"Run and hide. It's gonna be bad tonight. 'Cause here comes your devil side. It's gonna ruin me." —Foxes.

••

"It's because You. Fucked. Kite. Isn't that it, Harmony Skye?"

I lay motionlessly, staring up at him with parted lips of disbelief and wide eyes of despair. Hot torrents of grief course from them, forming pathways along the sides of my face while Blaze glares at me with what appears to be heartbreak and hatred, all wrapped in one.

It was not supposed to be like this. Why didn't I tell him sooner? I just could not bring myself to do it. Because I knew that no matter how many ways a person could flip the situation, I would still be the one to blame. I trusted Maddie, I drank that liquor, and I am the girl with the stupid need to see the good in other people. When will I finally learn?

I open my mouth, trying to pull my self-defenses from my stomach, but they stay rooted inside me. Refusing to come out; perhaps just as scared as I am.

My speechlessness leaves him with no other conclusion than his statement being the truth, and a broken expression flashes across his face, breaking my shattered heart even further.

"You can't answer." He says softly. His eyes are glossy, hurt glistening in them. "Then I guess that little psycho was correct. You know Harmony, I called you over to confirm if what that sick girl told me was true, and based on your reluctance, I guess it was true, after all."

I shake my head repeatedly. "Blaze...Blaze, it's not like that; I can explain."

"Oh yeah?" His hand slips around to his back pocket and he slides out his cell. In a sobbing state, I watch him as he taps on his phone before extending the device toward my face.

"What the fuck is this then?" He demands.

I blink away the tears blurring my vision as I squint my eyes at the photo on his screen.

It's another horrifying image like the one I had received earlier, but this one is far worse, and when I say far worse, I mean far worse.

I am completely naked, with no bra, no underwear covering my body. Kite is next to me with a blanket draped over his lower body. Both of our eyes are closed, his arms embracing me as the one before.

You can see everything. Everything that is currently hiding under my dress, and I feel my heart drops in my chest.

I gasp in horror and bury my face in my hands, the sight of my nudity being too much to handle. Tears soak the flesh of my palms as I shake my head repeatedly. "Oh God...oh no..." Why would they do that to me?!

Blaze grinds his teeth, and I hear movements for a bit before the mattress dips as he begins to get off me without a word. I lean up on my elbows to see him now wearing a white T-shirt as he moves toward the exit.

Leaving me.

"Blaze, no, please wait!" I get off the bed and chase after him. He doesn't halt his steps despite my pleas until I grip his elbow firmly, urging him to turn around as I try to catch sight of his eyes.

"Look at me, please. It's not like what you saw; I swear Blaze...please, please just hear me out."

He shrugs my hand away ragingly and whirls to me with a dark glare. "Take your hands off me."

Tears prick at my eyes, and he tries to move around me when I intrusively wrap my arms around his waist in a hug, almost knocking him backward as I press my head against his sternum. I feel his body rises in a heavy sigh.

"Let me go." He breathes.

I shake my head and tighten my hold around him. I close my eyes, and a single tear escapes and falls along my cheek. I hope this is enough to stop him from leaving. I know I deserve this after my constant lies, but I don't want him to go. I can't allow him to go, or this may be the end for us. I am not one to be this pathetic, but what other choice do I have left?

"Don't go. Just hear me out. Please?"

He lifts his eyes to the ceiling, muttering something underneath his breath. I look up at him with desperate, watery eyes, but he isn't looking at me. His gaze is fixed on the wall behind me now as the muscles in his face tighten.

Why won't he look at me? He keeps avoiding my gaze, and it makes me feel so awful; is the sight of me that distasteful?

"Blaze, look at me, please," I mutter, but he grips my arms and pulls me off him sternly.

"Don't touch me; I can't fucking look at you right now."

He takes a step to leave, but I am in his pathway again. "Blaze, it's not what it looks like, I swear that—"

"It isn't?" He finally looks at me, but the glare is so hostile that it would have been less painful if he hadn't met my gaze. "It's clearly a nude picture of you and Kite in bed, for Christs' sake, I could see your entire..." He eyes me up and down, then clenches his teeth and looks away as if I am buck-naked standing in front of him.

