Fitting Together Again

"Thalia!"
Her bright hazel eyes locked on mine for an instant before she quickly turned away towards the garden. I moved to run after her but Marco caught my arm and held me fast.
"And just where do you think you're going?" He growled.
"To go clean up the mess you made," I replied, my eyes still trained on Thalia as she disappeared between the hedges.
"Mess I made? We'd have never been in this mess in the first place if it weren't for you." Marco's grip tightened on my arm as my blood began to boil. He glared down at me with hatred in his eyes as he continued, "you need to give up these delusional fantasies you have for Thalia. Because she's mine now. And you're never taking her away from me."
I shoved Marco away roughly, causing him to stumble back and nearly fall. I stood in front of him breathing hard as anger pumped through my veins.
"She's not your property." I had growled the words, my hands tightening for firsts....praying for a reason.
"Maybe not yet Styles, but she will be soon." Marco's smug look was infuriating and his words terrifying. He let out a laugh and added, “You don’t stand a chance! I’m going to marry Thalia. And she'll say yes. Do you want to know why? It's because she's so desperate to get away from you."
My fist connected with the side of his face with a sickening crunch. But rather then relieve my anger, it only fueled it. Marco touched his lip, feeling the blood where my fist has split it. Then, he let out a loud laugh. I moved to hit him again but was held fast.
"Harry! Harry, stop!"
"Don't make it worse mate!"
I was panting like a boxer fresh out of the ring and it took Liam, Jasper, and Louis to old me back. I fought against my friends as they prevented me from adding another bruise to the Italians features. Marco let out a loud, manic laugh as he watched me.
"Eventually she'll realize what a monster you are," I heard myself call out, hoping to wound him with words now that my fists had been restrained.
"I'm the monster?" Marco snarled. "Look at yourself. You're an out of control jealous lunatic! How pathetic.”
"Oi! Watch yer lip," Niall snapped. "That's me best pal ye prick."
Marco glared at Niall before seeming to remember just exactly whom he was dating; Niall's girlfriend's sister. Niall cocked his eyebrow challengingly, his boyish features distorting into a somewhat terrifying growl. With what looked like an enormous amount of effort Marco turned his attention back on me, his dark brown eyes locking with my green.
"Stay away from her Styles," he all but growled. "If you know what's good for you."
"Is that a threat?" Hugh asked, stepping up face Marco. The Italian faltered slightly and I briefly wondered if Thalia had told him just how many street fights Hugh had survived.
"Leave it Hugh," Liam, the voice of reason, called out cautionsly. "We're all a little worked up from the heat. Why don't we go back to the house and cool down a bit."
This wasn't a question, but rather a warning for a moment later Miss Irene's voice could be heard across the lawn. She must have seen our scuffle and, having raised dozens of children, known something was up.
"Boys...everything alright over there?" Thalia's mother called.
“Just a bit of friendly competition Miss Irene,” Hugh yelled back. He shot one last menacing glare at Marco before turning his back on him. After another moment's glaring contest I let Louis, Jasper, and Liam pull be back towards the house.
"You can't let him get to you," Liam hissed in my ear.
"Why?" Snapped Hugh. "Fucking prick deserved whatever Harry was about to give him."
"Yeah? And how do you think your sisters would feel about that?" Liam asked.
"Maeve would be right there with him," mumbled Hugh, causing the rest of them to crack smiles.
I however, was still fuming. I needed to get out of here, I needed to let this pent up frustration out before I exploded. All of them sensed the frustration and after a few moments Hugh and Jasper mumbled something about calming down Miss Irene before she began to grow two suspicious.
"We're you able to tell Thalia?" Louis asked in a hushed tone once the two boys had gone. The three of them continued pulling me inside the house and through the deserted hallways, attempting to get me far away from any other human as possible.
"No," I growled in response.
"Why not?"
"Marco interrupted and told her that I fucking assaulted her!" I hit the nearest object, which happened to be a heavy door, and cursed loudly. The guys had seen enough of my outbursts to know not to try and stop me. They simply stared at me in response, each unsure how to respond without setting me off once more.
