I Can Change Your Life

The weekend came too quickly. I had avoided my mom all week. And I was terrified to talk to her. I told her on Friday night that I had to talk to her about something serious on Saturday, and she seemed confused, but agreed to it. I told her that Harry would be with me, and of course she made some comment about how we liked each other or whatever. When I didn’t deny it she teased me about it some more.

I tried to think about the caring and joking mom as I spilled everything out to her. The tears that streamed down her face terrified me. My mother was always so strong and so indestructible, but seeing her break down like this was heartbreaking. It humanized her more, and I felt appreciative for her affection.

“When?” she sobbed. “When did all of this happen, Gianna? Why didn’t you say something sooner?”

“I didn’t want to. I was scared and embarrassed, and I just wanted to pretend like it never happened,” I said quietly. Harry’s hand was on my knee again, and if it wasn’t there I would probably be crying harder than my mom.

She nodded as if she could understand what I was saying, but I could still see the pain inside of her eyes as she clutched onto her shirt. I wondered if she wished that she had someone sitting beside her, holding her knee as a comforting gesture. I wondered how she could be strong enough to raise me by herself, and how I turned out so weak.

“Are you guys dating?” she asked suddenly. Hope flashed across her face, but her eyes were still worried and scared.

“Well,” I said quietly. “Not exactly.”

“Oh, it’s complicated?” she tried to clarify.

“I just want Gianna to focus on getting through this before we really try to make sense of what we are,” Harry explained. He looked into my eyes as he spoke.

“You’re a great boy,” my mom said with a sob. “I knew you’d make her happy.”

I could see Harry’s cheeks turning pink as he smiled and thanked her.

“So,” my mom sighed. “I guess I’ll look into finding you a psychologist. I really don’t know how this all works, honey. But I’ll start making some calls and we’ll figure this out.”

“Thanks, mom,” I said softly. I felt awkward and embarrassed. “I just…I just need to tell you that those men that I didn’t know…the ones that…” I couldn’t say the word. “They didn’t take my virginity. I had already had sex with Josh before that happened.” I just needed to let her know that not all of my innocence was taken from me.

“As hard as it is to hear that, I’m glad you told me.” My mom let out a sigh and ran her fingers through her curly hair. “Have you two…umm…” she pointed her finger between me and Harry.

Harry blushed and looked away. I bit my lip and looked down. “Let’s not get into that,” I said softly.

“You’ve already told me what I wanted to know,” she said quietly. “Just be safe, okay?”

We both nodded silently. My mom got up and walked over to me on the couch. She took my hand and pulled me up into a strong hug. She kissed the side of my head repeatedly and told me a thousand times how much she loved me. I couldn’t open my mouth to speak, I was afraid I would start crying and I was sick of crying.

My mom disappeared into her bedroom for the rest of the day, so Harry and I decided to watch TV and just hang out. He sat with his legs up on the coffee table, and I draped one of my legs over his and leaned into his side while his arm was draped around my shoulders. I kept one hand on his thigh. I was in and out of consciousness for a few others, dozing off whenever I would get too deep into my thoughts, and then waking up when I would hear something interesting on the TV.

Around seven, Louis, Niall, and Liam came over to see how things went. They walked in without knocking and gave me and Harry very wide smiles when they saw how comfortable we were snuggled up on the couch.

“How’d it go?” Niall asked right away. The boys sat down with us in the living room.

I was still tired, so I squeezed Harry’s leg to let him know that he could do all the talking.

“It went really well,” he said. “She cried a lot, but she didn’t freak out too bad. She’s going to start making some calls to find someone to help.”

Louis gave Harry a strange look, probably wondering why he had answered for me. But soon just let it go. It felt weird being cuddled up so intimately with Harry with the rest of the guys around. I lifted my hand up from Harry’s thigh and went to move the hair from my face in order to casually move my hand away from him. As it was up by my face, Harry used his hand that was around my shoulder to grab it. He laced our fingers together and I blushed.

Harry pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead and I felt an eruption of butterflies attacking my nerves.

“You guys are so cute it almost makes me sick,” Liam exclaimed as he waved his hands around.

“Let’s go out,” I said, trying to change the subject. “I want to go do something. I need out of this house.”

“How about a beach bonfire?” Niall suggested.

“That sounds perfect!” I sat up in excitement and we all dispersed to get ready to head over to the beach.

-

When we arrived, the beach was a lot more crowded than we expected. We were lucky enough to show up right when a group was leaving so we could take over their fire pit. When we sat down, we noticed a lot of kickbacks and parties going on.

