Broken (The Charade Trilogy)

Chapter 8

Broken

"They kept bringing up 'the truth'." I explained to Harry, sitting on a sofa across from me in his room.

What I was hoping for was that Harry knew something about Celine and Niall but by the looks of it, he hadn't a clue.

He shrugged his shoulders while

looking out the window, at the terrible storm that kept getting worse and worse.

The room fell to total silence and I began to feel tension again.

But that's when I realized, Harry must know something by the way he's not saying anything. Maybe he doesn't know a lot, but it's something. And it could be interesting.

I leaned forward in my seat to distract him from his gaze. "What do you know, Harry?" I begged.

His eyes shifted from outside to me. He leaned forward in his chair and rested his forearms on his thighs, interlocking his fingers. His head leaning against his thumb knuckles.

I all of a sudden paid more attention to the scene of Harry being sad. It was like seeing a bad ending to a beautiful romantic movie -- rare.

My mouth opened as I was about to say his name but he beat me to it.

"She told me earlier that she wants to take things slower. . ." His voice was low and raspy.

I came over while he was still sound asleep, so he still had his morning voice.

"So . . .?" I pleaded.

"So that is basically a sign that she wants to dump me. Can't you tell?"

"No. Sorry. I'm not an expert on these things like you are." I chuckled to myself without realizing that this is a serious situation. And I know that because Harry's actually showing some negative emotions. Which means this isn't fake.

I slowly made my way over to him, sitting in his chair and I rubbed his back. "I'll always be here for you, you know."

He nodded his head but then began to shake it. "I don't deserve a friend like you, Sky." My heart melted. "I was never there for you, and now you're offering to be here for me."

I shook my head in disagreement. "You have been there for me -- the past sixteen years, remember?"

We both shared a warm laugh and then he got up. We were standing face to face, not too far apart. Neither one of us had the will power nor the ability to move away first. I certainly wasn't going to. But then again, he is still dating Celine. So what am I doing?

I took a step back and fixed my eyes on the floor, then the ceiling. Just trying to avoid eye contact with Harry.

"Call me if you need to talk to someone." I patted his back and made my way to his door.

He called my name and ran after me before I was fully out of the room. "I want to figure out what's happening with Niall and Celine too." He reclaimed.

My shoulders shrugged and I grinned. "I have my suspicions, but they're probably false."