Harry sat on the couch with Jade curled into his lap, head resting on his chest as she absentmindedly played with the pendant of one his necklaces, eyes glued to the TV. Harry stared at the moving cartoon figures, seeing without looking, his mind replaying the phone conversation he’d had with Melissa just that morning.

“Where were you last night?” Melissa asked, and he didn’t need to see her physically standing before him to know that she wore the angry, hurt expression that Harry was constantly growing used to.

“I went home,” Harry lied to her, his voice already drained and tired, though he knew they were just beginning.

“Why?”

“I got…bored.” Harry said, and then shook his head, not at all proud of his pathetic and unconvincing answer.

“Bored?” Melissa asked, her voice rising. “What do you mean—”

“I mean,” Harry said, letting some of his annoyance seep into his voice, “that I saw your flirting your ass off with Riley, I got bored, and I fucking left.”

There was a short pause, and then Melissa said, “Did you leave because of Riley?”

“I—”

“Harry, if you were bothered by it, you should have said something.”

Harry frowned, and was suddenly wracked with guilt. The truth was, he didn’t want to voice his jealousy because there was none to begin with. He remembered walking into Melissa’s house and watching her converse with other boys, he saw he steal glances at him and whenever she was assured that he was looking, she made it a point to get physically close, as close as possible, to whoever she was conversing with just to prove her point. He remembered Riley throwing his girlfriend over her shoulder and running off towards the swimming pool. He remembered his anger, and also remembered how momentary it had been.

Because the moment he’d stepped out of the house, dragging Georgia along simply for the sake of company, he’d forgotten all about Melissa. He expected his irritation to stick somewhere in the back of his mind throughout the night, but it hadn’t. He didn’t think about it once, didn’t worry about the possibility of someone else touching his girlfriend in less than appropriate ways, a possibility of the previous night being the night when Melissa decided she’d had enough with Harry.

It was as if he was cheating on her without really doing so. He didn’t think about her, he didn’t care that they fought. Sometimes, calling her up and talking to her seemed like an obligation. Christ, what was happening to him?

He knew that as a boyfriend, he was supposed to be jealous. He was supposed to care. He was supposed to take Melissa seriously when she let him know that she could have anyone she wanted, that she’d leave him soon because she was tired. But she stuck around, and he stuck around, and neither was sure as to why exactly they did so.

“I wasn’t bothered,” he said.

“Well, why not?” she asked him, raising her voice. “Why not, Harry? Why don’t you care? For all you know, I could be having hot, monkey sex with Riley that night and—”

“So you want me to act like a jealous twat and stop you from talking to guys?” he asked incredulously.

“At least that would mean you care about me!” she said, her voice shaking slightly now. It was strange, how Melissa could go from being angry to hurt in less than five seconds. Her mood swings were a whip lash; they were also Harry’s fault. “That you still give a flying fuck!”

“I do care, Mel,” Harry sighed, his eyes falling shut. “I do—”

“No, you don’t!”She was yelling again. “Where were you, Harry? Were you hooking up with another girl or--?”

“Melissa, shut up,” Harry growled. “You know I’d never—”

“I’m sick and tired of this, Harry,” she said, and he heard the tears in her voice. “I’m tired of being the only one making an effort, I can’t do it anymore.”

His eyes widened. Was she breaking up with him? Was she finally doing what she should have done a long time ago?

“Melissa—”

But she’d hung up already.

The phone conversation had left Harry utterly confused. He didn’t like making Melissa cry. When he’d first met her, one of the many things that had attracted him to her was that she was a strong person, someone who didn’t cry easily. Lately, it seemed like crying was all she ever did.

He considered calling her up and telling her the truth, that he’d decided to ditch the party and dragged Georgia along with him. But then he wondered how she would feel about that; not too happy, that was for sure. He knew Melissa loved her cousin a lot, and she wouldn’t see their little getaway, insignificant as it was, in a positive light.

Harry wondered if Melissa knew about his and Georgia’s kiss. But then again, he knew she didn’t. She’d have brought it up for sure if she’d known.

He felt guilty about letting his anger get the best of him and kissing Georgia the way that he had, but when he pictured her flustered expression and the furious blush of her cheeks, he couldn’t help but smirk and feel a little smug. Harry knew he made a lot of girls nervous, and Georgia was no exception to the rule. Lately he’d missed that feeling of making someone nervous in his presence. He’d spent too much time worrying either about Jade, or fighting and arguing with Melissa. He missed life as it had been when he’d just started dating Mel and when he didn’t know Jade had cancer. He didn’t have anything to worry about then, and now, worrying was all he seemed to be doing.

He was broken out of his thoughts when his mother walked into the living room. She paused to smile when she saw Jade and Harry curled up on the couch.

“Harry,” she said. “Robin and I are going out for dinner. I’ll be back home late, okay?”

