3. Sometimes it's hard to accept the fact that you loved unconditionally but gained nothing back.

Sitting next to Harrison was somehow comforting you a lot more than you thought it would. You may not be the bestest of friends but you figured that as soon as shit hit the fan, he may be the one to help you get through this because first of all he hated Jo as much as you did and second of all, he wasn't friends with Byron which seemed to be a big bonus at this point.

Your eyes wandered over to where Byron was talking to Will and for the first time this evening you could see Josephine really look at Byron. Her face dropped for a split second as if she had just realised what was going on, as if she was scared that their little secret was about to be exposed, and funnily enough, it comforted you a bit to see her not be as heartless as you thought she was. She was just a great actor - still a bitch - but with at least with some acting potential.

Harrison on the other hand didn't catch Jo's change in behaviour for that split second, he was still trying to put some pieces together to figure out what was going on between you and Jo, to figure out why you were giving her and Byron death glares here and there.

He thought that maybe he had triggered that reaction, but he hadn't told you a lot about Jo, so there was no way that you would be this cold to her after just hearing that Harrison didn't like her. The boy knew he needed to get to the bottom of this, he was a curious person out of nature and he needed to know if something was going on that would possibly help him convince Tom that she was the devil in person.

It was 2am when the whole table decided that it was probably time to leave. You were surprised by how much you enjoyed hanging out with Harrison and especially Harry, Tom's little brother. The curly haired boy seemed to be up for everything and Harrison seemed to enjoy it way too much when Harry made a fool of himself.

With the pair of them entertaining you, it was easy to forget what was happening in your life right now. It was easy to forget that your boyfriend and his affair were sitting on the same table as you and her boyfriend. It was easy to just enjoy life, which made it so much easier to make up your mind about breaking up with Byron.

You knew there was a life after him and your new friend unknowingly showed you that it may not be as bad as you thought it might be. You were your own person and you knew you were strong as hell, but just the thought that there may be people there to support you afterwards made you even stronger.

You were not going to let Byron ruin your life - and if it meant ruining your shitshow of a relationship, then it was just a win-win situation.

You were the first out of the pub, followed by the rest as you said your goodbyes out in the dark. Byron was the first to say goodbye to his best mate and then the rest of the guys, carefully sending a nod and a smile into their direction before pulling you into a hug and placing a kiss on your forehead.

"I'm going to walk home, probably need that walk to get the alcohol out of my system, you coming?" He smiled as he looked at Will. The two of them lived close together, so they usually ended up showing up together and leaving together.

"You getting home safe?" Will asked as he pulled you into a hug.

"Of course." You smiled. How was it that Will cared more about you getting home safe than Byron did? Had he really lost any sense of emotion towards you?

"Dickhead." You heard Harrison mumble under his breath as you found yourself staring at your boyfriend's and mate's backs, "I'm getting a second Uber, feel free to join Harry and myself on the ride home."

"It would be an unnecessary detour to get me home, I'll just get to the next Tube station." You smiled as Harrison shook his head.

"I'm not going to let you get on a Tube alone at 2am, (Y/N). It's either me getting on that Tube with you and Harry getting an Uber for himself or you hopping in with us." Harrison smiled.

"He's not wrong, (Y/N). You shouldn't go home alone, let this dickhead get you home safe." You were startled by Tom suddenly standing next to you. You thought he was too busy getting lost in his girlfriend's eyes to even listen to your conversation, "Our Uber is here, see you at home tomorrow?" Tom said, his goodbye directed to Harrison as they shared some kind of weird handshake.

"Sure, just don't bring the dragon." Harrison grinned as you horribly failed to choke back your laughter.

"For fuck's sake, H." Tom said as he tried his best to bite back a grin, "You know what, maybe you should let him go home on the Tube and hop in the Uber with just Harry."

"I'll think about it." You smiled before Tom pulled you into a hug to say goodbye.

"We should hang out more, Jo would be happy to have another female join the group." Tom said as you stiffened.

"Y-Yeah, sure." You managed to say before Tom sprinted off into the direction of the Uber where Jo was already waiting for him.

"If you want, you can take my spot, because there's no way on earth I'd voluntarily hang out with her."

"Are we going to continue to pretend that I don't exist or can I join the cool guys now as well?" Harry chimed in from behind you as he walked over to where Harrison and you were standing.

After another 5 minutes of discussion of whether or not you were going to join them in their Uber, you gave in and got into the back with Harry while Harrison took the passenger's seat. Thanking the two of them for getting you home safely, you unlocked your front door as all the bottled up emotions seemed to come rushing in.

It was hard to accept that Byron just didn't care for you anymore. It was hard to realise that he simply cared more about another girl than he cared about you and it was fucking hard to accept that your life as you knew it was coming to an end. Your chapter was closing and you were about to turn the page and start a new chapter - a chapter where you would manage to write off a main character from the last chapter.

