I let the tears fall as I sat in the car while he drove in silence. I felt numb all over. I couldn't believe what had happened, and it didn't bear thinking about what could have happened if Harry and Jared hadn't shown up when they did. I shuddered and felt the painful lump in my throat grow bigger as another tear dropped onto my hand. We sat in absolute silence for the entire journey, neither of us knowing what to say, both of us overcome with emotion that we couldn't express.

I looked over at Jared and saw he was clenching the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles had gone white... they matched his pale face with its stern expression. He looked strange without his familiar carefree smile that he always flashed at me when he drove... this time he didn't even look at me, although I knew he could feel me staring.

The car slowed and he took a right turn onto a driveway blocked by a gate. He fumbled around in his car door for a second until there was a muted click and the iron barrier divided to let us past. I stared up in amazement as we passed through and found us driving down a path that was just wide enough for two cars, lined with perfectly shaped trees and old-fashioned lamp posts. It looked like something that should be in a park and I suddenly found myself wondering where we were, I hadn't been paying any attention to where we had been driving.

"Where are we?" My voice was hoarse from the crying and he seemed to wince as I broke the silence.

"My house is at the end." He said quietly without looking at me. I could have continued the conversation but Jared seemed as though he really didn't want to talk right now. I just stared out of the windscreen as the we came to the end of the driveway, there was a fountain in the middle of a large stoned area where there were six cars parked. I felt my lips part slowly and I couldn't help my eyes widening, I felt like they had to, to take in the sheer magnitude of the grounds of Jared's house. He backed into a space next to a large shiny silver car, so that we were facing the fountain. He cut out the engine but we didn't make a move or speak a word for at least five minutes. Jared was the first to do anything.

He turned his body in the seat and turned to face me, his face changed from anger to sadness as I looked back in his eyes. He gently reached out and pushed my hair back from shoulder and gingerly ran his fingertips over my neck. I wondered what he was doing, watching his face flash expressions of disgust, anger and hurt all at the same time, and then I realised that there must be bruises forming on my neck from Charlie. Just thinking his name made me feel sick. I turned my face away as more tears began slowly forming in my eyes. I felt as one slid down my cheek slowly and onto his hand.

"Please don't cry." He whispered as he caught another tear with his finger and wiped it away from my eyes. I couldn't say anything, I didn't know what to say. "I'm so sorry." he continued in the same hushed tones.

"Sorry?" I whispered back, he'd caught me off guard, why was he sorry?

"I should have-" he started, but I cut him off instantly but didn't look at him still.

"None of this is your fault. You and Harry stopped it, I'm so glad you were there, I mean if you hadn't-" This time he cut me off.

"Don't. Please, just don't say anything that could have happened!" I heard his voice break and looked up to see him wiping his eye before any of his own tears could escape, the hurt expression the only one present this time. He opened his mouth to speak again when there was a bang on the bonnet of the car, making us both jump and instantly look forward. Jared groaned when he saw the guy standing in front of the car with a grin. He was about six foot two with short but textured sandy blonde hair, I had never seen him before and had no idea who he was. He walked round to Jared's window and motioned for him to roll it down, still grinning like an idiot. Jared looked at me with apologetic eyes and then turned the car's electrics back on to lower the window.

"Alright Jerry, who's this little lassy?" He said with a wink.

"It's Selena... Jen now's not a good-" Jared started to say but the guy ignored him and carried on speaking directly to me this time.

"Jensen Padalecki, Jared's better looking and cooler older brother, I've heard a lot about you, the famous Selena!" He flashed me another smile which I tried my best weakly to return. Jenson looked between me and Jared, his smile fading slowly as he finally picked up on the awkward atmosphere that had settled in the car. "Did Meg call you before you got here? Is that why you both seem really uncomfortable and haven't gotten out of the car?" his tone was less upbeat now and he seemed to be looking seriously at Jared.

"What? Why would Meg have rung me?" Jared asked, furrowing his brow in confusion before looking at Jensen again. Jensen hesitated and then sighed.

"Alex stopped by looking for you, didn't stay though, asked us to get you to call." He said in a hushed voice, glancing up at me, and I suddenly felt as though I was intruding on family business. I opened the door and got out, walking toward the fountain so that they would be able to continue their conversation in private. I wondered who Alex was, and why it would cause so much weirdness for Jared.

