Fat // Harry Styles

chapter thirty-three

(early update bc why not? make sure to leave comments, I really do read all of them and appreciate each one <3 also, cute little gif bc Harry isn't really in this chapter. thank you for the endless support--enjoy xx)

chapter thirty-three

SHE WAS A different person than she was all those months ago in front of that rundown bar where Justin broke my heart. Just the way she stood was a drastic change. She had been loose and spoke with her hands; now she stood with them curled to her chest, her body stiff as stone. Her eyes were wide, and in the dim light of the hospital room, I could've mistaken her as being afraid of the dark.

I was too muddled to start the conversation, still trying to process why she'd be here in the first place. Her statue-like form was making me nervous, as if I needed to feel whatever she was feeling. The fear or the pain or the hurt or maybe all three. If someone asked me how to describe what a desperate person looked like, I would say her.

"Hi," she whispered meekly, not looking me in the eye but not staring off somewhere random. "I know..." She fumbled with her hands, seeming nervous. "I know you probably don't want to see me. I just... I don't know. Can I sit?"

Pursing my lips, I hesitated before giving a curt nod. She gratefully sat in the chair by the bed, appearing relieved that she could tuck her hands under her legs instead. She slumped in the chair, like she was trying to make herself smaller. One of her feet were tapping the floor.

Figuring I should probably find my voice, I tried to think of something to say. The tension in the room was thick. Anyone who walked in would've felt it.

"Lacy, right?" I asked, even though I very much knew who she was.

She seemed surprised I remembered. "Yeah. Delilah?"

I nodded. Then a wave of nausea hit me. "You didn't tell, you know... You didn't tell Justin I was here again, did you?"

"Oh, no, no. No." She was shaking her head. "He is why I came to you, though..."

I flattened the sheets over my legs, mainly trying to find a distraction just like she was. It was hard to make eye contact with people in general for me, so with her it was a hundred times harder. I didn't want to be rude, but I also had nothing else to say to her.

"I wouldn't have come to you because I know we got off on the wrong foot. God, Delilah, I'm so sorry for being so rude to you. I shouldn't have done that. I just got an audition for a local runway show, though, and I was all excited, you know? Thinking I was big stuff now that I got my chance... That's no excuse for acting the way I did towards you. So first off, I'm really sorry. Even if you can somehow forgive me, I'll never stop feeling guilty...

"Secondly, and the main reason I'm here..." She took in a breath, couldn't stop shifting in her seat. "I hate this, I'm sorry." She exhaled shakily, and I finally mustered the courage to bring my eyes over to her. She was crying, but I would've never guessed if I hadn't looked over because she hadn't made a sound.

"Did he... you know, Justin... did he..." She couldn't even get the words out before she erupted in sobs, letting her head fall in her hands.

"Hit me?" I finished for her, somehow finding the strength to say the two words I always shied away from.

She nodded violently, still unable to speak.

"Yeah," I whispered. "He did."

Lacy cried for another brief moment, then pulled herself together and wiped her face with the sleeve of her nurse's uniform. She let out a shaky sigh, running both hands through her hair. When she pulled it back, there was a red mark lining her face from her temple to right in front of her ear. She noticed me looking and dropped her hair quickly, but she didn't avoid the subject entirely.