“I could probably score some booze from that big group right there,” Liam said as he looked at the group next to us. “I think I see some people from the High School over there.”

I looked behind us to see a large amount of people that went to school with me and Harry. I felt strange seeing them outside of school, especially since I hadn’t really been out much this year, and especially since the rumors about me were still circulating around campus. I curled into Harry’s side even more and I think he knew that I was feeling a bit weird about being near them.

“You can try, Liam, but we’re going to stay here,” Harry said.

“Alright, Niall, Lou, you guys want to come with?” Liam looked over to Niall and Louis for an answer. Niall stood up with Liam, but Louis seemed hesitant to leave our spot.

“Don’t leave each other’s sides,” Louis said sternly. “Harry, I mean it. Gianna. You two do not separate. We should be quick.”

I waved him away and turned my attention to Harry.

“Wanna make out?” he said, lamely, as he wiggled his eyebrows.

I shrugged. “Sure,” I laughed a bit as he bent down in an instant to connect our lips. We laid back on the towel that we were laying on and continued to kiss. Kissing Harry would never get old – his tongue was so soft and his lips fit perfectly with mine. His hands began to trace along my sides, and I knew that soon things would get too heated. We pulled away at the same time and smiled at each other.

“I think we read each other’s minds,” Harry laughed a bit.

I nodded and bit my lip. “I like kissing you.”

Harry gave me a cocky smile and bent down to place a single kiss on my lips. The feeling of his lips against my lips sent a shiver down my spine. The effect this boy had on me was ridiculous.

“Well, would you look at that?” a slurred voice said from in front of us. I knew that voice. And Harry knew it, too. He immediately shot up from our laying position, slightly pushing my body so I was behind him.

“Get the fuck out of here,” Harry said without any hesitation. Now that Harry knew what Josh had done to me, his anger was much more evident. The heat from his anger was stronger than the bonfire in front of us. I looked behind us to try and see where the rest of the guys were, but I couldn’t see them in the large mix of people. The group had gotten larger, and I was sure that the boys had gotten sucked into conversations.

“Woah, easy Tiger,” Josh laughed and held his hands up in front of him. “I’m just trying to have a good time. Just like you.” He gave Harry a wink and I couldn’t help but cringe at the sight of his drunk face. I knew that face all too well. I had memorized the way his eyes drooped while he was drunk and the way his lips were always curved in a devilish grin. I knew it from all the nights he hovered over me while I tried convince myself that I loved him.

“I just wanted to have a word with Gianna,” he slurred.

Harry tensed up and in an instant he was standing up in a defensive stance. As if on call, Amber, Kelly, Dale and two other guys that I recognized as some of Josh’s friends walked up. Dale had his arm wrapped around Amber, who was wildly drunk, while the other two guys were each glued to Kelly’s side.

I wanted to warn them – I wanted to tell Kelly to stay away from her own brother because of what he had done to me. And I wanted to tell Amber to get away from that family while she still could. I didn’t want anything to happen to them, even if they weren’t the nicest people, nobody should have to go through what I did.

“To hell you are,” Harry huffed. “Stay the fuck away from her.”

“I think she can speak for herself,” Josh said.

Amber stepped forward a bit to look at Harry closely. “Well, he’s quite the downgrade, Gianna,” she said.

I stood up, but Harry kept his arm in front of me to prevent me from getting any closer to them – specifically Josh. I wanted to tackle Amber for what she had said. Harry and Josh weren’t even on the same level. There was no comparison, not even a possibility of a comparison on any level.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” I shouted at Amber. “If you were smart, you’d find a guy like Harry and not like these …these…” I couldn’t think of a word that was strong enough to describe what they were.

Kelly mimicked me and began to laugh. I didn’t think that bitches like them actually existed in real life – It was like some mean girls shit. “You’re fucking pathetic,” Kelly laughed out. “Look at you, fucking this hood rat on the beach in front of everybody? You’re a fucking slut. A useless, unwanted slut who lost the only good thing in her life because she couldn’t keep her legs shut.”

I looked to Josh. His facial expressions remained the same. No hint of regret. No hint of guilt. He had convinced himself to believe his own lies about me. He really was insane.

“Be careful, Harry. Who knows what diseases lay in this whore’s pussy? Probably more than the amount of abortions she’s had,” Kelly looked Harry up and down. “But then again, you’ve probably got your own after fucking Stasia. Maybe you guys are a good fit after all.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I shoved Harry’s arm out of my way and went straight for Kelly’s face. I grabbed onto her hair and pulled her head backwards. Her stomach lurched forward and I rammed my knee up to collide with her belly. I pushed her down to the ground, and just like that all hell broke loose.

