"Paisley Hayes?" Harry's Mom stands in the doorway, and apparently remembers me. It shouldn't surprise me that she knows who I am, considering I was Harry's first girlfriend, and I recall just how much she liked me. She used to gush over how thrilled she was that her only son had found a smart girl who made him as happy as I made him. And as I stand here trying not to make eye contact with green eyes that resemble her sons, I wonder if she knows what I did to him. I wonder if she knows that Harry and I go to school together and that we've been reunited, and that we've spent the last six months together. "How are you, doll? Come in! Harry will be thrilled to see you!"

"I—um," I stutter. "Is he home?" I'm unsure if I want to go into their house, so I don't move a muscle, keeping my eyes drawn to the ground before me, despite how happy she looks to see me. She clearly hasn't got a clue as to what has happened between us.

"Does he know you're back in town?" she asks. "It's been so long since you've seen each other." She pulls me into the house and closes the door behind me. "Oh my goodness! What on earth happened to you?"

"I—uhh." I'm at a loss for words, and I can feel my cheeks start to heat up in embarrassment. Why did I come over here? This was a mistake.

"Hmm—" She looks at me curiously, brushing the hair out of my face and taking a good look at the black and blue spread out on the side of my face. "Harry has a black eye right now, too."

"He what?" I ask, finally allowing myself to look at her. "Is he alright?"

"It's not quite as bad as yours is though." Her eyes widen, as if coming to a realization about something. "You're her, aren't you?"

"Who?"

"The girl Harry has been seeing at school," she answers, the smile returning to her face. "I should have known it was you. He talks about this girl exactly the same way he did about you in high school—I should have known. Now tell me, what did the two of you get into, that caused these black eyes of yours."

I don't say anything. I don't know what to say. I want to get out of here and pretend I never came over here. What the hell was I thinking?

"So secretive, the two of you have gotten," she says, crossing her arms. "I'm happy you are back together! That's so nice! I always loved you for him!"

"Oh, well—we aren't—" I sigh, looking back to the ground, unable to finish the sentence. If I don't say it out loud, there's no possible way it's true.

"Who's here, Mom?" Harry's voice comes from the top of the stairs, and I take a deep breath realizing the time has come to face him.  She moves to the side, allowing me to be in his line of vision, as I listen to him walk down the wooden staircase, without looking away from the floor.

"Harry, why didn't you tell me you were—"

"What are you doing here?" The anger in his voice startles me and my eyes instantly shoot up to look at him, revealing the look on his face resembles the tone in his voice. But it immediately changes to a wide eyed, mouth gaping stare, as I watch him rush down the rest of the stairs, pushing past his mom and brushing the hair out of my face without missing a beat. "What happened to your face?"

It takes me a second to realize Harry is standing before me. Close to me. Touching my skin, as he takes in the colors on my face. He sounds worried. Uneasiness etched into his features. I feel like the world is spinning as I stare into his eyes, but quickly come back from it, moving my face and stepping back from him. "What happened to yours?"

"What happened to your face, Paisley?" he asks, this time with force. 

"No!" I say loudly. "You don't get to ask questions Harry. I deserve answers. You don't!"

We stare at each other for what feels like a long time, the silence almost deafening. There's a sense of relief building up inside of me at the understanding that he's standing in front of me. And even though I'm unsure about the way he's looking at me at the moment, I get the satisfied feeling that I'm even here with him at all, knowing there was always that chance things with Ryan could have went a completely different way, and I never would have been given the chance to get any of the answers I rightfully deserve.

"Why don't you two go up to your room, Harry?" his Mom breaks the silence. "Seems you have some things to talk about." I look over at her as she puts her hand through her long dark hair, sadness laced in her eyes at the sight of us not doing as well as she apparently thought.

Harry sighs heavily, and without a word he grabs my hand and starts pulling me up the stairs. The only thing I can focus on is how comfortable his hand feels in mine, and I'm happy that despite recent events, I'm still able to feel a connection with him. I'm not afraid of his simple touch, regardless of how forceful he is pulling me up the stairs and down the hallway to his bedroom. I don't want him to let me go. I want to intertwine our fingers and memorize the puzzle we once were and put it all back together piece by piece until we're whole again.

As soon as we're in his bedroom, he slams the door shut behind us, causing me to jump at the loud noise. He doesn't say anything as he sits down on his bed, leaning against the wall. He picks up the book that was sitting on his pillow and opens it, as if I'm not standing here. I'm unsure of what to say. I should have thought this through before coming over here.

My eyes roam around the room from the spot I stand in at the door. It's almost the same as it was the last time I was in here. The same Einstein poster taped to the blue painted wall between the two windows. The book shelves crammed with more books than ever. It's strange to me to know how much he loves reading, yet at school, the only books I've ever seen him pick up are class course books. Leaving me to realize he has separated parts of who he is, hiding this great nerd quality I really loved about him in high school, and locking it away in this room for no one to see that this part of him still exists.

