The look on Ruby's face tells me that she's more appalled at this very moment than I am. She clearly has already put two and two together what's going on when she sees Harry's hand laced with mine as we stand in the middle of the hallway staring at each other, and she isn't happy with it one bit.

I look at Harry who has the same expression on his face that Ruby does, knowing that there's no way to get out of whatever's about to happen. I can see him tense up as the creases between his eyebrows deepen and I can tell he's trying his hardest not to look at me.

"You ditched me for her?" Ruby screams, as she stands up from her spot on the floor in front of Harry's dorm room door. She's not afraid to show how angry she is, as her voice echoes through the hallway, with a look of disbelief in her eyes. "We had plans Harry! I waited for hours for you at the pub. And you were out with her the whole time? Is that why you were ignoring me?"

I take my hand out of Harry's and step back from the situation to lean against the wall. I want more than anything to walk away from this, but at the same time, I want to be present. Not that this is any of my business, I'm just nosy, to say the least.

"We didn't have plans!" Harry tells her, crossing his arms. "I don't know where you got that idea from."

"You agreed to keep doing what we were doing!" she yells. "That would indicate we have plans every weekend!"

"Hardly," Harry scoffs, shifting his weight from one leg to the other.

"You said you don't even like her!" Ruby's voice screams louder as her arm flings out in my direction.

"I never said that!" He screams back. He turns to me, changing his stance and his eyes soften. "I never said that Paisley, I swear."

At this point I don't know what to believe. There is a chance he did say that to her just so things between them would somehow be easier. But there's also a chance she's just trying to get to me the way she always does. I don't say anything as I look between the two standing before me.

"I don't understand what the fuck it is about this girl---" Ruby questions, seeing that he evidently wants to make sure I know he is telling the truth. "Every fucking time! She will never give you what you actually want Harry! She's just a hopeless square! If you think for a second she'll ever give you what I do, you're stupid, because it's clear that wont happen!" She laughs, looking me up and down with a proud look on her face, apparently loving every second of being able to put me down the way she's always wanted to. "When you were out with her pitiful ass, you were probably thinking about how good it felt to fuck me!"

"Don't listen to her Paisley!" Harry turns to me again, putting his hand on my shoulder. He looks deeply into my eyes. I know he doesn't want me to hear what she's saying and despite the fact that I am already aware of the information being thrown at me, hearing her say it out loud just makes it all that much more real.

"Save it, Harry!" I say. "I already knew about your little rendezvous. You don't need to try and hide it."

"You do?" He asks, taking a step back from me. The look of pure shock inhabits his features.

"Nova told me this morning, while she was yelling at me after finding you in my bed!" I inform him.

"You went to her last night?" Ruby screams. "After our fight? You came here? Un-fucking-believable!"

Harry doesn't seem to acknowledge Ruby, as he keeps his eyes on me. The shock now disappeared from his face as disbelief sets in. "And you still went on a date with me tonight?"

"A date?" Ruby screams. She's making it difficult to forget that she's there and the need to slap her is getting deeper, but I keep my eyes on Harry and ignore my hatred towards her as his eyes don't even blink while looking back at me waiting for me to answer him.

"That doesn't mean that I want to share you Harry," I tell him. "If we're going to go on that second date you seemed to have been set on going on---I don't want you to have to choose. I hate to think I'm that kind of girl to give ultimatums, but I'm not willing to share you with her. So if you want that," I point to Ruby. "You can't have this!" I wave my hands between him and I.

"And lets be honest here!" Ruby chimes in again, apparently unaware that we're trying to drown her out. "She isn't going to give you what you want, like I can! So why waste your time, when we all know you'll---"

"It's you, Paisley," Harry says softly, gently putting his hands on either side of my face. His eyes flick back and forth between mine, the intensity in them burning into mine. "It's always been you. Only you."

"She's right," I say, my voice coming out weak as I step away from him. "I wont give you what she's giving you. Maybe you should think about this."

"I don't need to think about it," he says quickly, stepping forward and placing his hands on my hips. "It's you."

Before I can say or do anything, Harry's lips crash against mine. I stand there in disbelief that he's decided to kiss me at a time like this, with Ruby standing next to us. It takes a second for my brain to catch up with what's happening, but when it does, I pull away from him quickly and gaze at him with wide eyes. I didn't even give myself enough time to feel the way his lips felt on mine.

