falling - harry styles

seventeen

I woke up the next morning, feeling completely numb.

The bed next to me was empty, but I could hear Harry's voice from outside the room so I wasn't too worried. I checked the time on my phone, seeing it was nine in the morning.

I was supposed to be on my way to the airport right now.

For some reason I couldn't get up, inside my head I was freaking out, thinking about what my parents would think or say when they realized that Harry and I weren't on the flight with them.

On cue, Harry walked into the room. "Morning Bella," He smiled at me.

"Hi," I spoke for the first time in hours.

"I just got off the phone with my mum, I told her what happened," He gulped. "She said that they could leave the airport and your parents could come get you if you want."

I shook my head. I didn't want my parents to miss out on a trip they already planned because of something that happened to me.

Harry pulled out his phone, I'm assuming to text his mom my response, then put it away and looked at me with empathetic eyes.

"Do you want me to stay with you for the next couple days?"

I nodded. It did truly make me feel safer to have him here, I was just worried about being an inconvenience to him.

"Okay,"

We decided that spending the day watching movies would be best for me, and while I enjoyed Harry's company, I felt horrible that he was taking time out of his vacation to be my babysitter.

It was nearing five pm, we hadn't talked much today, but I appreciated that Harry didn't question it. Being in his presence made this easier.

Currently, we were sitting on the couch watching tangled. My head rested on his torso and our legs were intertwined. My hands rested in his, while he used his index finger to rub circles on my palm.

"Harry," I mumbled.

"Yes?"

I took a deep breath before speaking. "I'm sick of feeling like this," I hated feeling like the world was over. It had only been a day since it happened, but I was over feeling bad about it.

"I know Bella, I'm sorry."

I turned around to face him, "Harry, don't apologize. The worst thing you could do is say sorry for something you had not control over, this wasn't your fault. It was mine."

He looked taken back, although I couldn't blame him. I'd be surprised too considering I had only said a few words during the past day.

"Bella. You seriously think that what happened was your fault?" His demeanor changed from empathetic to somewhat angry.

I stayed silent, I did believe that what happened was my fault, the guy even said it himself that I was asking for it with the way I was acting. Maybe my shirt was too tight and I moved around in a seductive way without even knowing it.

Harry cupped my face with his hand, his eyes roaming my face, looking for any reason as to why I would blame myself for this.

"Please get those thoughts out of your head. He is the one that decided to do that Bella. You didn't choose this. He did, okay? And if I have any say in it, he'll be going behind bars for a very, very long time."

By now I was crying. Maybe what Harry said was true, either way, I wanted to be done with it.

I nodded and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath to try and stop crying.