my body went completely numb and I heard the crack of what sounded like twigs, I hit the floor and felt a force on my whole body, I opened my eyes that I didn’t realise were closed and saw that there was nothing on top of me, only a car next to me. All I could hear was the screams and cries of people around me.
My vision was blurring as Naomi ran over to me and started shaking my body, everything sounded like it was underwater and I faintly made out Spencer shouting ‘no’ over and over again, I felt my cheeks dampen and my eyes started to feel heavy. I couldn’t keep them open any longer. I felt droplets of tears land on my chest as Naomi lowered her head onto me, repeating the same words as Spencer. Daxton’s voice was in the background and I took notice of the word ambulance, what was going on?
My hearing was getting quieter and quieter as my body started to relax. I went into a condition that I could only explain as comparable to sleep.