39
HARLEY
Scarlett had been gone for some time and Harley was hoping she could think up a reasonable enough excuse to escape the awkward situation she had found herself stuck in.
Devon and her remained the last two in the spot that was previously occupied by their friends.
Nicholas and Daniel disappeared to God knows where and Annabel was dancing with Arden.
Harley couldn’t help hoping that one of these days two would be able to love themselves out loud.
She didn’t get it before why they couldn’t just be together but there was a lot at stake.
Nonetheless, she was now standing side by side with the girl she had been on the receiving end of nothing but standoffish reception.
“I like your dress,” Harley told her. The dress was more pale yellow than gold but it was nice to look at in all its sparkles and there was a decent amount of skin showing too around the cleavage.
“We don’t have to do this. The fake niceties? I’m good,” Devon said, downing her drink at once and walking away.
That’s that, then.
Harley went ahead to find her girlfriend instead of waiting around for something exciting to happen at this dreadfully boring party. What a horrid way to spend a birthday.
The ballroom was severely packed and maneuvering her way past people was such a feat that she had just turned the corner to the toilets when someone clutched her arm from behind, it momentarily scared her.
But it was only Arden, who looked more dishevelled than she’d ever seen him. Not physically but internally.
“Harley. I need to talk to you,” he said, his face weaved through multiple waves of emotions at once.
A lot of it devastation. He never called her Harley; it was only ever Banjo or Harleen to piss her off.
She looked around the room for her sister at once, because that was the only reason he would be in a rush to speak to her in such seriousness.
“Did something happen?” she implored.
“Not yet but it will be announced soon enough.” Then he proceeded to tell her what his father had planned and the anger that surged within her was so heavy it almost blinded her.
Her fingers clenched in frustration at everything that came out of his mouth. She couldn’t even yell when she finally found the words. “This will break her. I hope you know that after everything, you’re going to be the final nail in the coffin. ”
Arden looked shattered, “I had to get Livia out of that place. She didn’t like it there and it was the only way he would have her released.
” His voice pleaded for her to understand.
Annabel had briefly mentioned the mental facility that his younger sister had been in.
The rational part of her understood, it hadn’t been that long since she’d moved here but she too would do anything to save her sister.
“I didn’t want this to happen and if it was up to me it wouldn’t have,” he said.
“Don’t tell me that, you need to be telling her.”
“I wish I could but I know she’ll never speak to me again.” He rubbed his face aggressively. He softly said, “I need you to look after her for me.”
Harley remembered the first time Arden had asked her to do so and she almost bit his head off but it was different now. “She’s my sister. If I don’t do it, who will?”
From behind she heard Scarlett’s voice loud and clear, in the corner of her eye, she saw her arguing with Lucas which immediately had her on alert. He was getting a little physical and she began to walk away from Arden more concerned about her girlfriend.
“Barre-toi de moi, Lucas!” Scarlett screamed at him. Get the fuck off me, Lucas.
Harley tried to hurry in her inconveniently long dress to help but it slowed her down. However, not enough because she managed to catch the tail end of their conversation and it was as though her feet were trapped by quicksand, stuck.
“Don’t talk to me about doing the right thing when you’re dating your ex-girlfriend's sister without telling her,” he snarled venomously.
“Keep your fucking mouth shut!” Scarlett roared, oblivious that Harley was there and had heard it all anyway. Time slowed.
“You did what?” Harley whispered but other than the three of them there was no one else here so her question rippled and Scarlett turned around stunned.
“Wh– What are you doing here?” she stuttered, hurrying towards her with petrified haste. She tried to touch her but Harley took a sizable step back.
“Is what he’s saying true? You and Annabel dated?” she questioned through clenched teeth, her scouse accent suddenly thicker than normal.
“I was going to tell you–”
“When? God, how could I have been so stupid, it all makes sense.”
“I was worried about how you’d react, I was waiting for the right time.” Scarlett tried to touch her again but Harley held her hand up.
“Don’t fucking touch me.” There was a pulsating noise thudding in her head, growing louder with each passing second.
Annabel was always so insistent that an omission of information was the same as telling a lie and here she was having kept such a big one herself. She knew how much Scarlett meant to her and to keep something as significant as that was a betrayal to the relationship she thought they had.
“Harley–” Lucas started, looking apologetic.
“Shut the fuck up and never speak to me,” Harley growled at him.
“I’m sorry. It was never as serious as it is with us, I swear,” Scarlett cried, still begging for Harley to forgive her.
Harley took a deep breath in and out, her eyes blank. “I guess, maybe it wasn’t serious with us either,” she eventually said and walked out of there, drowning out the pleas behind her to find the one other person she was meant to trust.
The wedding announcement had just been made and she came back into the room in time to witness Annabel run out of there crying.
Harley was conflicted. She had just found out the horrid secret Scarlett and Annabel had been keeping from her but she also knew that Annabel was being held together with cellotape.
In the blink of an eye, she made the decision to follow her out the door when she saw the alcohol in her hands. She knew the Annabel who wasn’t in her right frame of mind, would hate that she’d just broken her short lived sobriety from a glass of prosecco.
She saw her being handed a key for a car by a valet that definitely wasn't hers, subsequently driving off. Harley came with the family so she had no car of her own to go after her, which was when Devon drove into view with one and handed over her key.
“Go stop her from doing something stupid,” she says hurriedly.
Harley thanked her and got into the car.
It was when she could see Annabel driving in zigzags that a sense of doom plagued her.
Having gone in the opposite direction in the hopes that she’d stop driving when she came out from the other end but no.
Their cars crashed into one another at such high speed, that when the window glass broke into pieces she was still conscious for a good ten minutes, the last thing she heard was the sound of sirens calling her away.