"That's what's got you all riled up?" Louis finally spoke. "Come on Haz, she'll never believe that."
"Why not? It's what happened," I mumbled, running my beaten and bloody hand through my hair. "She was drunk."
"So were you!" Cried Louis. "And besides you said it didn't go any further than that."
"You can't let him get in your head like that mate," Liam said, putting a hand on my shoulder.
"Thalia will understand," Niall added. "She just needs te hear what really happened."
"And how am I going to tell her that?" I asked bitterly. "She's never going to talk to me now."
"Relax lad," chuckled Louis, that mischievous glint returning to his eye. "We have an agent on it."
"Agent?" I frowned.
"From Operation TAHU," Liam answered with a bemused smirk on his face.
I rolled my eyes as we started back towards the room. They were taking this thing too seriously. But I couldn't really complain could I? Not if it was the best chance I had to talk to Thalia.
I mentally cursed myself for not just telling her straight out what Marco had done. I had hoped that if I was able to jog her memory, she would have more of a reason to believe me. And now she had none at all. There was no way I could recover from this.
As we reached our room I headed straight for the bathroom to run my bruised knuckles under the cold water. The freezing water immediately numbed the pain cooled my temper. As I looked down at the angry blotches now appearing I remembered Marco's smug face as he proclaimed that he would marry Thalia someday.
I should have hit him harder.
“Harry?” There was a knock on the bathroom door and I looked up to see Liam. "We have a visitor mate."
I quickly shut off the water and grabbed one of the pristine white towels from the rack. I made my way out of the bathroom and I noticed the other three were turned towards the door where Tilly stood waiting patiently by the threshold.
"May I come in?" She asked politely.
"O'course!" Cried Niall. "What can we do ya fer?"
"I was hoping to have a word with Harry actually," Tilly replied. I broke into a smile at the disconnect between her age and vocabulary.
"Sure! What's up love?"
Tilly looked around at the others before her eyes landed on mine once more. I caught on quickly and motioned to the balcony with my good hand.
"Why don't we talk outside away from the eavesdroppers?” I smirked.
"Oi!" Cried Louis as Tilly let out a small giggle. She quickly skipped past the four of us out towards the balcony. I shot a confused yet bemused look at the boys, which all of them mimicked, before following her out.
"Alright so what can I help you with today Miss Tilly?" I asked as I sat down on the lounge chair. Tilly settled herself at the end of the lounge and looked up at me imploringly.
"We need to talk."
"Sounds serious," I mused.
"It is," she nodded. "Harry, you've changed."
I blinked. Was this ten year old giving me an intervention? Her eyes flickered between mine earnestly while her hands remained folded neatly on her lap. She looked like a proper princess and I felt myself as nervous as if she was one.
"I-I have?” I struggled.
"You're not as fun as you used to be. You don't laugh or smile as much and I don't like one bit."
"How do you know I haven't just matured?" I chuckled, attempting to find some way to retaliate from this mini attack.
Tilly narrowed her eyes suspiciously as she scanned my features. "No I don't think so. After all...you just got into a fight."
Her eyes darted to my bruised and bloodied hand, which I quickly tried to hide underneath the cloth. I really wasn't sure how to respond, so I decided with, "Well what do you suppose is causing this epidemic then?"
"Does it have to do with Thalia?" She asked casually.
I froze for a moment before quickly recovering with, “O-of course not."
“No?" Her eyebrows shot upward.
"You don't believe me?" I chuckled.
"Nope. You're not a very good liar you know."
"Oh and I suppose you know all about that," I teased.
"Harry, when you're a foster child living with ten other fosters...you have learn how to decipher truth from lies if you hope to survive."
"How can you tell when someone's lying?" I frowned. I was amazed at the maturity level of this little twelveyear old. I was also trying very hard to avoid her current line of questioning.
"I'll answer your question if you answer mine," she bargained before quickly adding. "Truthfully this time."
