Taken (editing)

Chapter 8

He had gotten it wrong.

"No No wait" my eyes widen, as I held his arm. "I'm telling you it wasn't harry"

"You wanted me to believe that whole 'you fell down the stairs' shit?" he says, his voice having a grim tone to it. "I knew it has something to do with all this bullying shit, Jess don't think Im oblivious to all this shit. I mean, I finally realize that you are not that person that all those rumors claimed to be, you know, like after all those years of us believing that you were a slut or a bitch, we-"

"Wait what?" I interrupt him, my breath hitching in shock. "You too?"

"What?" he says, before realizing what he just spoke. "No jess, not like that"

"You too" I confirm, that small flicker of hope that maybe there were people who didn't believe in the rumors, slowly fading away. "You believed in them too"

"Jess I didn't mean it that way-"

"It's okay" I say, a sad smile on my face, a frown on Niall's face. "everyone does"

"Jess, I was saying-" he begins, but I interrupt him. "Can you take me to the library?"

"I'm sorry Jess, I just wanted to say-"

"I said it's okay" I say firmly, and he shuts up, knowing that's exactly what I wanted him to do. On the rather long walk to the library, the tension in the air Is evident as I remain rather silent, knowing that he knows its best to not bring up that topic again. As we are seated in one of the chairs nearer to the entrance, my phone lights up and I manage to smile, on reading Amelia's text.

"Who is it?" Niall asks, breaking the silence that filled the air.

"Just my cousin" I say, but reminding myself at the same time that I shouldn't be too rude to him. Well, I couldn't blame him for believing the rumours and having a bad image of me. Everyone else did the same thing too, didn't they?

"Don't you have class?" I speak through the growing audibleness of the chatter between the students in the library.

"Not really, my classes aren't for another hour" he forces a smile, breathing a sigh of relief that the tension in the air was subduing.

Before I could come up with another topic, Niall spoke up. "I'd suggest you stay away from him?"

"From who?" I say, texting Amelia that I was going to talk to her later.

"You know who I'm talking about"

"Im telling you Niall, he didn't do anything"

"It's not just that" He says, running his hands through his hair. "He's menacing. He's got his way with words and well-"

"Well what?" I say, not really wanting to talk about anything remotely related to him. "I'm not gonna fall for his words or something, just because he helped me doesn't mean we magically became friends"

"Yeah" he agrees, stopping himself from saying anything further.

"What were you going to say?"

"I've heard he has a hand in all the rumours that spread about you"

I froze for a second and before I could say anything I was interrupted. "Jess?"

I turned to my side, surprised I hadn't noticed him walk in. "Liam? What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to apologize" he says with a frown and I look at him, telling him to dismiss the matter, not wanting to stress on it and not wanting any more questions from the Irish blonde.

"Anyway who is this? Louis?" he says and I smile at Niall who corrects him.

"Oh, nice to meet you" Liam says, taking a seat beside me as Niall immediately gets up, earning a frown from me.

"Nice to meet you and all, but I've got class"

What?

And with a nod towards my side and telling me to take care, he swiftly walks away from the library, leaving me wondering about what the hell just happened. "He just said he didn't have class" I mumble to myself, earning a "weird" from Liam.

I begin to think about what Niall said earlier. Could he have spread the rumours? But there was a high chance that he didn't since he barely knew me. Most of the bullying was because of Steph and her clique, it had never gotten to the point where the jocks were involved. Even though I was shocked by the fact that Harry, out of all people, saved me from those people, I still couldn't possibly classify him as the Samaritan. He's just as bad as them, I tell myself.

But what if he does have a different story? What if there is another side to him?

And as my eyes dart up to see the person who just entered the library, my subconscious mocked me.

Speak of the devil, here he is.

But as a second person follows him, the tension in the air is evident as Harry storms in, his eyes glossy and red.

The devil wasn't alone.