Dale lunged straight for Harry with his fist, hitting him on the side of his neck. Harry fell to the ground and before Dale could kick him, Harry swung his foot under Dale’s feet, forcing him to trip beside him. One of the guys that were by Kelly rushed to Dale’s rescue.

Amber was worried, frightened even. Although Amber hadn’t done too much to me, I had to get her for what she said about Harry. I went to lunge at her, but a set of sweaty, muscular arms grabbed my arms from behind and twisted them behind my back.

“Easy there, babe,” Josh’s lips slurred into my ear.

I tried to wiggle free but his grip was too strong and the pain in my wrists, elbows, and shoulders were too much to try and pull away. He kept me pinned with my back against him. He flipped us around to where Harry was.

Each one of the two guys that were with Josh were holding one of Harry’s arms while Dale plunged his right fist into his gut. Harry doubled over in pain and let out a cry. The two guys held Harry up as Dale continued to hit him.

“Stop!” I screamed through sobs. “Let him go!”

Josh continued to slur his disgusting words into my ears. “Shh…it’s okay, baby. Just like old times, right?” He placed a kiss on my neck and I turned my head away to try and get his lips off of me. I wanted Louis and Niall and Liam to come to our rescue, but I still couldn’t spot them in the mass of people. They were too far to hear anything that was happening, but yet seemed close enough that someone might notice.

I tried to cause more of a scene by flailing my legs as best as I could, but Josh continued to hold onto my arms. Every time I went to kick my legs, my body remained suspended in the air because of Josh’s grip on me.

“Get your hands off of me,” I screamed as loud as I could. Still no acknowledgment from the party beside us.

“Relax, just watch. It’s nice to be on the other side, isn’t it?” Josh said into my ear.

The tears were rolling down my face harder than ever before. I didn’t know what else to do. I was becoming weaker, slowly crumbling with every hit that Dale plunged into Harry’s stomach. Harry called out after every hit. His feet were no longer on the ground. The two men were completely holding him up. His head was hanging low and with every cry he made, I could see the spit flying from his mouth. He was a wreck. And it was all my fault. I would have done anything to trade places with him. He had done nothing but try to protect me and make me a better person, but yet here I am, nearly untouched, while he was being punched over and over again.

Dale pulled back dramatically and threw his fist higher this time, hitting Harry on the right side of his jaw. At the impact, Harry’s face flung to the side, blood flying from his mouth.

Everything went numb. I couldn’t feel my own lungs as I took in a deep breath and screamed as loud as I possibly could. My ears were ringing at the sound of my own high-pitched shriek. I held it out for as long as I could. My head was starting to feel dizzy from the lack of oxygen from projecting my shriek out for as long as I could. Josh released one of my arms to wrap it around my mouth. He squeezed on the side of my face and my free hand clasped over his to try and claw his grasp free of my mouth. His fingers blocked my nose, and I could hardly see anymore. I couldn’t breathe.

I saw the crowd beside us finally running over at the sound. The two guys dropped Harry in a hurry. Dale pulled away from Harry and scurried away with them.

“This isn’t over,” Josh spat into my ear before throwing me down onto the sand.

I tried to catch my breath. I tried taking in a long breath, but my chest was constricting and I still couldn’t breathe. I began to panic. My breaths were short and restricted. I tried to crawl my way over to Harry who was lying on the ground with his arms wrapped over his stomach. I could see his body lightly shaking with sobs. He said my name through a mouthful of blood and a fit of coughs.

I couldn’t crawl anymore. My breaths picked up and I broke out into a cold sweat. My heart was beating out of my chest, and my lungs burned with every attempt of a breath. My head hurt and felt fuzzy. I could hear a static noise in my ears before my vision slowly began to fade. I blinked rapidly, and every time I opened my eyes, my vision came back just a bit more. I tried to continue blinking quickly, but after a while my vision ceased to return to me. My mind went blank as my lungs continued to burn with every attempt to accept oxygen. I tried to focus on my breathing, but nothing could help the pain I felt in my arms, lungs, eyes, mind, and heart as my body shut down and all senses faded.

Notes

:O
I'm so sorry for having the happiness end so quickly, but I told you that there was still so much left in this story. And much like the title of this chapter - this isn't over. Lol.

Please continue to comment and stuff! I love to see what you think about everything. I love seeing your predictions, reactions, thoughts, dislikes, everything.