I woke up slowly, like the air around me was so heavy that it acted as a burden on my eyelids. When I finally had the strength to open my eyes, I looked around to see myself laying on a beige coloured couch in the middle of a living room with a blanket placed on top of me.

A fire crackled in the fireplace and the smell of chicken broth filled the whole space, making it all seem so homely. So familiar.

I tried to sit up but I had a headache that was so strong that it prevented me from even propping myself up and I winced in pain as the throbbing in my temple intensified. Where was I?

Maybe I've been kidnapped, my subconscious thought and I shivered at the thought. But surely if I had been kidnapped I would have been locked up in a cellar, left to rot away.

"I was wondering when you would wake up," a familiar voice echoed through the room, a voice from years before.

I turned around to see James staring at me, holding a bowl of broth in his hands and wearing a pitying smile. The man who had once taken me away from danger had saved me from my own stupidity.

"I can tell you remember me," he mumbled as he sat down in an armchair and memories of hitchhiking came to mind. He had been the only car to stop. He had been the one to take Harry and I to Cornwall.

"Thank you James, again. I'm surprised you recognised me," I laughed weakly and began to hungrily slurp the broth. It was warm and comforting.

"I live quite a dull life m'dear. I could never forget the two teenagers standing by the side of the road looking like they'd seen better days. Could never forget the way the young girl held sadness in her eyes like she'd seen the worst of the world. Could never forget dumping those teenagers in the middle of nowhere because the burden was too much," he looked over at me with sorrow in his eyes, like he regretted ever leaving us.

Maybe life would have been different if we had stayed with James. Maybe life would have been more simple.

"The past is the past," I whispered, "Don't feel guilty."

"Why were you out there... Laying in the grass as if you were just accepting death?" He asked after a few moments of silence and I smiled to myself, knowing that I could never answer that question fully.

"Harry," I stuttered and decided that it was the easiest answer to give James. He didn't need to know my past or my secrets.

"He's not with you anymore?" James raised an eyebrow and I could tell that he had been following the news.

"I was surprised, to see you and him together. He always seemed so... Unsuited to you," James said while mulling over the idea.

I nodded and placed down the bowl of broth which I had wiped clean, filling the empty space in my stomach.

"Where is he now?" James asked with curiosity thick in his voice and I sighed slightly before staring at the ceiling, feeling acceptance course through my veins. Maybe I didn't need Harry.

Maybe I was being overly dramatic.

"I don't know..." I said, propping myself up slightly, "He left me, I've left him. Now we're equal."

"You need to find him again, why let him go?" James asked with a concerned look on his face. But I didn't want to go through the pain again, the pain that came with Harry.

"Maybe I want a life- without him," I replied curtly and tried my best to sit up.

"Maybe you can't live without him."

THE END

So... That was the end of BOOK 1 in the Cardboard Houses series (I don't know how many books I'm gonna make- maybe just have the sequel).

The second book 'Real Houses' should be up very soon and some really exciting things are going to happen in that one. You guys are going to see a very different storyline to the one we have here.

Here is the blurb for the second book, hope you guys will read on!

"Real houses are like cardboard ones- once they're broken, they can never go back to the way they were."

It's been two years since Matilda was found lying on the clifftop. She's now a successful blog writer and journalist. Harry has become one of the most sought- after actors in Hollywood.

But when the past creeps back into both of their new lives and they have to confront each other, things seem to spiral out of control.