"What the hell are you doing?" I want to slap him, and I can hear Ruby laughing at the sight before her, seeing that I just rejected a simple kiss from him. I am showing her that her expectations of me, being a pitiful square, is pathetically true, but this is not how I want to remember my first kiss with Harry. Not before the eyes of the girl he has been sleeping with. Not just to prove that he chooses me. Not to try and throw it in her face that he doesn't want her. This isn't the way it's supposed to be. I never should've had to be a choice to begin with. Not if he is saying that it's always been me.

"You can't be serious?" Ruby screams, when it's obvious she's realized she shouldn't be laughing. "You're choosing her over me when she wont even kiss you back? Give me a fucking break Harry! This is ridiculous! Why do you always let her win?"

It's you Paisley. Only you. His words repeat in my head, and despite how mad I am that he's just ruined our chance at that perfect first kiss I had been imagining, I can't help but smile thinking of his words, realizing that he's just said them to me in front of this girl who's trying desperately to 'win' this apparent game.

"Win?" I ask, finally taking my eyes off of Harry and looking at Ruby. I hate that she's bringing up that term again. "It isn't a game Ruby! I'm not trying to 'win' anything!"

"It is, Paisley! You just wait!" she points a finger at me. "All a guy like Harry wants, is sex! So just keep in mind that if your pathetic ass actually gives it to him, he wont want you anymore! He is apparently liking the chase you're giving him though, that much is clear! You don't think it's a game, but he is surely playing one with you!"

"And he just used you," I tell her. I can feel my blood boiling now. With my fists clenched at my sides, I'm ready to pounce, she's made me so angry. How did this argument lead to this? I didn't think I would be the one in the line of fire, but she's pushed my buttons and I'm not going to let her have the satisfaction of keeping me quiet, even though this was never meant to be my battle. "But I'm sure that girls like you don't care about that, do they? You're probably just happy that you got Harry in bed. The feeling of 'winning!' Am I right? The only reason you got him in bed, is because all you are is a slut! You were too easy of a target and he took it! If that's all he wants, he knows where he can get it, but he isn't some fucking game to me and he knows that's how I feel."

Ruby just stands there and I can tell she is seeing red. Her face is showing just how much hatred she feels towards me now and she's shaking in anger. And this just feeds on the adrenaline flooding through me.

"And you don't know what goes on with us!" I continue screaming. "Do I really need to remind you that he's proven to me many times that it's been me from the beginning? Because if I remember correctly, there has been plenty of times he's blown you off for me! He just slept with you because he didn't think he could have me. Well, guess what? If you think that this is some game, you just fucking lost!"

Without thinking, I push open the door to Harry's dorm room and pull Harry by the hand inside with me, not giving Ruby one last look. Kicking the door shut with my back towards the door, I swiftly grab Harry by the collar and pull him into me, smashing our lips together in an eager adrenaline-filled kiss. He pushes me back against the door as I wrap my arms around his neck tightly and his hands instantly grip my sides, digging his fingers into my skin.

As the kiss started out quick with my anger in the moment, it starts to slow as his hands reach up to my face and he caresses my cheek with his thumb as his tongue gently plays with mine. The feeling of his lips on mine makes me feel lighter. Like all the weight of the world just disappeared around me.

He looks at me with a small smile as he leans his forehead against mine, both of us taking in this most amazing moment with the understanding that even after everything that just happened in the hallway, we still want us to happen. Although I don't like that I was a choice, realizing I am his choice is all that matters. I'm what he wants and he's the answer to every question I've ever had.

I never anticipated our first kiss to happen the way it just did. But I know, with the way my heart is hammering in my chest and the way he is looking at me with such relief in his eyes, I wouldn't change it for anything. I love the familiarity he brings. The way I allow the deja vu of his lips on mine to take over my senses, making this moment a moment I can embrace instead of wanting to run away from it.

He presses his lips against mine once more in a nice closed mouth kiss, before kissing the tip of my nose and stepping away from me with a bright smile on his face. And I feel like I'm dropped from cloud nine now that he isn't touching me anymore.

"I hate you by the way," I tell him, nonchalantly.

