Arranged with Style.

33.

HARRY

"I can't believe you haven't introduced me to Clover before you asswipe, she's fucking adorable. Also, hot." Tanner complained from the passenger seat next to me making me grunt in frustration. The moment we left the house he had spent his time complaining about how I hadn't let him come round to my place before and how he thought I had a massive stick up my asshole for not letting him meet Clover earlier. I just hadn't seen a particular reason for them to meet before, she was no-one special, nor was he.

"Will you shut the fuck up? Or do I have to make you?" I growled at him feeling frustrated from the direction of my thoughts and contemplating how many years I would get in jail if I threw this dickhead out of the car into the oncoming traffic.

Why, I felt slightly guilty when I called her no-one special was completely fucking stupid and made me want to throw myself into the oncoming traffic.

Okay, yes she was special. In the total nutcase, weird, never have I ever met someone as naively nice as you, type of special. She was a weird one. Always so damn polite and nice, and cheerful. I swear, that girl ate sunshines and rainbows for breakfast. It drove me past the point of insane and occasionally made me want to toss her out onto the busy road as well. Anne had stuck me with a fucking sunshine personified.

Although, you wouldn't think behind all that, there was a trauma filled childhood. I gripped the steering wheel harder at the thought of her fucker of a father - when she had told me, I had felt such pure, hot, rage for a man I had never met that I was minutes away from hunting the asshole down and giving him a taste of my fists. She was so, so innocent, and sweet (not the good kind. The sickening kind) and to think that someone had abused that, especially while she was only five years old.

I was a lot of things, but hitting a woman, or a child is something I would never stoop as low to ever commit. That dickhead couldn't even be classified as a man. He was a disgrace.

The surge of sudden protectiveness I had gotten after had disgruntled me, I hadn't felt protective over anyone since. . Olivia, and look where that got me. Absolutely fucking nowhere.

I couldn't protect her, I failed to protect the one person in this fucked up world that I actually gave a damn about, and now she was gone. Just like the rest would, they all did in the end. I would never have told her anything about Olivia, ever. The only people that knew about that were the snobby members of my joke of a family, Locke, and unfortunately the idiot beside me. And those two only knew because they were there, I had never physically told anyone, but the way that girl flinched around me made me want to rip my hair out. I would never ever hit a woman and to think that was what Clover thought of me made me fucking seethe.

Turns out, the truth was a lot darker than that. I swear to god, I failed to protect Olivia and failed to avenge her death, but this is one thing I would not let slip by; if I ever saw that fucker, I would destroy him for laying a hand on Clover.

I had no idea when my thoughts of her had shifted from hatred, to reluctant respect and slight protectiveness, but they had. It was just hard to be horrid to someone like her, especially when she looked up at you with those big, sad, brown eyes. It felt like kicking a newborn puppy, goddamn it. It frustrated me to no end, all I wanted was to keep her well away from me with her infectious, disgusting sunny attitude, but she wouldn't allow it. Always coming back, being nice, even when I treated her like trash.

Blowing out a slow breath, I refused to even acknowledge kissing her and what that felt like. She was cute, I had always thought so, in the kind of annoying, typical preppy teenager way, but I had never really took the time to notice that she was in fact attractive. The fact that she had no idea what effect she had on others made it even better, but also frustrating.