By Chance

Chapter 3 - Tessa's past

The next week went by way to fast. Tessa really enjoyed hanging with Perrie and the guys, even Harry who was actually quite hilarious when he wasn’t being such a flirt, and she even got to meet Eleanor and Sophie - Louis and Liam’s girlfriends. Both girls were of course absolutely lovely and they welcomed Tessa with open arms. Tessa got to know everybody pretty well and she could already tell she was going to miss them, when she had to go and visit her family even though she wouldn’t be gone for that long. She actually considered staying in London - not because she would miss the others that much, but because she really didn’t want to meet up with her family. Sadly Tessa’s grandmother was turning 80 so she had to show up, but at least her grandmother lived in Liverpool, so the drive was shorter than if she had to go all the way home to South Shields - and hopefully the memories wouldn’t be as horrible. Tessa didn’t have a violent childhood or anything like that. She was an only child with two very strict and ambitious parents, who kept pushing her towards their goals, not her own. They had her entire future planned out.If she hadn’t left home, she would be attending law school right now - and she would probably still be dating her cheating asshole of an ex-boyfriend, because of their parents’ friendships and Mike’s economical bright future in his father’s company. Her parents were snobs and they didn’t acknowledge her job as a part of a real career. And even though they never were present in her upbringing, they still felt the need to make demands of her - she was fed up with them, and therefore she worked her ass of in school to be sure, she could be economical independent and get the hell away from both them and Mike.

„Lou bear, what do you want to watch?” Tessa asked Louis, when he threw himself on the coach. Tonight Perrie and Zayn were going on a date, and none of the other girls were coming over - so the guys had yet again talked Tessa into movie night. „I don’t really care, have you asked the others love?” He replied and flipped through the channels. „No because I honestly don’t think I’ll survive another Toy Story marathon, so could you just pick one? Pretty please,” she sent him an innocent smile. „Sure thing, ehm how about 17 again then? We get to watch a fun movie and you get to stare at Zac Efron for a night,” Louis grinned at her. Tessa just laughed and threw a pillow at him, but she agreed and when Niall and Liam entered the living room, they started the movie. „Shouldn’t we wait for Harry?” Tessa asked confused. The guys suddenly fell silent and awkwardly avoided eye contact with her. „Okay guys, what are you not telling me? This was basically his idea” Her eyes traveled between them. Niall was way too quick to burst out one word: „Nothing!” „Harry is just not joining us tonight, his is going out instead,” Liam explained. She then turned her head to Louis, who she of these three was the closest with. „Again, his going out again,” Louis stated. Tessa looked at him confused. „Harry has been going out a lot, since the whole spilt with Taylor. I think he’s just trying to forget everything - but honestly it’s not working. He doesn’t really seem like himself anymore, it’s all just a façade,” Louis continued now sounding more worried. She would never have guessed this was going on, if the boys hadn’t told her - but okay she hadn’t known him for that long. „So he goes out to drink, or he goes out to get laid?” Tessa said sounding as a question. She knew it was none of her business, but she had started to view Harry as a friend and this really worried her. „Both I guess,” Liam then answered. Louis just shrugged. Tessa nodded and pretended to concentrate on the movie. In reality all of her thoughts gathered around Harry - Harry, who apparently was both drinking and sleeping around. She noticed right away a knot in her stomach at the thought of what Harry was up to - and this brought only unpleasant memories of Mike forward.

When Tessa found Mike in bed with another woman, he had been drunk. She walked in on them wanting to surprise him by taking him out to dinner, and a girl from her English class had been on top of him naked. The anger had filled her body and as she ran away from Mike and their broken relationship, her entire world came crashing down. This was the only real heartbreak she ever felt, because after that she never let herself be that vulnerable again. Tessa was done with love. Mike had managed to put on his boxers and chased her down the stairs, and right when she was about to reach the door he grabbed her arm. She remember his words so clearly, about her being nothing without him and how little she would be worth if she walked out that door. She yanked arm away from him and told him straight to his face how small of a person he really was, and how all threatening in the world never would be enough to make her stay in a relationship with him. Tessa knew it wasn’t the smartest thing to do since he was drunk, he had a big temper and he could get kind of rough, but at that time she didn’t care. Her yelling stopped the second she felt his fist collide with her face. He hit her. That sobered him up real fast, but by then she already had lost every ounce of respect she had for him. She had gone straight to Perrie’s house and stayed there. That was the first time she had ever met her best friends boyfriend. Tessa thought at one point, that she loved Mike - now she wasn’t so sure anymore. Perhaps love was just an illusion.