asset [h.s.]

sixty six // burn

Harry

I wait a few minutes before I decide to go and see Alicia, wanting to give her time to calm down a little. When I get to our bedroom and slowly open the door, I notice that she is stood over by the window, her hand raised to her mouth as she anxiously nibbles at her nails.

"If you're here to lecture me, I'm really not in the mood to hear it," she murmurs as I walk further into the room.

I halt my movements, furrowing my eyebrows. "I'm not here to lecture you. I'm here to see if you're alright."

She lets out a small sigh, still keeping her back to me as she stares out of the window. "Well, if you don't mind, I'm not really in the mood for that either."

I stare at her in surprise. "Honestly, what is going on with you today?" I ask her and she suddenly turns around to face me, her arms folded over her chest. "You've gone from being all happy this morning to all snappy and moody. I don't know what's wrong with you, but-"

"You want to know what's wrong with me?" she suddenly asks angrily, cutting me off. "I'm fed up, ok?"

"Fed up of what?"

"This, you, my dad, everyone, everything," she says, waving her arm around. "I'm fed up of all of you not trusting me."

"Who says we don't trust you?" I ask, taking a few steps closer.

"You just don't. None of you."

"Of course we do. I don't think your dad would've let you sit in that meeting if he didn't."

Alicia scoffs, rolling her eyes. "Oh please, I barely even found out anything from that meeting. And the only reason I was there was because I had to ask to be. My dad doesn't trust me, not really."

"Well, I trust you," I tell her, taking a few more steps forward but she just shakes her head.

"No, actually, you don't," she replies coldly. "You tell me just enough so that I don't keep questioning you, but you never tell me the full story because I'm sure you still believe I'm safer that way."

"Yeah, I do believe that," I admit. "But above everything else, your safety is always going to be the most important thing to me. It's the most important thing to your dad and everyone else-"

"Oh my god, stop fucking saying that!" she suddenly shouts, bringing her hands to to her head to pull on her hair slightly out of frustration. "I'm so sick of everyone saying how I need to be safe and protected. That's all anyone's ever said throughout this whole thing. But no one's bothered to ask me how I feel, what I think about all of this. No one fucking cares!"

"Alicia, people do care, or else you wouldn't be here, would you?" I snap, my voice becoming slightly louder. I don't want to start shouting at her and have this turn into a full blown argument, but everything she's saying is just making me angrier.

"Really, Harry?" she snaps back, her eyes blazing. "Because I don't think they do. My own father certainly doesn't."

"Look, you can be pissed at your dad all you want," I tell her and she raises her eyebrows. "You can be angry that he lied to you, that he wasn't there for you when you needed him, or whatever it was you said. But you can't stand there and blame everyone, because you're seeming to forget that I was always there for you. I fucking saved your life, Alicia. And whether you want to believe it or not, I'm a big part of the reason you're stood here now, actually alive."

Alicia just shakes her head again, my argument clearly not good enough for her. "And you're seeming to forget that all of this started as just some job to you."