Our Winter Love (Harry AU)

Chapter 34: Our Treehouse Promises

For a while I sit in the treehouse trying to keep my breathing steady. I refuse to cry. I've cried enough tears in the last 24 hours than I have in my entire life.

I try focus on the sound of the wind blowing through the trees which tends to keep me calm.

Not only did Harry possibly use me as revenge, he also had a girlfriend back home the entire time we were together. Honestly, how am I supposed to feel right now?

I try not to think about anything, when suddenly I hear a noise at the bottom of the tree. Someone is climbing up the ladder. I pull my knees up to my chest and duck my head into my knees, expecting the worst. I hear the trap door open slowly.

"Bella?" It's him.

I sit still and don't reply.

His hand rests on my leg as I hear the trap door close.

"Bella...please look at me." I stay in my position and ignore his request as I feel him sit beside me.

After minutes of silence I finally look up but keep my teary eyes focused on the wall across the room where the engraved initials are.

I can feel his gaze on me, I can hear his soft breathing,but I refuse to look at him. I can't look at him. It'll make the reality even worse.

He doesn't say anything but instead slowly brings his hand up and strokes my arm with the back of his fingers. My skin burning under his touch, but I don't pull away.

"Love, we need to talk." Harry suggests with his deep,raspy voice.

"About what? You used me Harry." I speak for the first time and my voice is soft and broken by sobs.

"Please let me explain..." He pleads.

I nod slowly and prepare myself to hear the worst. I don't even know why I'm agreeing to hear him out. It's pretty clear to me what he did. But I have no energy to try get him to leave.

"I'm guessing you know what happened with Savannah?"

I nod slowly.

"What you probably didn't know was that I thought I loved her. But I was just trying to prove to Zayn that I could get any girl I wanted." I wince at his womanizer words.

"When everything went bad, after the accident, I was just angry with everything. But to me it felt like Zayn didn't care so I wanted him to feel the way I felt." I nod waiting for his explanation of how I fit into this.

"But after leaving here last year I did a lot of thinking and I decided it wasn't worth it." I look up at him, waiting for more.

"Then that first day I bumped into you... I thought you were beautiful. Shy, scared but so beautiful."  I'm still too hurt right now to blush.

"I didn't think I would even see you again, but then you followed me at the party and I immediately took that chance to see if you would join our group. I thought someone like you could be fun, bring something different to our group and give us something to forget about the past. "

He continues as the wind blows through the treehouse with a gush.

"When I got back that night from walking you back to your tent, the group thought I had found you and invited you to our group just to use you as revenge against Zayn. But I kept telling them I had changed my mind, I wasn't interested in revenge... Zayn didn't believe me."

Slowly I was gathering pieces of a puzzle of Harry's mind.

"That next morning I couldn't stop thinking of you, so I came here to try and clear my mind. I was hoping somehow fate would bring us together, and my hopes were answered when you came through that trap door accusing me of stealing your hideaway." He smiles and for the first time in this conversation I smile back.