My feet move their way across the room when I notice pictures hanging on the wall above his long dresser. He's made a sort of collage with different sized frames, different pictures in each. Landscapes. Family. His cat. Me—Me? I've never seen this picture before. I'm dancing on the beach, arms in the air, hair wild from spinning in a circle, bare feet and a zip up hoodie. My eyes are closed and I have a smile on my face, completely in my own element. Happy and carefree. Exactly the person I used to be. I can't for the life of me understand why he has this picture on his wall, and wonder how long it's been there.

"What are you doing here, Paisley?" His presence startles me, not hearing him move from the bed and across the floor to stand next to me. My heart starts to pound again as I look into his eyes. He looks sad and angry and annoyed all at the same time and all I want is to see a smile on his face that is clearly nowhere to be found right now.

"I wanted to give you your present," I finally say, holding the book out towards him.

He looks down at it, seeing a picture of us on the front. "I don't want it."

"Harry, please," I sigh. "It took me months to make this for you. I really want you to have it."

"No."

"Ya know, it's almost like I wasn't meant to finish it until I remembered you," I continue nervously. "Because I was able to add all our memories from high school to it, which I think makes it even more special. We have some really good memories." 

"You call all those lies, good memories?" he asks with annoyance. "I don't want your stupid book."

"Why are you being like this?" I ask, throwing the book on his dresser and walking around him to the other side of the room. "And how did you get a black eye?"

"I think you know what happened, Paisley!" He raises his voice. "Don't play stupid. Stop pretending you haven't got a clue about anything. I'm sick of it."

I turn back around and look at him, all of a sudden remembering the dried blood on Maddox's knuckles, and it dawns on me that I know exactly what happened. I swallow hard and my eyes widen at this realization. Walking over to him, my hand instantly moves up to his face to touch the colored skin around his eye. It's only now that I notice he also has a cut on his lip and a yellowish bruise on his jawline, clearly starting to disappear since it's been a few days. No, it can't be true. "It was them, wasn't it?" I ask, just above a whisper.

He pushes my hand away from his face angrily. Glaring at me through his thick long lashes. "I knew you knew about it!"

"I didn't know!" I fight back.

"Don't try to tell me you didn't know your drug addict friends beat the shit out of me!" he screams. "I didn't know who the fuck they were, until that guy I saw you with last time, showed up with his car. They kept telling me to stay the fuck away from you, threatening my life and saying you belonged to some guy named Ryan. Who the fuck is Ryan?"

Oh my God. This is not happening right now. My breath gets caught in my throat at the mention of his name, making me cough. We stare at each other for a few moments in silence. I'm more than certain he can hear my heart beat from where he's standing, it's pounding so hard.

"Forget it!" he continues loudly, throwing his arms through the air. "I don't give two shits who Ryan is. Just tell your friends to stay the fuck away from me. You need to leave, Paisley. I don't even want to look at you, you make me so mad!"

"I make you mad?" I scream back. "I'm not the one who did anything wrong here! And those people aren't my friends, believe me! I didn't know they kicked your ass! I had nothing to do with that! And if I remember correctly, you were the one who was a dick to me! I should be the one who's pissed!"

He sighs, seemingly annoyed with me, and closes his eyes for a moment as if trying to keep his cool. "Why are you here?"

I take a minute to collect my thoughts, not understanding a single one of them. Everything inside of my head is a jumbled mess, and I have to remember the reason I came over here to begin with, other than that stupid book Harry doesn't seem to want. It's only when I look over at it that I come to my senses. "Everything you said to me the other day is a lie," I finally blurt out. "I know it is. I know you weren't playing me this whole time. I think in the beginning you were, but you got caught up in your feelings for me. The same feelings you felt for me in high school."

"You think I'm stupid enough to fall in love with you again?" he laughs. "Give me a break. I know you're not an idiot. Stop being one."

"I'm not!" Oh my God, he frustrates me. "You just don't want to admit that you still have feelings for me, because you think I was out to hurt you again. Which I never was in the first place! If you would just get that through your thick skull, we could stop yelling at each other and fix this!"

"There's nothing to fix!" he presses. 

"There's plenty to fix!" I shout. "You and me—we're meant to be together, Harry. I know it. You know it. Fuck. Everyone knows it!" I take a second to calm myself down. I don't want to yell anymore. I hate that we're screaming at each other and allowing people down the street to probably listen in on our fight. I sigh, looking into his sad green eyes. He looks exhausted. "Everything was finally perfect between us, Harry. It took us so long to get to where we were, but it was worth it. All of it was worth it. I need you to see that we're worth it." I take a step closer to him, slowly. "I need you to remember how good we are together."

His eyes flick back and forth between mine, his chest rising and falling with his heavy breaths, as I close the small gap between us and press my lips gently against his. I'm hoping he can feel the electricity I feel that's instantly flowing through my veins. I'm hoping that he's getting the same tingles in his toes that I'm experiencing at this very moment, and that his heart will remember how much he loved me once. I need him to understand how much I love him. How much I need him and want to make things right again. 

