Til Kingdom Come [Harry Styles- Bk 4]

ch.48 Repeat Old Mistakes

I went upstairs to talk to a certain someone who was breaking more bonds than he was forming. Harry knew better than to scream at Des. He knew better than to push him harder than he could go. I just don't understand why he's repeating old mistakes. Why do we always repeat old mistakes?

Soft tears and the sound of paper shredding sounded from Darcy's room. I decided to stop by and see what was wrong.

I knocked on her door, even though it was half open.

"Can I come in?" I asked.

Darcy was on her bed, staring at  a piece of paper, reading it over and over. 

"Yeah" she nodded, stuffing the paper in her bag.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, even though it was a stupid question. Darcy shook her head and laughed casually.

"Nope."

"Darcy."

Darcy sighed.

"He's such a ...ugh" she grumbled.

I sat down next to Darcy and patted her shoulder. She swallowed hard and looked down at her hands.

"He was so calm when I broke up with him last week, that I thought he had finally realized what a jerk he was...but I was wrong" Darcy shook her head.

She tugged her sweat shirt off, revealing fresh bruises on her arms and stomach.

"He told the whole school that I slept with half the football team while we were dating. Said I was a dumb whore."

"Darcy--"

"I am dumb," she shrugged her shoulders. 

"Darcy, you are not dumb," I shook my head sternly. Darcy pulled out a paper from her backpack. It was her report card.

"One C, three B's, two A's, and an F."

"Darcy, you had A's and B's just last semester," I mumbled, unsure what to make of the low scores. And the F? The F in English?

"I was doing fine for a while, some minor mishaps, but nothing major...But now, I don't know what to say about now," she whispered in shame.

I took a deep breath. Maybe I should yell at her for not working harder. Maybe I should ground her or take her phone. But what good would those things do? If she believes she's dumb, then she won't try as hard and her grades will only drop more. 

"Darcy, you worked hard on those assignments and those papers. I know you did. I saw you," I told her honestly. And she had. I thought she worked fairly hard to maintain her grades and she did well in most everything...except English. Or so I thought.

"Well then I guess I'm just a stupid slut," she mumbled, throwing her hands up in the air.
"Darcy," I raised my voice, gripping her shoulders. "You are not stupid and you certainly not a slut," I declared.

It was one thing for Brock to be calling her these names and pushing her around, but it was another for her to actually believe those lies.

"The worst part is that this is what everyone at school expects of me," she shook her head, her eyes grew heavy with tears.

I rubbed her back gently.

"They see my blonde hair and my boobs and my cheerleading uniform and they immediately think I'm this trashy, easy girl they can play around with," she shook her head. "Well I'm not."

"Of course you're not. People are just cruel and blind. They see what they want to see," I told her softly.

She grabbed a tissue and dabbed at her eyes.