I was watching the fountain and I couldn't hear their actual words anymore, but I did hear Jared's door slam and the brothers hissing at one another in hushed voices for a few seconds before I heard stones moving under foot as Jared approached me and Jensen walked away. A few seconds later Jared's arms has slowly slipped around me. I leant into him and he kissed the top of my head before asking in a forced calm tone, "Do you want to come inside?" I nodded, and felt as he pulled away and reached down for one of my hands to start walking toward the house.

We went in and I couldn't help but think how small my house must have seemed to Jared in comparison to his own. Everything in this house was so modern, all grey and back in tone, very sleek and shiny. He stopped to kick off his shoes by the door so I did the same and followed him up the hallway to the staircase, where he led me up and into the first room on a long corridor.

Jared's room was nothing like I expected it to be. It matched the rest of the house rather than his personality. I suddenly remembered how fascinated he had seemed by my own room... now I kind of understood why.

"I know, everything's very plain, nothing like yours. Not homey at all." He muttered as he sat down on the double bed. I turned to look at him and he gestured for me to come and join him, with a small pat on the bed, "I have something to talk to you about." I suddenly felt nervous as I approached him. He gave me a small smile and kissed my lips gently. "It's nothing bad, don't worry!" I nodded and tried to reciprocate the smile as he continued, "You heard Jensen say that Alex had stopped by earlier for me, right?"

"Yeah..." I said hesitantly, wondering where this was headed because I honestly had no idea.

"Well, Alex- Alexis, is my ex." My eyes must have shown the alarms that were going off in my head because he laughed gently and took hold of me lightly and pulled me onto his lap, "Don't look so scared, this isn't me breaking up with you or coming out with some mad secret crush or anything stupid! I have no interest in her, I am one hundred and ten percent committed to you, Selena."

"Okay? So, why are you telling me this then?" I could feel the worried expression still settled on my face like a second skin.

"Well, that's the thing, Alexis and I broke up on good terms and have been friends ever since, she moved to Russia two years ago, we haven't talked much in the last six months because of busy uni schedules... I didn't think she'd come back that's why I never mentioned her, or that we're still friends, but I guess she's back now and you need to know the situation because I don't want you to feel in the dark about it." I felt a little sick. Of course Jared had vaguely mentioned an ex in the past, but I hadn't pressed the matter. I felt stupid for not putting two and two together, obviously he would be the kind of guy who remained friends with his exes after a break-up, he was too nice for anything else unless you had seriously wronged him.

"Right..?." I didn't really know what he wanted me to say. 'Yes I love that you are still friends with an ex girlfriend who has just seemed to appear out of no where back from Russia!'? I dont think so.

"I don't expect you to be jumping for joy, I get it, you are nervous because you don't know her, that's why I was kind of hoping that you would maybe want to go out for dinner with her, so you could get to know her and see she's no threat to us? You can even bring Harry and Taylor so that it will feel less awkward if you want?" His green eyes were wide as he pleaded with me. I could see this was important to him, so with a sigh, I nodded and he smiled lightly and kissed my forehead.

He adjusted himself with me on top of him so that we could lay down on his bed. I rested my head on his chest to listen to his heart beating quietly. I found all thoughts of the day and Alexis, whoever she may be, leaving my head as I slipped into my safe place. The silence was so peaceful as we just lay there, appreciating the others company. I was surprised when Jared suddenly spoke in a whisper, "What are you thinking about?"

"My safe place." I whispered back truthfully. He hugged me close.

"And, where is that?" I could hear a small smile on his lips as he spoke from above my head.

"You." I said simply. I felt as he caught his breath for a second, before his hand that had been slowly circling the thumb on my own stopped and pulled it up to his face so he could kiss it gently.

"Good." He replied, and we just lay there in silence again enjoying one another's company.

---

"Are you sure you don't want to stay at mine?" Jared asked as he reached for my hand to stop me from getting out of the car. I shook my head. I was lying. I wanted nothing more than to stay with him every night, but that wasn't possibly and I was worried that if I didn't spend my first night after the incident alone that it would only get harder.

"No, I don't want my mum to get any bad impressions about you!" I joked half heartedly, but he seemed to know that wasn't the case, "Tonight's going to be shit, but if I keep putting it off it will be harder." I sighed honestly. He hesitated and then nodded, letting go of my hand.