Your head hit your pillow at around 3am and for some reason, the tears had stopped falling as soon as you found yourself surrounded by pillows and blankets. You felt the warmth you had been missing for the past months spread through your body. You felt the alcohol form happy thoughts in your brain as you drifted off to sleep and you felt yourself accept the fact that maybe, you simply weren't destined to be with Byron, that you deserved better and that you were valuable enough to expect the same kind of unconditional love from your boyfriend as you had for him.

Opening your eyes at 10am the next morning, you felt relaxed and at peace with yourself. You had promised yourself to not let yourself cry over Byron. You weren't going to let him break you because you were better than that.

Were you bottling up emotions again? Maybe.

Were you still in denial? Most definitely.

But were you also about to break up with him? Fuck Yeah.

Shooting the boy a quick text to ask him if he was down come over, you started forming arguments and discussion in your head. You played like ten scenarios in your head but none of them included Byron showing up and immediately asking about your relationship with Harrison and if there was something going on with him.

You were not prepared for him to turn the conversation you had planned for him around on you.

"What do you mean 'Is there something going on with you and Harrison?', are you crazy?" Byron had barely closed your front door when he had hit you with that question.

"Well, you always say you're studying with him, but I've seen you two together. I felt like a fucking third wheel yesterday while you were talking to your little boyfriend."

You couldn't quite believe your ears. Was he really accusing you of cheating on him when he knew for a fact that he was the unfaithful one?

"You are such an asshole, Byron." You said as you started laughing.

"What's so funny? I tell you that I think you're cheating and all you do is laugh at me?"

He really had no clue that you knew about him and Jo. All of his actions made it so easy for you to ask the next question - a question that would literally change everything.

"I don't know, why don't you ask Jo? Maybe she knows what's so funny about that?" You said, smiling at him while his eyes widened as he stared at you, a blank expression on his face, not knowing what to say next.

"Since when do you know?" He said hesitantly, knowing that he had lost his fight already, he knew when to lie and when to be honest to you and this was definitely a moment where he should not lie to you, especially since you knew the truth already.

"Yesterday."

"So, you spied on me?"

"Oh no, Byron, you don't get to turn this on me. All your assumptions and accusations and yet, you're the cheating asshole, Babe." You smiled at him, fully knowing you were the one in charge now, "I am not the one hooking up with someone else while being in a relationship. Harrison is my friend. I am not the one acting all jealous and shit when we both know you haven't been committed to this relationship for a few months now. Was you asking about my relationship with Harrison just your attempt to get out of ours? I knew something was wrong, it just took me a lot longer and a slap in the face to understand it."

"I-I still love you, (Y/N), it's just that I've been feeling so much pressure at work lately and Jo, she was just, there I guess." Byron said, taking a step towards you, as you took a step back, "I don't want to miss our relationship (Y/N), you know you're the love of my life and I knew I'd regret hooking up with Jo the minute I did it."

Seeing Byron stand in front of you, trying to make excuses, drove you mad. You felt like you were watching a badly written movie, because who the fuck did he think he was? Did he really think that telling you he loved you and telling you he was under pressure justified his actions?

"Then why the fuck did you do it, Byron? The love of your stupid fucking life my fucking ass. You really think that you cheating on me will make me believe any word that's coming out of your mouth right now? You didn't even have the balls to tell me or break up with me. You fucking came here to accuse me of cheating on you! You fucking came here to ask me about Harrison! You really thought I didn't know huh? Being under fucking pressure doesn't mean you can stick your fucking dick into anything that walks past and fucking smiles at you." You finally had reached your aggression phase.

"I don't want to break up with you, (Y/N). I'm sorry, y'know. I never should've slept with her. I never should've even looked at her when you're all I want." He said, taking another step forward while you took another step back, not wanting his stupid hand anywhere near you, "Tell me what I can do to make you believe me. Tell me what I can do to fix this - please."

"You can fuck off, that's what you can do. And take all your stupid fucking stuff with you while you're at it, because I sure as hell don't want to see your stupid fucking face again."

"You're such a bitch." He shouted while making his way to your bedroom where he had kept some spare clothes, "I tell you, I'm in this with you, that you're the one I love and you don't even think about saving our relationship."

"Are you fucking kidding me right now?" You followed him, ready to fuck shit up, "Me? Not saving our relationship? Who do you think you are? I'm not the one cheating, Byron. I'm not the one who's been cheating on you for probably the past months. Don't even try to talk to me about saving our relationship that you have put absolutely no work into. I love you Byron and it would've hurt less to actually stab me than go behind my back and cheat on me."

"I have not put work into our relationship? Are you kidding me? I've been there for you from the start. I'm the one you came running to with all your problems, I'm the one who comforted you whenever you failed an exam and I'm the fucking one taking you out on hundreds of those stupid dates you love so much."

"You think that's putting in work? Going on dates and being there for your girlfriend? Because news fucking flash, that's how a relationship works - but I guess you wouldn't know because last time I checked cheating wasn't part of it." You scoffed as Byron rolled his eyes while he gathered his clothes on your bed.

"What else did you want me to do?" The boy threw his shirt on his pile of clothes before he looked up at you, his eyes red as if he was trying to hold back tears, "I love you, (Y/N). I really do."

