Suzan spoke to her friends about what happened during lunch time. She gathered all her friends inside a classroom where nobody was and she told them what Jason did and how he broke up with her.
"That's it! Iʼm gonna fucking kill this guy!" Bobby yelled as he clenched his fists, Isaac and Theodore holding him back.
"Guys, I'm serious, donʼt even go near him, it's only gonna get worse for me!" Suzan protested as she sighed and sat down, her head leaning on her palms.
"Suzan, he slapped you, are you kidding me? He needs to pay for it, he canʼt just get away with that!" Maryse bent down in front of Suzan, placing her hand on the blondeʼs hip, supportively.
"Sheʼs right! He's an asshole! How did he dare to lay a hand on you! You are so popular you practically have the power to make his life miserable here!" Lexi stated.
"Like heʼs been making mine?" Suzan sighed, hugging her knees to her chest.
Emily narrowed her eyebrows. Suzan had never said something like that about Jason before, so it was definitely suspicious. "What are you talking about?"
Suzan hesitated. She did not want to tell them anything about it, but wouldnʼt she feel free to finally do so? It took a lot of determination and courage, which only came out as a sigh before she spoke.
"Itʼs not the first time heʼs done that."
"Whoa, whoa, what do you mean?" Emily exclaimed. Things were just starting to get clearer.
"He has hit me before. Many times. And threaten me too…"
"What?" Isaac screamed, which was never really like him, a sign he was very pissed off. "He did what?"
Suzan sighed once more, wondering whether or not she had made a mistake by telling them. "Just… please, guys! Donʼt make such a big deal about this!"
"What do you mean not to make such a big deal about this? Do you understand what you just told us? This guy is dead!" Bobby took his turn to yell.
"Guys, shut up! Sheʼs scared enough already, you're making it worse with your yelling!"
"Iʼm sorry, Maryse, but this is serious!" Isaac snapped as Theodore gave Suzan a warm, bear hug, the way only he knew how.
"Guys, I mean it! Do not say anything to him. It's all over now, I donʼt want to talk more about this!" Suzan said, nuzzled in Theodoreʼs chest.
"Sue, didnʼt you just tell us what he said? That both you and the other guy will pay for it once he finds him?" Bobby leaned down in front of Suzan —who was sitting on a chair, still hugging Theodore— as well, this time with a more relaxed tone in his voice.
"Well, yes, but… I donʼt know, I guess if he does anything I will call the police or something. But now I canʼt do anything when itʼs just a threat and I have no proof of what he has done to me."
"But what if itʼs too late?" Emily asked her with sadness in her voice.
Suzan looked down. She was scared, she was worried too, but she couldn't have the others worried about her like that as well. She had to act as if things were going to be okay, for their sake. And maybe she would end up believing it as well. All she knew, for the time being, she had to relax her fear.
"It wonʼt be. Just... have a little trust in me, will ya, guys?" she stuck a fake smile on her face.
"Okay, whatever you say…" Emily sighed, although she wasn't entirely satisfied. But she would confront her later, when it was just the two of them.
"Um, guys, I'm sorry to ruin this atmosphere, but there's another thing thatʼs not settled…" Lexi remarked.
"What is it?" Sue looked at her.
"Girl, what are you gonna do with Harry?" Lexi asked.
Well, that was definitely something Suzan hadn't thought about. Ever since the night of the party, although they did see each other in school, they didn't say a single word to each other. They did make eye-contact at some point, but that was the most that happened.
Yet, Suzan was wondering what was going through his mind at that point, what he thought of her. Still, she had no idea what she was going to do.
~~~
Suzan sighed as she kept walking. She was going to Harryʼs house, she was determined to do it. After talking to her friends, she realized that she needed to talk to him in private, somewhere nobody could see them. Well, his house was a good solution, the only ones who might see them would be his family.
She decided she needed to talk to him about what happened, and ask him not to tell anyone about it. Not only would it affect her note, but it would definitely have a bad effect on him too.
Jason was determined to find out who the person Suzan slept with was, and by spreading the rumor, it would only make it easier for him to find out, and Suzan needed to prevent that. Or else Harry was not safe, and Suzan knew it.
Still, there was a big chance he had already told people about it, which Suzan hoped hadn't happened, for both their sake.
