I felt a strong sense of dejavu.
Here we all were, piled into Harry's car again, our spots much the same as before, but this time I felt no want to be close to any of them. The only reason I wasn't flinging myself out the door was because I was too drained both emotionally and physically to do much other than lay against Harry.
He took advantage of this, though I knew that he was aware that I wanted nothing to do with him, and rested his chin on my shoulder while his hands were clasped loosely around my waist.
The car was completely silent as we drove, the only sounds the crunch of the tires on the asphalt as we sped through empty fields until we came across one of the last places that I wanted to be.
Louis's house looked peaceful. The green behind it was empty and completely different from my previous memory of it. Liam, who had been driving, pulled the car to a stop and immediately the boys all exited the car, all except for Harry.
I moved off of his body and scooted across the length of the backseat, prepared to throw open the door Niall had just shut behind himself and get away from this closed space with Harry, when I felt his hand curl around my wrist, preventing me from going any farther.
"Let go of me," I said quietly.
"Not until you tell me what happened back there," Harry replied.
"You were there, you saw," I muttered, not ready to talk about this.
"Before that, Alice," he pressed. "Why did he hit you? What was going on?"
I took a deep breath and brought my eyes up to meet his. He looked desperate. "You lost the right to know those things when you betrayed me," I said stiffly. Harry's hand loosened instantly, enough so that I was able to push open the door and lower myself out onto the dirt.
I was torn now. I had two options: go inside the house or start running. The latter was more desirable considering I felt as if my insides were on fire whenever I was near Harry or any of the other boys for that matter. I still couldn't come to terms with the fact that they had been working with Seth all along.
It was odd though. I didn't feel compelled to cry or scream. I felt a horrible numbness throughout my entire body. It was as if I had been cut off from all of my emotions. I feared the moment when they would all come tumbling back to me.
Despite my wish to leave, I knew that Harry could easily catch up to me with his car, and I couldn't imagine how long it would take me to get anywhere what with Louis's home being so far away from town.
I sluggishly walked up the drive and pushed open the front door. I was met with four very surprised boys who all seemed baffled by my appearance. I ignored their shocked faces though, and headed for the stairs. At one point, I would have been scared to walk up to the bedroom I had used alone considering all that had happened, but I knew that I wasn't in danger of anyone coming to kidnap me now. I really hadn't ever been, but I didn't know that.
"Alice?"
I paused on the first step and turned my head.
"He never meant to hurt you," Louis said. "None of us did."
I moved quicker than I thought possible through the hazy numbness. I stood in front of Louis, uncaring that I was shorter than him as I stood on tiptoe so that we were nearly level.
"Don't you dare say that none of you meant to hurt me," I snapped. "That's the worst lie I've ever heard. It's ironic really. You think you'd be able to come up with something better considering you've been lying to me this whole damn time."
