Changed For The Better

Truth

"Marie don't do this"

"You don't have to come. but I have to talk to him face to face" I said as I shoved my trainers on my feet.

"You'll see him tomorrow. He might not have even seen that photo yet"

"I know, but sooner or later he will, and either way we still need to talk about what happened at the party. I need to explain to him everything, I need to tell him about us"

"Woah are you sure? Like I know I've been happy to share this whole time, I've been keeping it a secret for you. Now you want to tell people?"

"Not people, just Harley" I said as I grabbed my hoodie off the back of the door.

"But surely he will just go round and tell everyone else?"

"No, I trust him not to, even if you don't. Anyway are you coming or not?"

He shook his head. "I'm here for support, but this is between you and him"

I nodded at him before adjusting the hoodie and grabbing my phone. I was going to pay Harley a visit. I didn't bother telling him, if I did that means he could have told me not to go. I still remember where he lives, and his parents seemed nice enough. Hopefully Harley won't have told them about what happened, but I can't see a reason as to why he would since he was technically the one in the wrong, not that he knew that. Still, it's quite an embarrassing thing to tell your mum and dad about.

The weather was dreary. A thick fog hung low, making it difficult to see properly, but none the less, I walked all the way to Harley's house. I was at the bottom of the drive when I realised that I didn't have a plan. Like, I hadn't thought of what to say.

I couldn't just blurt it into his face. It's hard to tell him without hurting his feelings, but the least I can do is try to let him down gently. I don't want it to look even worse on me, or him for that matter.

I took a deep breath and walked up the driveway to his front door. The doorbell was awkwardly high, a bit difficult to reach. After a few moments, I heard footsteps behind the door before the click of the lock sounded.

Gary, Harley's dad opened the door. He seemed happy to see me which is weird considering I wasn't actually invited or supposed to be there.

"oh Marie, long time no see! I suppose you are here to Harley?" It was hard knowing someone with such a great family and life at home, had gone through so much a pain. Then I remembered about his mums death and suddenly this home wasn't such a happy one after all.

"Umm, yeah. Is he in?"

"I'll go and get him for you"

With that he disappeared into the house, leaving the door ever so slightly open. I didn't know if I was meant to go in or not so I just stood out on the doorstep. After a few moments, Harley came out. He looked so tired. He had massive bags under his eyes.

"Hey H..." I started, but was interrupted when he pushed me back off the doorstep and shut the door behind him.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, almost angrily.

"Woah Harley I'm sorry, but we need to talk"

"I know just not here"

"Well where th..oh ok" He started walking down the driveway so I followed him. We were walking pretty quickly and I had no idea where we were going. We didn't say a word. I wanted to wait until I knew Harley was ready to talk.

It felt like we had been walking for ages, and I was about to ask where it was exactly that we were going, when we turned a corner and ended up facing the graveyard. We paused for a moment, before Harley started walking again.

I followed him into the graveyard. The morning was cold, the air crisp and still foggy. Like a scene from an obscure horror film. We ended up at a bench facing a field of headstones. Harley sat down, so I awkwardly sat down beside him in silence. There was a gap between us and we were avoiding each others' glared. Why does this have to be so tense and awkward? That's really not helping.

"So" Harley began after a while. "I'm guessing you wanted to talk about what happened last night?"

I sighed and nodded. He looked down to the ground. "Look Harley, recently I've been trying to help you out and be your friend, I never meant for you to get the wrong end of the stick. I didn't want you thinking I was interested in you in that way, and I thought that time at school we had cleared that up"

"It was cleared up a long time ago"

"What?"

"You're with Ryan. I know that"

"Woah woah hang on, so you know I'm with Ryan?"

"Everyone does! You guys don't do the best job at hiding it! You're always all over each other at school, it's sickening"

"Wait, so if you knew, why did you try to kiss me?"

"Because I wanted to have with you what you have with him"

"But I'm not with you Harley! I don't feel that way towards you!"

"Yeah you've made that pretty clear, thanks for the clarification(!)"

"I still don't get it Harley. Why did you kiss me if you knew I was taken? Why make such a dick move?"

"Well, I kind of thought you were going to be breaking up yesterday"

"What? What gave you that idea?"

He sighed. "You know that girl who was all over Ryan?" He asked, I nodded, having my assumptions as to what he was about to say. "Well, that was my friend, her name is Izzy. Not that that matters. She isn't even a friend really. Long story short, she doesn't like you very much. She's the one who threw your bag on the roof last year. Anyway, I got in touch with her when I found out you were going to be at the party. We came up with a plan, she was going to kiss Ryan and make sure you saw, then you would break up with him. If that failed, she was bad mouthing you anyway, in the hopes that it would make Ryan want to break up with you. All the while, I was meant to be making you fall for me, by...by..."

"By making me kiss you?!"

He nodded. "Harley I cannot believe you! I thought we were going to be friends! I thought you had changed and had become a nice person!"

"I'm a good person I swear..."

"Obviously not!" I yelled getting up. "You can't just use people like that Harley! We aren't all just some toys in you childish, dumb game of false reality that you're living in!"

"What?"

"You know what? I trust Ryan, and thank god I do. But even if I didn't, even if we did break up, I wouldn't be seen dead with someone like you"

I was ready to storm off, but he got up and started raising his voice as well. "Oh yeah? And what's a person like me?"

"You really don't want me to answer that question"

"Yeah I do! Come on, what could be so bad about me that you hate me so much? Honest opinions lets go!"

I didn't think about what I did next. I did as he said though, honest opinion. "You're arrogant, you only think about you and not the people around you like seriously how selfish can you be? You think the entire worlds knows or cares about you and your pathetic little life!" I could see him crumbling and regretted what I said, but I had too much pride to stop. "You know what, do me a favour and get out of my life. Or do us all a favour and never speak to us again!"

With that I stormed all the way home. I felt a bit bad, but he didn't feel any remorse whatsoever about what he did to me yesterday. He acted as if it was all some clever plan, meant to impress me or something. Disgusting.