She reached his house being a nervous wreck. She had no idea how Harry was going to react to her being there or when she told him what she had to say, but she had to hope for him to be logical and understanding, just like her friends told her he would be.
Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door of the house, hoping he would be the one to answer and not some family member. For all she knew, they could be having some kind of family gathering she'd be interrupting by going there unexpectedly, but she hoped she wouldn't be much of a burden to him as what she had to say would only take a few moments.
She snapped out of her thoughts as soon as the door opened and she saw Harry in front of her. She was grateful that he was the one to open the door, and she took a good look at him. God, how had she never noticed how handsome he was before? Even the night of the party, he still felt different now. Still, she couldn't let herself be absorbed into those thoughts, as she really couldn't risk being involved with anyone at that point.
Harry looked pretty surprised and confused by her being there. "Hi Suzan," he said, forming a small smile as an ice breaker.
"Um, hey," she smiled back a bit. "I am really sorry to just come in here unexpectedly, but I needed to talk to you outside school. But, uh, it's only going to take a couple of minutes, really," she blurted.
Suzanʼs explanation definitely did not satisfy Harry's confusion, which was clearly written in his face as he invited her inside. Suzan told him it was fine and she didn't want to disturb anyone by going inside, but he told her nobody was home so she followed him in. They both sat on the couch as Harry kindly offered her some water.
Yet another sigh, and Suzan started talking. "Okay, um, look, I just think we need to talk about what happened the other night between us, you know, at the party…"
A cheeky smirk immediately found its way in Harry's face as he looked away from her, as he had started seeing where this was going. At least he thought so.
"I see… are you here for a round two?" he asked her.
"What? No! How dare you think that?" Suzan protested, offended. She took a sip of water and cleared her throat as she continued. "Look, you and I don't know each other all that well, really we've barely even talked to each other but—"
Harry started coming closer to her on the couch, which caused her to stop talking as her attention shifted to that. To his movement. To every single shift of muscle in his arms, showing from his t-shirt. He was attractive, it was disturbing Suzan from her thoughts but she needed to focus, for their own good.
"Hey, relax, no hard feelings okay? It just happened, now itʼs over. Unless you don't want it to be…" he spoke softly to her, his body shifting closer and closer as his fingers stroked a lock of her hair away from her face.
Suzan had no idea how she found herself in this situation, trapped and unable to resist his —new to her— charm. But still, she was doing it for their safety, and she had to put an end to this.
"Look, Harry," she moved backwards a bit, "I just came here to ask you not to tell anybody about what happened. And just… trust me when I say it's in both our interest…"
Harry took his arm back when Suzan moved away, keeping his smirk. "And why is that, love?"
"Just trust me on what I'm telling you. We should keep this a secret. Or… it won't end well…"
Suzan assumed that it wouldn't be the smartest decision to tell Harry all about Jason and his threats, as things were very likely to escalate from there. Instead, she had to rely on the power of persuasion.
"It's 'cause you don't want your boyfriend to find out, right?"
She was taken aback with that. Then again, it made sense for his assumption to be like that. For as far as he was concerned, Suzan was with Jason and he knew nothing about her little 'revenge' plan.
"We're no longer a thing," she said, though regretting it immediately, "but you can't spread that out either!"
"I think you have a wrong impression of me, love," he moved closer once again, his smirk not leaving his face once, "I wouldn't spread stuff about you just because you are popular or whatever. Whatever happens between us stays between us."
"You mean 'happened'?"
"No, I mean 'happens'."
And with that, he closed the gap between them, his lips touching in another soft kiss. It had nothing to do with the kisses they shared at the party. This one was soft, it was sweet, and she had forgotten what it was like, but she loved it.
What was she even doing there? Couldn't she just realize this was wrong and stay away? She was being selfish, doing that, as she was not only risking her own safety but Harryʼs too, and she knew it, but she couldn't resist him. Something about him was pulling her towards him, and she couldn't overcome it.
She kissed him back, slowly letting her guard down. Letting herself fall right into his arms as the kissing session continued.