"Do you Byron? Do you?" You asked as you felt a lump form in your throat "Because all I know is that I love you more than you have probably ever loved me, but that's not always enough, because I'm not going to be watching you go behind my back and hook up with another girl. I'm worth more than that. I don't deserve this shit from you. Pack your bags and leave your spare key somewhere on my desk." You said before leaving the room, not ready to let him see you cry, not ready to let him see how much you were hurting, but also not ready to see that maybe he was hurting as well.

Locking yourself in your bathroom, you waited for your front door to close. Pulling out your phone you debated on whether or not to text Steph or Elise, or even Will, but you weren't ready to tell them about what had happened. You weren't ready to tell them that you broke up, and you were not ready to have people ask you how you were doing, because right now, you didn't even know it yourself.

Were you doing alright? Far from it, but you felt a sense of relieve spread through your body. You had been scared about confronting him, because you knew that you still loved him and that there was a slight chance of him wanting to fix this - fix you, and making you forgive him, but after the conversation you just had, you knew you had made the right decision.

You let out a breath you didn't know you were holding once you heard your front door close. That was it, the first breath in your new chapter - your start of something better, something new and hopefully something with a happy end.

You felt your phone buzz in your hand.

Will: Byron just texted me. What the fuck is going on?

You were one hundred percent sure Byron was going to make you look like the bad guy and you couldn't deal with that right now. You couldn't tell Will that his best mate cheated on you. You couldn't tell Will that his best mate had broken your heart. You couldn't tell Will that he was the one who introduced you to the guy who broke you. Of course you didn't blame him, but you felt like he'd probably blame himself then beat Byron up before beating himself up - and you only wished for one of those things.

Lets not do this right now.

Will: I'm coming over.

You panicked. Unlocking the bathroom door, you rushed into your bedroom to change into proper clothes and grab your shoes before dashing out of your flat, not ready to face the truth, not ready to deal with your problems, not ready to let people see how broken you really were

Not home.

Will: Where are you?

Where were you going? You had no fucking clue, but the only place you knew where Will would not find you was Harrison's place. The two of them didn't know each other, so Will most definitely didn't know where to look for you if you went to his place. Making your way to the next tube station, you felt yourself going back in autopilot as you thought about everything that had happened in the past 24 hours.

Everything still felt surreal. Everything still felt like a bad dream, a dream, you were going to wake up from, but sadly enough, you wouldn't wake up from it, because this was now your reality, this was real life and you had just been cheated on.

You had been to Harrison's place only twice, once to study and the second time for Harrison houseparty where you got way too drunk to remember anything about it. Leaving the tube, you clicked on your WhatsApp conversation with Harrison and searched for the address he once texted you. You may remember the station where you had to get off, but you definitely didn't remember where to go next.

You didn't think about texting Harrison a heads up and to see if he was home, but even if he wasn't going to be home, you'd successfully avoided Will, who was still trying to find out your current location.

We'll talk tomorrow or something. Can't deal with this right now.

Will: Fine. Call me if you need anything. x

You were nervous about ringing the doorbell to Harrison's place. Wiping away the leftover tears that had spilled from your eyes on your way over, you hoped he was home and you hoped he'd be nice enough to let you in - to give you some kind of shelter from the cruel world outside. You knew you sounded and acted like a crazy lady, but was there really an instruction manual on how to behave after your heart got broken?

You were surprised to see not Harrison, but Tom stand in front of you once the door opened. The boy looked just as surprised to see you, because you were probably the last person any of them had expected to see standing in front of the door.

"(Y/N)? Hi, are you okay?" Tom smiled, a flash of concern flashing through his face as he seemed to take in your appearance - and with appearance you meant, your bloodshot eyes.

"Uhm, hey, uhm, i-is Harrison home?" You asked, scared to find out the answer to your question, because where the fuck were you going to go if he wasn't there? Elise and Steph weren't a possibility and Will definitely wasn't. Everyone you considered close friends knew Byron, loved Byron and you just weren't ready for all of it to come crashing down.

"He's at the gym. Should be home soon. Wanna come in and wait?" Tom smiled.

The boy didn't know what had happened to you, but he knew that you seemed to be somehow lost. He could see that you had been crying and he could see that you were nervous about being here. The two of you weren't friends and he knew better than to pressure you into talking about what had happened, but he also knew that he wanted to find out if you were okay.

"I don't want to bother you. I'll just, uh, text Harrison -- or something, I-I don't know. Sorry, Tom." You tried to smile as you turned around to go back to your place, go back to where you could start drowning yourself in your own tears again. 

"Wait -" Tom said as his hand shot out to grab yours, "You look like you could need a friend."

"It's nothing." You knew Tom could easily see through your lie.

"I know I'm not Harrison, but I also have two ears and can listen if you want to talk about it. Some might say I'm a better listener than Harrison is." He smiled, making the corners of your mouth lift up for the first time in your new chapter.

To new beginnings.

"Okay."

A/N: I am sorry this took so long, but I hope it was worth it. I hope the next update will happen sooner than this one, no promises tho. I love you guys.