He deepens the kiss and puts his arms around me, pulling me in close to him. Momentarily, I feel like I'm home. I feel like all the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders and I feel whole again. There's nowhere else I want to be, than in this exact place, in this very moment, in Harry's arms where I belong.

When our lips part, he looks at me, still with sad eyes, and I feel myself sink. He takes a step back and the world all of a sudden feels cold around me, like he took all the warmth away from me in that one small step. The room feels smaller and the space between us feels bigger and the air in my lungs seems to dissipate in a matter of seconds.

"I can't do this, Paisley," he whispers, looking to the floor between us. "All we are is a bunch of fucked up lies strung together. We were never meant to be together. I don't know why you're trying to push this. Do you just want to be the one who gets the last word? You want to win? It's funny how you told Ruby I was never a game, but really, that's all we were to each other."

"You weren't!" I raise my voice again. "I don't know where you're getting this crazy idea from! I told you that I didn't remember who you were until that day. So, please Harry. Explain to me where this fucked up theory comes from!"

"Why don't you ask your best friend?" The sadness in his eyes is gone, replaced with anger once again. Confusion sets in. My best friend?  What the hell does that even mean?

"Astrid?" I ask. "What does she have to do with any of this?"

"Think again."

"Nova?"

"Wrong."

"Oh my God, Harry!" I scream. "Just tell me who you're talking about!"

"Who else would I be talking about?" he asks. "Think about who your best friend is. The one person who you have always told me you hated but secretly still talk to."

It takes me a second to understand who he's talking about, because I know I don't secretly talk to anyone, but I can feel the blood drain from my face at the realization of who it is. And I suddenly hate the whole world around me even more so than ever before. How did this happen? How did she get to him? She somehow snaked her way in and did something, just like she always used to. She has to ruin everything. This bitch. Why?

"Jenny?"

"Don't look so surprised, Paisley," he scoffs. "It's funny you still think you can trust her, when she just loves to spill the beans."

"What are you talking about?"

"She told me about your little talk around Christmas time," he explains. "About your little game to play me."

"What?" I ask. I can't believe this. The world starts spinning around me and I have to sit down. I take a seat on his bed and hold onto the edge, gripping onto the blue plaid comforter tightly. This is even worse than I thought. I should have known someone got to him and made him turn on me. But why would she do this? After all the time we hadn't even seen each other? Why bother trying to break something that doesn't even matter to her? Is her life really that boring?

The thoughts in my head only grow louder. My heart and my mind pulling every which way. All I can hear is myself screaming inside. I'm at a loss for words, unable to find my voice. To find a decent thought to speak out loud. Once again, I feel myself crumble. Any sort of hope I had, consumed now with doubt. He always somehow believes her over me. How she does it, I don't know. But I need to do something. I need to make him believe me. To know that she's the one who's lying.

"Harry?" his Mom's voice rings through the door, adding to the interruption, a small knock, taking me out of my thoughts. "Is everything okay in there?"

"Everything's fine, Mom," Harry says. 

"I wanted to make sure you guys didn't kill each other," she says. "It got quiet really fast."

Harry walks over to the door and opens it, revealing his mom leaning against the door frame. "Paisley is just leaving."

I stand from the bed. "Harry, you have to believe me! Jenny was just screwing with you! I don't know why! But you have to believe me! I love you! Stop believing people who lie!"

"Okay, what happened to your face, Paisley?" he asks, crossing his arms.

I don't move. My eyes not leaving his. Why does he have to ask this? I don't want to tell him about Ryan. He wouldn't understand. I promised myself that I would never talk about this with anyone. No one would ever know that part of my life, and it still stands, even though Ryan is locked up and it's all over.

"Was it those guys who beat the shit out of me?"

Thankfully, his Mom walks away, realizing our argument is starting to resume.

"Answer me!"

"No!" I scream back. "I told you, you don't get to ask questions!"

"Go home, Paisley," he says through gritted teeth. "I'm done with all the lies and keeping secrets. And take your book with you."

My legs finally move towards the door, stopping to stand in front of him. "Keep it. I don't care if you don't look at it. Just promise me you wont burn it. I worked really hard on it." Hot tears start welling up in my eyes, realizing that once again, I've lost. "If you just look at it once—just once, Harry—you will see that nothing about us was a lie from the very beginning. I don't know how else to make you believe that Jenny just screwed with your head the way she did last time. Because we aren't friends anymore. When I talked to her at Christmas, we never mentioned you at all, and I haven't talked to her since." I wipe the tears from my face with the sleeve of my coat, sniffling, trying to catch my breath. "I would never do anything to hurt you."

"All you ever do is do things that hurt me," he says. "Think about it. You were the first person who ever broke my heart. And now that I know the truth, I see that's all your intentions were. I still see you as that girl who broke me. And so for the rest of my life, you will always be the one who hurt me the most."

"I guess now we're even."

*

A/N: If you missed it, I added a Cast to the beginning of the book, with pictures! Check it out! :)

So sorry for the wait on this chapter! Hope it was worth it! Still so much to come! 
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