But it didn't stop. It grew from there. Harry's hands explored her as hers were inside the brown curls of his hair. And it still didn't stop, and didn't take much time either. It went all the way, for the second time. It wasn't long before they found themselves in Harry's room, deeply covered in passion, something both had seen coming and really wanted. Well, Harry knew he wanted it, Suzan didn't know it. But she didn't resist it, which showed a lot.
When it was over was when Suzan started to get stressed. She had only just realized what she had done. She couldn't accept what she did with Harry again. It was wrong and she knew it, and she blamed herself for enjoying it.
Harry was laying on his bed, his playful smirk still on his face as he was watching her get dressed.
"I can't believe this! I can't believe I'm this stupid! Why did I let myself do this thing with you again? This was stupid and wrong!" Suzan grumbled as she was getting dressed.
Harry chuckled a bit, earning an angry look from Suzan. It was all fun and jokes to him, until Jason killed them both. Which she believed he could do.
"You're laughing? What's so funny to you?" she asked, angrily.
"Nothing! Just, relax, okay? I told you I'm not saying anything to anybody, so as long as you liked it, you don't have to be like that. So, did you like it?"
Suzan wanted to say 'no', and crush his annoying pride and erase that smirk, but how come she couldn't say it? How come the word 'no' was the only one she could not get out? Instead, she remained silent and looked the other way in order to hide her red cheeks.
He let out a tiny chuckle once again. "I knew it."
It killed Suzan to feed his ego, but it was true. How could she just lie?
"Look, this was wrong! Doesn't matter if it was good or not, it was wrong and you need to forget about it! Forget this ever happened!"
Harry put on a new pair of boxers as he stood up. "I told you, don't worry about it. Nobody's gonna know. We just had a good time, I don't mean to take advantage of your popularity or whatever," he spoke as he got closer to her.
As he was standing tall in front of her, Suzan couldn't resist looking in his green eyes. A cheeky smile revealed the dimples on his cheeks, and he looked prettier than ever. She felt the urge to kiss him again, but she didn't. She resisted as she lowered her eyes and looked down.
"I'm sorry, I need to go…" she sighed as she walked out of his room.
He showed her out to the door silently, but, before she left, she stood there for a moment, her back facing him before she slightly turned her head around.
"Hey, Harry… thanks for understanding," she said and left.
It was already late, it was dark outside, and a bit chilly too, being February, but she just kept walking.
She was a bit scared if she was being honest. She was alone in the dark, and the only thing she could think of was Jason popping out from a corner. She had to remain brave, but why was it so hard? Once again, lost in her thoughts, she didnʼt notice two strangers approaching her, so she was surprised when she bumped into someone.
"I am so sorry!" she spoke as she looked up at the tall guys in front of her.
These guys didn't look normal, they were radiating trouble. They looked like junkies, and Suzan could recognize a junkie in a heartbeat, after being with Jason for a year.
"Well, well, well, Gordon, what do we have here?" one of them said.
"I don't know, Richard, it's been a pretty lucky day so far," the other one, Gordon, apparently, replied.
Suzan started taking small steps backwards, though she couldn't do it unnoticed, obviously they saw her.
"Where do you think you're going, pretty?" Richard asked her as the two of them were moving closer to her.
"Yes, a girl like you shouldn't be walking alone at night," Gordon said ironically.
Suzan continued walking backwards. She was terrified, almost crying. "Please, I.. I don't have any money on me, I don't have anything for you to steal…" she said, only then realizing she didnʼt have her phone on her.
"Oh, weʼll see about that."
Noticing they were getting dangerously closer, Suzan impulsively decided to make a run for it and start screaming, but, before she could do that, the guys snatched her and covered her mouth. One was holding her so she wouldn't get away, and the other was looking for anything she might have in her pockets, though really he was just groping her as she had nothing on her.
A few minutes went by of Suzan struggling and trying to break free from these clearly drunk street rats, but with no success. Then, they heard a voice call from behind. Suzan knew that voice, it was Harry.
"Hey! What are you guys doing there?" he yelled at the junkies.
The two of them immediately let go of Suzan and she ran to Harry, not thinking twice about it. He wrapped his arms around her as she was trembling in fear.
"Relax, dude, we were just playing around with little miss Barbie over here, no one got hurt," Gordon said.
"Donʼt you ever touch her again, alright?" Harry told them.
