Broken

Chapter 26

"I told you," Lauren sang.
"Lauren," I warned.
She laughed lightly.
"I'm sorry. Tell me what he said," she says.
I rolled my eyes, she was already irritating me and I had only been here for five minutes. She walked over to her counter to get her water.
"He told me he loved me," I said.
She spit her water back into her cup. She wiped her mouth with her sleeve. Her expression turned hard. That was a look I was way too familiar with. That was Lauren's jealousy look.
"He did?" She asks in disbelief.
"Yes," I sigh.
"What did you say?" She asks.
"I didn't say anything and he walked away," I admit.
She blinks at me. The atmosphere has turned awkwardly quickly. There was rarely times when things were awkward between Lauren and I, but this is one of those times that fits into the category. Boys.
"Holy shit," she chuckles.
"Lauren, this isn't funny. I don't know what to do," I whined.
"I know, I know. What's your dilemma?" She asks.
"I like Chase. I like Harry," I state "you can't like two people it just doesn't work like that,"
She shrugs. Of course she would.
"You could just join us sluts, then you can do whatever the hell you want with boys," she says.
I stare at her. I don't think I will ever understand her logic.
"What do I do?" I say, flopping on her bed.
I shoved my face into her pillow. Why is this so difficult? I didn't know that people actually have this boy issue, I thought it was only in movies.
"Who do you like more?" She asks.
"I don't know. I like chase, I really do. I also feel like if I don't go out with him I'm a bad person. I like Harry, too, but he's a bad person. I'm not quite sure which is better," I say.
"Harry's not a bad person," she defends.
I snort into her pillow.
"Please,"
"How is he a bad person?" She asks.
"I don't care how he's a bad person, he just is. That's not what I asked. Your not much help," I say.
I sit up. I can tell that she's not going to drop it, and I'm not in the mood to sit here and argue with her.
"How the hell is he a bad person?" She barks.
"He's 17 and he has more tattoos than a tattoo artist. That's not exactly a good person," I say.
The look she gave me was unreadable but I knew what it meant. Se was really pissed off and she was trying not to take it out on me.
"So what's the difference from him and me?"
"Lauren you just called yourself a slut!" I defend.
"Kaitlin, what the fuck is wrong with you," she says.
I stare at her.
"Whatever, I have to go. Sam's coming over," I mumble.
I grab my backpack and push passed her. I turn to go around the corner to go to the stairs and my eyes met Harry's. Shit.
"How much of that did you hear?" I ask.
"All of it," he admits.
I groan and push past him. He grabs my arm but I slide out of his grip.
"Let go of me," I say.
I sigh as I skip down the stairs and out her door. Why is my life so difficult. Maybe Lauren was right, I should have stayed in Australia. Tears threatened my eyes but I pushed them away. I shouldn't be crying, Lauren is just being.... Lauren. I let myself into my house to find Sam, Sarah, Mackenzie, and Chloe on the couch with my mom and Maci.
"What's wrong?" Sam asks first.
I roll my eyes. Why does everyone assume something is wrong?
"Nothing," I say and stomp up the stairs.
I throw my bag on my bed and pull out my headphones and homework. I lay across my bed. My phone vibrates from my back pocket and I pull it out. Harry's name flashed across my screen. I had a short mental debate wether to open it or just ignore it, deciding on answering it.

Harry
I'm sorry

I racked my brain for what he could be talking about. He heard me talking about him, if anything, I should be apologizing. Which I'm not going to, it's true.

Me
For what?

It kind of surprised me that Harry was apologizing, he didnt seem like the person to do that. Then again, there's a lot of things Harry does that surprises me. My pencil begins to scribble answers down on my paper. Harry replied quickly, interrupting my homework again.

Harry
I just thought
that you actually
wanted to be with
me. I'm sorry
for bugging you.

Guilt sank in my stomach. He clearly didn't hear the part where I said I don't know wether to be with Chase or Harry.

Me
No, Harry, that's
not what happened.
I was talking to Lauren
about you and Chase
and I just don't know
what to do. I was just
saying that your
bad to me. I'm
not used to being
around people
like you.

I hit send and this time I waited for his reply. It didn't hit me until now that I really like Harry. His next reply was short.

Harry
I'm bad for you, too.

My throat was dry. I had known I'd liked Harry all along. Those were the words I denied to cross my thoughts. Yet, he just said them. I replied with the only thing I was thinking.

Me
I don't care.