"If you need to talk or anything, I will have my phone on loud next to me all night, promise you will call, no matter what the time is?" He asked. I nodded and leaned over to give him a small kiss on the cheek.

"I promise. I'll call you in the morning." I said as I leaned back and then shut the door and stepped onto the curb. He waited until I had walked up the path and my mother had opened the door before giving her a small wave and driving away.

"Lena? I thought you would have stayed at Jared's tonight?" she said as she gave me a hug.

"No, I decided I wanted to come home, I really like Jared... I don't want anything to move to quickly!" I said as I kicked off my shoes and headed for the staircase. She nodded understandingly and walked back into the living room to finish watching Coronation Street. I felt bad for lying but there was no way that I could tell her what had happened with Charlie without upsetting her, and that was the last thing that I wanted.

I walked into my room and looked around, almost like I was expecting something to jump out at me, but it was just my room, as it always was, exactly how I had left it. I sighed, walked over to my desk and sat down. I opened my bag and pulled out my books for the subjects which I had homework due and decided to try and distract myself into feeling normal.

Twenty minutes past and I had barely done anything and I was just feeling more and more uncomfortable in my own space. I got up, walked over to the bed, laid myself down gently and curled up in a ball. Doing work hadn't stopped me feeling his unwanted hands on my body and his lips pressing too hard into my neck. I had felt anxious sitting with my back to the room and then stupid for realising I was scared he would appear behind me when that was the most unlikely thing ever. I felt small tears begin rolling over the bridge of my nose as they fell sideways because I was lying down.

Suddenly there was a quiet knock at my bedroom door. My hands sprung to my eyes to wipe away the tears and I did my best to sound normal as I sat up and shouted out to my mum.

"Come in!" I tried to sound as peppy as I could and plastered a fake smile on my face as the door opened. The green eyes that met mine were concerned and caring, and not my mum's,

"Harry?" I was surprised to see him. I didn't know he knew where I lived, and I was surprised that my mum had let him in because I had never mentioned him to her.

"Hey..." He said hesitantly as he stood awkwardly in the doorway looking around my room.

"What are you doing here?" I said, still staring at him confused myself.

"I... I don't know, I guess I was worried and wanted to see if you were ok..." He mumbled with a shoulder shrug as he moved to look at the books on my shelf. I was still sat on my bed, still not sure why Harry Styles was in my room, "Are you?" he said suddenly and turned around, his eyes searching mine intently while I answered, to catch my lie if I tried. I realised this was the first time that I had been asked if I was ok since it had happened.

"I'm... no... not really." I said quietly. I didn't want to cry in front of Harry again. The last time I had done that he hadn't been that good at comforting me and something told me that his skills now probably weren't any more improved. He didn't hesitate before coming to sit down next to me.

"Do you want to talk?" he asked sincerely. I shook my head and felt as the lump came back into my throat. Thinking about it was hard enough, the last thing that I wanted to do was talk about what I was feeling. The first tear fell and I looked away. Harry put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me in for a comforting hug. I cried into the white t-shirt he was wearing, hoping that he wouldn't be too mad if there was any makeup stains on it. He stroked my hair quietly shushing me as I cried and I felt like this was exactly what I needed, to just cry out every tear that I had so that there would be none left, while Harry rocked us gently side to side.

Then I heard it.

He had been leaning his head on mine as we swayed while he comforted me, and I hadn't noticed that his face had turned so that it was facing my hair. That's when he did it. He smelt my hair, but not just smelt as though he was smelling to see if that's where the nice coconut scent was coming from. It was the inhale. The inhale you do when you're smelling the unique amazing smell of the one who literally makes your heart feel like it's going to fly out of your chest when they speak. The way that I used to inhale Harry's jacket. The way that I now inhale on Jared's chest... the inhale.

"You should go." I said quickly, moving away from him, "I want to be alone." He looked surprised and like he was going to protest, but I got up and opened the door for him to leave the room, "Thanks for checking on me, but I think you should go home and call Taylor. Can you tell her what happened to me, please?" He looked affronted but then got up with a sigh and came and stood in front of me for a second.

"See you Monday then? If you need a talk, I'm always around for you." I nodded quickly and then slammed the door shut, keeping him on the other side. What the hell had just happened.

Notes

NEW UPDATE BECAUSE I GOT MY WORK DONE! YAY!

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Lola xo