"What?" His smile fades instantly.

"Explain to me how I just ended up fighting your battle for you!" I blurt out. "You never even stepped in. You just let us go at it and you fucking stood there. Were you enjoying two girls fight over you? How was the show?"

I'm not actually mad at him. But the look on his face is priceless and worth every second of making him think that I am. I can't for the life of me keep a straight face though and when I smile, I watch the tension in his whole being drop back to relaxation.

"It was a great show to be honest," he smiles. "My favorite part of it was when you said," he clears his throat, adding to the dramatics of acting out my insults. "Well, guess what? If you think that this is some game, you just fucking lost!"

I laugh when I realize those are words that came out of my mouth, proud of myself for saying them to her. In all honesty, I never thought I had that in me after being so weak for so long. But with the amount of roller coaster emotions that have flowed through me this entire day, it doesn't surprise me in the least that I said what I said to her.

He steps towards me again, putting his arms around my back, pulling me into a tight hug and kissing my forehead. "I'm really sorry." The sadness in his voice is clear.

"For what?"

"You know what."

"No, I don't know what."

He loosens his grip around me and looks me in the eyes. "I fucked up, Paisley. I fucked up so bad." It's all of a sudden very clear to me why he seemed so upset last night when he wanted to snuggle with me. He felt bad for what he had done with Ruby after finding out how I felt about him and needed the reassurance that I was still there, even though I hadn't known about Ruby yet. "I didn't know. And I just needed to forget how I felt about you. I hated myself for doing it though. I still do. And I'm so sorry. And even though I was trying to forget you, all I could think about was you the whole time."

My face scrunches up in disgust. "Save me the details. Please." I tell him. "Okay, so we've established that you've fucked up and I accept your apology wholeheartedly. But I do want to make it clear to you that you wont be getting any sex from me anytime soon. So if that's what you want--"

"It isn't," he interrupts, placing his hands on either side of my face again. "All I want is you. Only you. Sex or no sex. It doesn't matter. I promise."

With his eyes looking deeply into mine, I can't help but smile as I lean into kiss him. "This." I say. "Me and you. It isn't going to be easy."

"Nothing with you is ever easy, love," he smiles. "But I quite like this complicated and sometimes frustrating girl that you are. You still trust me, right? Even after what I did."

"I still trust you."

"That's more than I can ask for then," he says. "We've already come a long way since the first day of school, haven't we?"

I think back to that first day, knowing that at the time, I never would believe this is where we would be two months later. So much has changed in such a short amount of time, yet it feels like it's been much longer than that. A sense of pride fills me up inside, realizing that I'm standing here with Harry in my arms and I'm kissing him with nothing but the feeling of the admiration I have for him. There are no fears and nothing to be afraid of and I trust him.

I know I owe all of this to him. Because if it weren't for him trying so hard, I never would have gotten over any of my fears. I have a feeling that if it were anyone else, the outcome would be entirely different. I was wrong to question anything when it came to how hard he tried, because even though I didn't think he was trying, by sleeping with Ruby, he was still otherwise by my side, reminding me that he was still there and that I was important to him even if he didn't think I felt anything for him. He was still proving to me that being friends with me was better than not having me in his life at all, no matter how he thought I felt about him. Despite my blindness to his little rendezvous with Ruby, during that time, we were still building a relationship that I needed for this to happen. And that alone is significant to me.

I lean in to kiss him. Pressing my lips to his slowly, wanting to breathe in every second of his soft lips on mine, knowing just how lucky I am in this moment. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For being everything I ever needed." I answer.

He pulls me closer to him so our bodies are touching, making sure there's no space between us. And once again, I'm feeling like even though we can't get any closer, he still feels too far away. I tighten my grip around his body as he leans in to bite my bottom lip. He looks me in the eyes so seductively, I can't help but kiss him.

He is everything that I ever needed. And I can feel, with the way he is kissing me, that I'm everything he ever wanted. There's no better feeling than the way I'm feeling now, knowing that the perplexing puzzle that we are, when we're put together, all the pieces fit undeniably perfect.

**

A/N: Wow! I LOVE this chapter!! I love the way it turned out and I'm extremely excited to share this one with you!! I hope you loved it as much as I loved writing it!! This is definitely my favorite chapter so far! :)

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