I let out a laugh and surveyed the little girl in front of me. Tilly was one of Thalia's siblings who I had really gotten to know over the course of our relationship. She was witty, sarcastic, and quite goofy when you got to know her. Her and Thalia had always been close and I briefly wondered if Thalia had sent her here on a mission. She had to of for why else would she be asking me these questions? But I shook the thought from my head, on the minuscule chance Thalia had feelings for me she wouldn't let it be known - not even to her sisters.
“Yes, it was because of Thalia," I finally confessed. "I don't think Marco's good for her."
"And you are?"
"What?"
"Well that's what you're implying," shrugged Tilly. "You think you're better for her than Marco."
"I think anyone's better for her than Marco," I replied with a bit more snap in my voice then I intended.
Tilly watched me, her eyes scanning my features as if she had x-Ray vision. Her lips pursed together before she looked down at her hands.
"Harry?" She asked nervously. "May I ask you something?"
"Shoot," I shrugged.
"What happened between you and Thalia?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "One minute you were in love and the next..."
"What, she didn't tell you?" I asked, though I immediately knew that Thalia would do know such thing.
Thalia may have told Maeve, Mackenzie, and Elaine but her younger siblings already had a poor idea of love without our mess ups making it worse. Tilly shook her head, confirming my assumption.
"Why do you want to know?" I asked hesitantly.
"So that I can decide if I should tell you what I want to tell you," answered Tilly. She had peaked my curiosity and accomplished her goal.
"I...we...she kept too many secrets," I mumbled.
But for some reason Tilly broke into a small smile, as if this was the silliest reason in the world. "Well of course she keeps secrets! Look at how many people she knows!"
"What does that have to do with it?" I frowned.
Tilly rolled her eyes. "Think about it Harry. Thalia comes from a family where everyone has a past they'd rather forget. But we all know each other's history and it's like a law of the house that you don’t talk about it. Especially with an outsider. Ever."
"Okay...?" I said slowly, not following.
"Okay so Harry," she emphasized. “There are fourteen people in our family! That's a lot of secret keeping!"
I stared at the small twelve year old in front of me. You'd never know just by looking at her that this little girl had experienced more abuse in 12 years than I ever would in a lifetime. Thalia had always gone quiet on the subject and referred to her siblings' parents as simply "demons" or "monsters." And while she would never give me the whole story, I got the message.
“But it was more than that," I argued. "It wasn't just about your family. She was keeping secrets that impacted us as a couple."
"Like what?"
“I dunno…like her coming to Italy."
Again, Tilly rolled her eyes. "She didn't tell anyone about that Harry. She wanted to figure out if she even wanted to move before sending everyone in an uproar."
"But we could have talked about it. It could have been a decision we could have made together."
"I think she fist wanted to figure out if moving was even something she wanted to consider."
"What?" I frowned in confusion. “That doesn’t even make sense."
"When did you break up?" Tilly asked, switching the topic abruptly.
"August 2nd," I answered immediately. That date would forever be ingrained in my brain.
"August," Tilly said slowly, her brow furrowing into a frown. "Well when did you start fighting?"
"I dunno...sometime in July?" I shrugged.
"It didn't happen to be around July 11th did it?" She asked slowly.
"Why?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow and staring at Tilly intently.
She bit her lip and looked down at her hands, then back at me and then finally away again. Seeing her loose her composure irked me and my curiosity easily out won my patience.
"Tilly, what happened on July 11th?" I pressed.
Tilly chewed her lip and looked back at me with worry. "Um...well...you see something happened that day to Maeve...and..."
"What? What happened to Mae?" I asked quickly.
"I uh...I'm not allowed to say. You'll have to ask Maeve if you want to know," she answered.
I fell back into my chair with defeat. I felt like Alice from wonderland talking to the wise caterpillar. Only in this case the wise caterpillar was a twelve year old running my brain in circles.