"I saw everything Harmony...your whole body and Kite fucking did too!"

"Blaze, I think I got framed." I try to tell him. "It's not me, okay? I wouldn't do that, you know me...you know I wouldn't sleep with Kite. Just please believe me, hear me out, please?"

He swallows and holds his forehead, his jaw tensing as he finally nods. "Fine, fine Harmony, speak. I am willing to hear you out, so tell me what happened."

Now that he has given me the platform to plea my case, I realize that the painful fact that I can't remember anything will not help my dilemma right now, and I realize further that I am doomed.

"I...I woke up in a bed, and Kite was in the very same room...but I can't remember anything at all. The night before I had a drink, but I think—"

"Woah. Wait." He raises a palm to halt my speech. His eyes closed in confusion. "The night before you had a drink? So you were drunk then, seriously, what the fuck?"

"It was just one drink, okay? One single drink."

"The last time you danced on him at his house party, lord knows what you could have done this time, and why would you even be drinking? I thought you didn't care for those things? I don't understand you; you drank liquor and then woke up in a room with Kite, and you're asking me to believe you; it's hard to do that with information such as that, Harmony."

"Maddie. It's Maddie, okay? She offered me a drink, and I think she drugged me or something. I am a lightweight, but it's impossible to drink such a small amount of liquor and be knocked out in a matter of seconds."

"Furthermore, why were you drinking with Maddie?" He narrows his eyes. "Wait...was this the night you said you were at your mom's?"

I take a deep breath. "Yeah, but I wasn't at my mom's...Maddie came by and—"

"This is fucking ridiculous—" Blaze moves to walk out again when I slither between him and the door. The look of detest he throws my way makes me shrink into the floor.

"Don't go...please."

"Harmony, you're a liar, you told me you were at your mom's, but now it appears you were drinking with the girl I clearly told you to stay away from. You are so freaking irresponsible and naive!"

Those words sting, but I deserve them.

"I know...I know I am."

"And you kept all of this from me! You kept me in the dark like I'm an idiot. What made you think I am this damn fool who wouldn't find out eventually? You know, you are acting like someone who really has something to hide because your actions right now are shady as fuck!"

"I know it was wrong...I know hiding it from you was not the best option, but I had to because you would hate me..."

"Hate you? If you had just told me the bloody truth from the start, then it would save us both this unnecessary complication. The fact that you hid this from me makes you seem more guilty than not and makes me realize how effortlessly you can fucking lie to my face."

"I am sorry." I sob softly. "I am so sorry...I didn't know what to do."

"I can't trust you after you do something like this; how can I when you may just lie to me again? You're a pretender, a liar, and you're fucking deceiving."

Ouch.

My throat tightens. The words leaving his lips are like daggers, but the melancholy within his eyes is enough to eliminate my existence.

"I need time." He grips the knob, but I enclose my hand around his. "Blaze, don't leave..."

"Harmony, if I don't leave right now, I may fucking kill someone, so please take your hand off me."

"I know what I did was wrong. And I am so sorry, Blaze; I am so sorry."

"You know what hurts? It isn't the fact that you were in a bed with Kite; it is because you lied to me and you were not planning on telling me anything. Maybe if you did, I would have believed you, but now I see that you're just a liar, Harmony."

The statements cut through my arteries and puncture the core of my heart. It will take me a while to forget them—if I ever do.

"I need space to think because if I keep talking, my words won't be nice," he says softly.

He opens the door and walks out, slamming it behind him.

I stare at the closed door in sad denial. This can't be happening. Not to me. It was so hard to get here with him, and the last thing I wanted was to give him a reason to become distant and empty again.

When my brain finally accepts the clear defeat, I sink to the floor and bury my head in my hands, crying inconsolably. I feel like I've lost his trust in me.

•

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