Paper Birds

Chapter Thirty-One ; Drown in Lies

Harry's P.O.V.

"What's up with you?" Zayn asked, pulling me over to the side.

"What do you mean?"

"You were, like, off during the whole concert."

I glanced at Niall, who was busy talking to Louis. I prayed that he wasn't talking about Caroline and me. "Nothing. I'm fine. Never been better."

He raised his eyebrow at me. "Haz, you're bad at lying, but not usually that bad."

I shook my head. "C-Caroline came in. Niall caught her snogging me."

Zayn's eyes widened to circles, his mouth dropping open. "What did you do?"

"I tried to shove her off of me. Niall kind of gave me a look of shock and left."

"Where is she now?"

"I called security and made her leave."

"Good for you. I thought she was over all of this, God.." He paused, his eyes swiveling back up to mine. "Are you gonna tell Clarissa?"

"Are you crazy? I would never, especially when she's in this.. unstable state of mind."

Honesty is the best policy, Liam's voice said in my head. I ignored it. Clarissa would kill me with the silence, I knew. Luke told me that she shuts down after she can't trust people, gives them the cold shoulder that may never be forgiven. I wouldn't be able to live that.

Zayn shrugged. "I would. It's not your fault, so why not?"

I closed my eyes and shook my head. Our relationship was way too delicate at the time for anything that had to do with Caroline.

----

Clarissa's P.O.V.

I had picked up my phone and stormed out of the restaraunt, pulsing with anger and confusion. Almost immediately afterwards my phone started to buzz; Harry. Well, laudy-fricken-da.

"Hey, Claire."

"Hey," I said sharply into the speaker, my eye twitching.

"You busy?"

I pursed my lips, tapping my foot on the pavement. "Nope."

"Mind meeting me in the room in a half hour?"

I smiled sweetly though I knew he couldn't see me. "Sounds fantastic." I hung up, my head dropping with a huff of laughter. I didn't even know who Caroline was, but I bet she was gorgeous. Oh, yes, because looks are the only thing in the equation of love in a boy's mind.

They're all the same, I told myself. They're all the same.

An image of Jared glimmered in my brain as I walked down the side walk, snow biting at my cheeks. He was different. But he was dead, so it didn't matter.

I broke into a jog, my eyes watering partly from the cold and partly from the sting in my heart. I vowed to myself that I wouldn't cry, so I didn't. Instead, I marched into the hotel and took the elavator up to our room. The elavator was empty, thank goodness. I took a deep breath and screamed as loud as I could until it came to a stop. I sighed, brushing my hair back, a man in a black suit giving me a weird look.

"Did you hear that?" he asked me.

"Hear what?" I asked innocently, flashing him a small smile before walking into our room. I rifled through the drawers of the kitched and pulled out a large chef's knife. Sitting down at the table, I stared at it for a while, my eyes flickering from my wrist to the knife and back again. I turned it over in my hand, not realizing how hard I gripping it before it cut a little through my thumb. I debated whether I should really do it. After what seemed like an hour, I dropped the knife and sighed. It wasn't worth it.