Falling | h.s

sixteen

JANIE'S POV

"So, now that Harry isn't here, can you tell us what the son of a bitch did now?" Bella asks while flicking through a rack of vintage tee shirts. 

Rosie had taken us to her favorite sandwich shop for lunch, and for the past four hours, we have been hopping in and out of her favorite boutiques and hole-in-the-wall stores. We've all spent more money than we wish we had, but we were having the time of our lives. Rosie fit in perfectly to our group and after only a few hours together, it felt like we had known her for years. 

Bella's comment piques the interest of the other girls and suddenly, all eyes are on me. 

"It wasn't a big deal," I say, keeping my eyes on the handmade rings displayed in front of me, trying to avoid their gaze.

"Bullshit. What'd he say?" Zoey fires back and I sigh. 

"You know we'll get it out of you. Make it easier on yourself and just tell us," Bella adds. I'm quiet for a minute, still playing with the rings in front of me. 

"How bad was it?" Emma asks with a softer tone. I finally lift my eyes from my distraction to meet their gaze. 

"He was drunk..." I start, trailing off and I hear Bella take a deep breath. 

"Out with it." 

"It was stupid, really. I overreacted," I fumble with my words and instinctively grab for my ring to twist. I see Emma look at my hand and nod slowly; she knew I was nervous. Twisting my ring was always my biggest tell. 

"I'm sure you didn't. Just tell us, let's talk about it," she says softly again. 

"Well," I start with a gulp. "When I first told him what I was up to he started laughing. And then he got jealous, like, really jealous. Um, and then he said, uh..." I pause and chew my lip. "He said Harry only followed me because he wants to sleep with me and that all of this was just a way for him to try and get in my pants. And that if I believed that he asked me to help him for any reason other than that then I was dumber than he thought," I finish quietly and I see anger brewing in their eyes. Even Rosie, who has never heard anything else about Charlie looks like she was ready to strangle him. 

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Zoey says through gritted teeth and I shake my head sadly. 

"I'm going to kill him. He's dead," Emma shrugs nonchalantly and I chuckle lightly at her protectiveness. 

"Who the fuck is this asshole?" Rosie joins in. 

"Her boyfriend," Zoey tells her, and Rosie's jaw drops. 

"Janie, sweetie. Hell no." 

"I shouldn't have told him, I know he doesn't support this kind of thing. It was kind of my fault," I shake my head and Emma erupts in a dry laugh. 

"Okay, stop that shit. Right now. Stop blaming yourself for his horrible attitude. Stop telling yourself you deserve to be treated like this!" She scolds me before wrapping her arms around me tightly. I took a deep breath in her arms as she rubbed my back and squeezes me tighter. When she lets me go, she reaches up to wipe a small tear that was falling from my eye.