After

Chapter 41.

"Are you okay?" Steph asks. She walks towards me and wraps her tiny arms around me. It's odd that her frail arms can feel so comforting.

"Yea, well no. But I will be. Thank you for making him leave" I tell her and she hugs me tighter, my tears are flowing now and I don't see an end in sight.

"Don't thank me, Hardin may be my friend but you are my friend too and I don't want him upsetting you. I am sorry, this is all my fault. If I wouldn't have let him come around you all the time. He can be a real dick."

"No, it's not your fault at all. I am sorry, I don't want to come in between your friendship. I just need him to not come to our room anymore"

"Of course, I will get the key back from him. I knew I should have given it to Nate anyway" she says and I laugh lightly and pull out of her embrace. I appreciate her being here for me more than she will ever know. I feel completely alone, Noah is taking time to consider whether to break up with me or not, Hardin is an asshole, my mother would lose it if I talked to her about this, and Landon would be disappointed. I literally have no one except this flame haired tattooed girl who I never expected to become my friend, but I am glad she did.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asks and I nod. I do actually, I want to get it all of my chest.

I tell her everything from the first time I kissed Hardin in his room to the way, our day at the stream, the orgasm I made him have last night, the way he called my name in his sleep, and the way he destroyed every ounce of respect I had for him when he made me tell Noah. Her face goes from concerned to shocked to sad during my story. My shirt is soaked with tears by the time I finish and she is holding my hand.

"Wow, I had no idea that so much happened. You could have told me after the first time. I knew something was up when Hardin showed up here the night we were going to the movies, I had literally just got off the phone with him, then he showed up here. I had suspected he came here to see you, now I know I was right. Hardin is a good guy, sometimes. I mean deep down he is he just doesn't know how to really care for someone the way that you, well most girls need to be cared for. If I was you, I would try to make things work with Noah because Hardin isn't capable of being anyone's boyfriend." she says and squeezes my hand. I know everything she is saying is true and she is right, so why does it hurt so bad?

"Do you want to get some ice-cream? There is a good place right off campus, we can walk" she asks. I wipe my tears and nod. It is only noon and if I sit in this room any longer I will go insane.

...

Landon is leaning against the brick outside the coffee house waiting for me on Monday morning.

"What happened to your eye?!" He has a blue-purple ring around his left eye and now that I look closer I see another bruise on his cheek.

Realization hits me like a truck. "Landon! Did Hardin do this?" my voice is shaky.

"Yea.." he admits and I am horrified.

"Why? What happened?" I want to kill Hardin for hurting Landon.

"He stormed out of the house after you left and then came back about an hour later, he was so pissed. He starting trying to find more stuff to break so I stopped him. It wasn't so bad actually, I think both of us got a lot of our anger towards each other. I got quite a few good hits on him too" he laughs and my mouth falls open.

I am surprised at Landon's light tone while talking about him and Hardin fighting.

"Are you sure you're okay? Is there anything I can do?" I ask him. I feel like this is my fault, Hardin was mad because of me, but I can't imagine him being mad enough to physically hurt Landon.