The Bad Boy

Chapter 89

Stephanie's P.O.V.

"Oh my gosh Ashley do you need to go to a hospital?" I ask, running forward and falling to my knees.

"No, it's not that." She sniffles, running a finger underneath her eyes to wipe away the moisture.

"Oh, uh should I go get Harry?" I ask.

"No, it's fine." She says.

"It's obviously not." I say, scooting over so I'm sitting next to her with my back against the wall. "What's wrong?"

"You're so lucky." She shakes her head, her blonde ponytail moving with it.

"Yeah? My parents kicked me out of my house and don't talk to me." I say.

"My parents are dead and I have a terminal illness, but that's not what it's about." Ashley says.

"You win." I concede.

"That usually happens in the pity situations." Ashley says.

"So what's wrong. You're sitting in a filthy stairwell crying in the middle of the night. SOmething's up." I say.

"Do you know how long I've known Harry?" She asks.

"Um, not exactly. Since you were little." I reply.

"Eighteen years." She says. "His entire life."

"Wow. You must be really strong to have dealt with him for that long." I try to make a joke but she doesn't laugh or even smile.

"Do you have any idea how many girlfriends he's had?" She asks.

"I have a pretty good idea, but I really don't know the exact amount and I really don't want to." I tell her.

"Good, because I don't even know the exact number." Ashley says. "Do you know how much time we used to spend together when we were little? All day every day up until we were fourteen. Then he started having girlfriends. And we still hung out, more than I thought we would."

She stands up and walks to the opposite wall, leaning against it. "We turned sixteen and he started picking these girls over me. Not all the time, but alot of it. A few months after his birthday, we had this day planned where we were going to go to the beach. I got to the beach and waited for him for four hours. he never showed." She sort of kicks her foot up to rest against the wall. "Then he started picking the girls over me all the time. We lost touch when he moved away when he was seventeen and we only got in touch when he came back home to get his stuff."

I must have looked confused because she sighs and shakes her head.

"The whole point of that was that he started choosing other girls over me. I came to terms with it, and soon I got sick so I didn't have a whole lot of time to think about him. We texted alot and talked on the phone once in awhile. I got so excited when I heard I had to come around here for treatement. I thought maybe he'd finally choose me."

Her voice is getting thicker and more strained as she continues on. I'd like to say something but I am speechless.

"I got here and then you said you lived with him. I sort of kept up hope that maybe you were just a roomate. I thought maybe you slept on the couch since Niall had the other bedroom, but way inside I knew I was just kiding myself. Setting myself up for dissapointment." She shakes her head. "We went out tonight and I got so excited when we started dancing, but I could always tell he wasn't into it. He barely paid attention to me and he was always glancing around, like he was looking for something. My head was so jumbled with all these thoughts I decided I would go on a walk to clear my head and get things set straight. I got to here when I realized it was you he was looking for when we were dancing. Then it hit me. He's never going to choose me."