"Look, all you need to know was that it was something bad and it affected all of us," Tilly added, sensing my increasing despair. “But it affected Thalia the most. Thalia, Elaine, and Kenzie called home saying they wanted to bring Mae back but she wouldn’t let them...and then about a week later we got another call saying Mae had to go to the hospital-"
"Hold on," I interjected. I was completely overwhelmed by this influx of information. “What happened? Why didn't I know about-"
“After that they all came home for a while. Thalia couldn't focus on anything," Tilly continued, completely ignoring me. "She was on edge and would start yelling or crying for no reason. When I finally asked Elaine about it she said that Thalia was worried about Mae. She was terrified Mae would try to hurt herself again-“
“Hurt herself?” I cried. “Tilly-“
“After a few days Miss Irene and Miss Lisa made Thal, Kenzie, and Elaine go back to school while they kept an eye on Maeve. But I think that only made it worse for them. Thal was on edge Harry. We found out later that she wasn’t sleeping, she was hardly eating anything…”
“Jesus. I know something was going on but…why didn't Thalia tell me?" I asked adamantly. The feeling seemed to have drained from my body, leaving me numb. I had no idea that Thalia had been dealing with a whole other world of problems. If I had it would have changed everything. And in that moment I wanted nothing more than to go to Thalia right now and comfort her like I should have done two years ago when she needed me. If only I had known. "She should have told me. She should have said something, anything."
"You know that's not who she is Harry," Tilly replied earnestly. “Maeve was the priority. Thal didn't want us to worry about her. She didn't want us to have that burden too. She was trying to protect us. But the problem is...she doesn't hide her emotions as well as she thinks she does."
"But if she had just told me-"
"I know," Tilly replied, a sense of finality and understanding in her voice.
I however was far from being satisfied. There were so my questions that needed to be answered. But one immediately came to mind. "Did Kenzie tell Niall? Did he get to know?"
“Niall? No, I don't think so," Tilly frowned. "I remember Kenzie telling us she gave him a vague answer when he asked. She told him it was family stuff and he didn't push it."
I snorted. Of course he didn't push it. I, on the other hand had to know everything about Thalia. Had my prying pushed her further away? I ran my hands through my hair and leant back on the lounge feeling defeated.
"Thalia and her secrets...you know that's why we fought? That night we broke up," I said weakly. "I thought that her keeping secrets meant that she didn't love me."
"No Harry. That's not what that meant at all. She " Tilly shook her head adamantly, her small hands finding my bruised ones. She then let out a weak laugh. "You and Thalia both let the fear of being unloved stop you from being in love."
I stared at her, letting her words sink in. Tilly was right. I had been so terrified Thalia has stopped loving me that I began to obsess about every little thing she did, including keeping secrets. I should have known there was a reason she wasn’t telling me everything. I should have trusted her.
With a weak laugh I ran my hands through my hair. Our breakup had just been a complete misunderstanding. If only we had talked, admitted our problems, our fears and assured one another of our feelings then we would probably still be together. But neither Thalia nor I had never been in a real committed relationships before. We had assumed our love would make it easy when it was anything but. I let out a feeble laugh at the irony of the situation.
How could I ever make this right?
"You need to tell Thalia that you still love her," Tilly whispered. Her piercing blue eyes had been analyzing me, waiting for me to come to a conclusion.
"She won't listen."
"Yes she will."
I shook my head and felt Tilly squeeze my hand.
"You need to be honest with her about everything. And I mean everything Harry."
"It won't matter. She's with Marco."
"You said it yourself he's bad news!" Tilly said with a smile. "And besides, she doesn't love him. She's using him to protect herself from the pain she thinks loving you will cause."
"And that's supposed to make me feel better?" I laughed weakly.
“Yes. You can't blame her for being a skeptic of love Harry," Tilly replied. "She's never seen it work before."

Notes

I know. I'm the worst. It's been almost a whole month since I last updated. School and work have been kicking my ass but hopefully with break only a day away I'll have more time for writing!

But what did you think of the new chapter?? Bet you didn't see that one coming did ya?

Stay tuned. Next chapter will blow your pretty little minds...