"Or else what, Styles?" Richard asked Harry, which helped Suzan clarify in her head that they knew each other.
"Are you guys forgetting that you owe me?"
The two junkies clearly looked uneasy when that was mentioned, and they backed off, immediately starting to walk away.
"Well, sorry, man, we didnʼt know she was with you," one of them called as they were walking away.
Harry immediately looked at Suzan, who was still in his arms. She still looked terrified, and he could understand why.
"Hey, are you alright? What did they do to you?" he asked her softly.
Suzan relaxed as she pulled away from him and set her mind straight. "Yes, um, thank you…"
"I'm sorry, I should have warned you about these dudes, they walk around here at nights…"
"For what exactly do they owe you?" she asked, referring to what he told them before.
"Meh, it's nothing, I just help them out with the cops sometimes…" he replied, then took her phone out of his pocket, "I followed you here because you left this at my house."
Suzan snatched the phone from his hands and started walking away from him. "Thank you."
Harry followed and caught up to her. "Hey, Suzan, wait! You still look pretty startled, do you want me to walk you home?" he asked her.
Suzan stopped right there. This was exactly what she did not want to happen. She didnʼt want Harry to start caring about her all of a sudden. But there it was. He was asking to walk her home so she would be safe. But if that happened, neither of them would be safe.
"Harry, no. Look, I do not want this to happen okay? I don't want any strings attached, whatever happened is in the past and I really don't think it's smart for us to ever talk again…" she told him. But she hated this. She hated being rude to anyone. She hated herself for what she had done to him.
"Hey, I just saved you from those guys! Perhaps you should show a bit more appreciation to that!"
"I never asked you to do it!" she shouted back.
"Oh really? If I hadn't showed up then who knows where you would have ended up!"
"I don't want you to save me, Harry!" she spoke, and the atmosphere was getting tense, revealing the buried emotions. "I got what I wanted from you, and now it's all over!"
She hated what she just said. She basically admiret how she just used him, how she played with his feelings. She wasn't the one who came up with this idea, but she couldn't blame anyone but herself, as she did go with it.
"What do you mean?" asked Harry, things had just started taking a whole different turn for him. It was all suddenly adding up.
"I only slept with you so I could get revenge on my boyfriend for cheating on me!"
There, she said it. No matter how much she hated herself for it, it was true. There was really no point in lying to him anymore, no matter what a horrible person the truth proved she really was. And she hated that look on his face, his green eyes looking devastated, and she was the cause behind it. She hated that.
The dimly lit street casts long shadows as Suzan and Harry just stand facing each other, their emotions raw and tangled. Tension hangs heavy in the air as they confront their feelings and grapple with the shattered trust between them. The trust that was never really there. Harry, his fists clenched, takes a few steps away, his expression a mix of anger and hurt.
"You… used me?" Harry growled, his expression now turning into straight up rage. Scary, even.
"I never meant for things to go this way, Harry. I'm sorry," sighed Suzan, tears almost running down. This was not the kind of person she was.
"Sorry? Sorry doesn't fix what you've done, Suzan. I thought we had… something!" he shouted back, looking away from her.
Suzan's eyes threaten to well up with tears as she struggles to find the right words. "It's not that simple, Harry, you don't understand! I was desperate. I needed to hurt him the way he hurt me."
Harry's face contorts with disbelief. "It doesn't matter! You used me, Suzan. You played with my feelings just to get back at your boyfriend?"
"This wasn't even my idea! My friends told me to do it!" she tried defending herself.
"Oh, alright, that makes it better!" he replied, sarcastically, "So your friends tell you to go and use someone to your advantage and you do it?"
Suzan sighed. "Look, Harry, I know what I did makes me a horrible person, I was never like that! I was… hurt, devastated! I didn't know what else to do! But I don't expect you to understand, you have every right to be angry at me…"
Harry didn't know what else to say. He felt betrayed, all he knew was that he didn't want anything to do with her. He wanted this to end. "Bye Suzan."
They exchange a short, lingering glance, a mixture of anger, pain, and the uncertain road ahead. Then, they turn their backs on each other and begin to walk away, their hearts heavy with regret and the remnants of a broken encounter.
𝓢𝓸 𝓵𝓮𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓻𝓲𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓻𝓾𝓷…