Harry nodded, shifting slightly and sitting up a bit.

“Make sure you give Jade food and her meds on time, and she needs to be in bed in another hour.” Anne let him know, and Harry nodded once again.

“Be good, you both,” she smiled. “Bye, Jade.”

“Bye, Anne.” Jade mumbled, raising her hand and waving at the woman. “Have fun with Robin.”

With a tinkling laugh, Anne was out.

The only thing that seemed to make him happy, other than Jade, was the fact that his mother was happy. She’d been alone for the longest time until about three years ago, when she’d found Robin. He didn’t think he remembered seeing her that happy in a while. She deserved it.

“Hazza?” Jade asked, lifting her head to look up at him.

“Yeah?”

“Are Anne and Robin in love?” she asked him.

Harry looked down at her. “Yeah,” he told her with a smile. “They’re in love.”

“Is it like you and Melissa?”

The question caught him off guard, and it was a few moments before he could reply. “Not really,” he shook his head, frowning. He didn’t know how exactly he could explain to this little girl what Melissa and him now felt about each other. “Anne and Robin love each other more.”

“Why don’t you love Melissa?” Jade asked, a frown gracing her delicate features.

“I…do love her,” Harry said slowly.

“What about Georgia?” Jade asked.

Harry laughed. “What about her?”

Jade looked down. “I like her,” she admitted shyly.

Harry smiled. “Do you?”

“Yeah,” Jade nodded. “Are you both friends?”

Harry remembered their last encounter, his and Georgia’s, and the few hours they’d spent on the tiny hill, next to the gushing stream. He remembered how she was constantly annoyed by his presence at the same time that she was nervous, stiffening and blushing every time he so much as looked at her. Harry smirked to himself as he remembered catching her after she jumped, her dress riding up as she fell into his arms, light as a feather, her eyes wide, mouth parted and cheeks bright red, and he swore he could hear her heart fluttering and feel the rapid rise of her chest as it pressed up against her. He enjoyed watching Georgia react to him that way.

“Not really,” Harry told Jade.

“Oh,” Jade mumbled.

“You ask a lot of questions, you know that?” He smiled, poking her sides gently, and laughing when she giggled and squirmed in his arms.

But then her smile faded, and Harry could sense another question on its way. “Hazza,” she spoke, “am I going to die?”

Harry stilled completely, and felt his humour vanish in a split second. He looked down at her, mouth half open, unable to find an answer for her question.

“Am I?” she pressed, looking up at him, her eyes holding nothing but curiosity, as if she’d simply asked him what his favourite colour was.

“No,” Harry said when he could find his voice, a lump forming in his throat. “You’re not going to die, you hear me?”

He blinked furiously as sudden tears threatened to escape. God, he was going to cry. How pathetic could he be, crying in front of a five year old child?

Jade reached up and touched his cheek, and he realized that a year had managed to escape. He cursed mentally when he felt her tiny hand swipe across his cheek.

“Why are you crying?” she asked him, frowning once again.

“I’m not,” he lied. “Come here.”

He pulled her into a hug, crushing the tiny girl to him, grinding his teeth together to force himself to calm down. Her question had really caught him by surprise, but the saddest and most surprising part was that he didn’t have an answer.

Or maybe he did—maybe he had an answer, but it was something he was too afraid to say out loud.
---

Georgia wiped her hands clean with the tissue, looking up at the slightly cracked, dirty mirror in the public washroom, to see her reflection staring back at her. Her hair was neatly combed into a pony tail, a few loose strands framing her face. She reached up and tucked one back behind her ear, recalling the way Lucas used to do the same, and immediately felt a painful tug at her heartstrings.

She looked at her face then, swollen eyes, puffy cheeks, nose tinged pink. She took a deep breath, wishing she didn’t look like this. Her face was puffy and her breathing still ragged from having cried her eyes out the previous night.

She figured it was just one of those nights, where her emotions got the best of her, where she had no control. Lately, not having control over her emotions was all she ever felt. It was like one day, she thought she’d be able to smile again and the next, she was collapsing into tears, struggling to breathe, feeling like she’d never be whole again.

Last night she’d spoken to Lucas again. She cried to him on the phone endlessly and he sat and listened to her, shushing her and telling her he missed her too, that he wished she was back. Things had spiraled down from there, and Georgia had spent the entire night crying and getting no sleep, face buried into her pillow to muffle her sobs.

She ought to move on sometime, didn’t she? How long would she go on, spending her time with the constant ache in her chest, with tears blinding her, her thoughts a jumble, silently craving for one more shot at her old life? Would she ever even be happy again?

She closed her eyes now, taking a deep breath, opening them again and then stepping out of the toilet. She picked her book up, and smiled at the librarian before exiting the small library she’d recently discovered, located conveniently around ten minutes from her house.

She wondered aimlessly, not yet wanting to go back home. The weather was nice today, the gently breeze calming her down slightly. She forced her mind to wander anywhere but memories threatening to resurface. She tried to think of anything else, like the evening she’d spent with Melissa, painting each other’s nails and watching movies, talking and whatnot.

When Georgia had gotten to know that Melissa how upset Melissa had been with Harry’s sudden disappearance, she’d been wracked with guilt. She didn’t know whether she had anything to feel guilty about in the first place (it’s not like something had happened between the two). She considered telling Melissa that the two of them had left the party early, but as Melissa continued to grow angrier as she spoke about his early departure, Georgia found herself swallowing the words on the tip of her tongue. No, there was no way she could tell her.

It was just one time, Georgia kept convincing herself. She wasn’t going to let Harry lure her out for the sake of his own entertainment, or to make Melissa jealous—whichever his reason had been. She wasn’t going to be used by him.

Georgia was lost in her own thoughts, not really watching where she was going. She ended up walking into something hard, and staggered backwards, a yelp of surprise escaping her lips. She looked up, opening her mouth to apologize.

And then froze.

He stood before her, as if she’d conjured him before her just out of her thoughts. There it was, the ever present frown etched upon his features, mouth parted in annoyance, but he placed his hand to steady her before she landed on her bum. He was dressed in a black top with long sleeves, the first few buttons undone to show just a peak of tattoos that looked the tails of a bird. His curls were hidden under a beanie, chains dangling on his neck.

“Jesus,” he exhaled, clearly annoyed. “Watch where you’re going, will you?”

Georgia opened her mouth to snap at him, but shut it when she heard a soft giggle coming from beside Harry. She looked down to see Jade standing next to Harry, holding his hand. She smiled shyly up at Georgia, who forced her irritation with the curly haired boy aside and smiled down at the little girl.

“Hi, beautiful.” She greeted Jade with a bright smile, choosing to ignore Harry.

“Hey,” Jade mumbled shyly, but her smile was bright.

“What’ve you got there?” Georgia asked, pointing at the tiny bag jade was clutching in one hand.

“Oh,” Jade said, looking down at the bag and then back up at Georgia. “Hazza got me a book.”

“Oh, so you like reading?” Georgia asked her, and Jade nodded.

“Yeah,” she told the older girl. “Do you?”

“Yeah!” Georgia told her, and Jade smiled, seemingly happy with that answer. She looked up at Harry, who was watching the two girls with a slight frown on his face. He seemed almost confused. Georgia wanted to ask him why he was always frowning like that. Harry looked at her, and as their eyes met, his frown seemed to intensify. That was Harry—if he wasn’t laughing at Georgia, he was frowning at her. Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, she looked down at Jade.

“Hazza doesn’t read,” Jade said, shaking her head and then peering up at the curly haired

“Of course he doesn’t,” Georgia mumbled under her breath. Jade didn’t hear her, but she knew Harry did. He looked at her and narrowed his eyes at her.

“If you come home,” Jade said, her voice soft and shy, “we can read the book together.”

Georgia laughed and bent down to tweak the little girl’s nose, and she squirmed and giggled. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Jade nodded happily. “And I can show you all my toys. Anne bought me a new bear yesterday.”

“Oh?” Georgia asked, raising her eyebrows. “Well, in that case, I’ll be there.”

“Really?” Jade asked, her eyes wide. “Will you come?” She looked up at Harry. “Hazza, can Georgia come to our house?”

Harry eyed the two girls curiously, once again surprised by Jade’s willingness to befriend

Georgia. “Sure,” he mumbled, shrugging. “She can come over tomorrow.”

Jade smiled up at Georgia. “Will you come?”

“Of course I will,” she promised the girl.

“Alright,” Harry said, smiling slightly as he took in Jade’s happy expression. “Jade, say bye to Georgia, we gotta go.”

“Bye Georgia,” Jade said.

“Bye, beautiful,” Georgia smiled. “See you tomorrow.”

“Er,” Harry paused to look at Georgia, as Jade was easily distracted by something in the distance, “have you been crying?”

Georgia’s eyes widened and she hurriedly looked down. “No,” she lied.

Harry snorted. “Yeah, right,” he said. “Your eyes are swollen. Boyfriend dumped you?”

“Mind your own business, will you?” she snapped at him.

Harry, as usual, wasn’t fazed by her rudeness. “Aw,” he cooed, “did I hit a nerve?”

Georgia felt the tingle in her palm, the urge to smack Harry’s stupid smirk off. Instead she pushed past him and stalked off, leaving him still smirking and gazing after her. She knew that he liked getting to her that way.

And what was worse was that she let him.
---

Notes

hiiiii! sorry for the delay.
guys, please comment and vote, i haven't heard from you guys for about four chapters or so now! :(

this is just a filler, but there's some good stuff to come, ahahahaha. <3