Separately Together

Chapter Fifteen: 2/2

We were setting everything up, and Sara and Natalie came to help with it.

I was struggling to hang up this string of letters that said, 'Boy or Girl'. Harley comes up behind me and lifts me by the hips. My weight caused his fingertips to dig into my skin roughly, I hiss slightly but quickly tape the ribbon to the post. He sits me down and I rub at my hips still feeling his fingertips digging into my skin. "Did I hurt you?" He asks as he pulls the end of my shirt up to get a better look at the damage.

He hadn't hurt me but feeling his hands on my skin hurt my insides, causing them to burn a trail of arousal deep into my stomach. "Shit." He bends down to get a better look and I sucked in air as he runs his fingers over the forming bruise.

"Do you have to use such vulgar vocabulary?" I scold him, he knows I hate it when he cusses.

"I didn't mean to hurt you." He says pulling my shirt down just before Sara walks up to look at the banner.

"You two did a really good job, planning." She looks around at everything finally set up and smiles. "They are going to love it."

I hoped they did. I have been avoiding Finnic as much as possible, and Liz as well. They can always read through my lies, and this was one I wasn't ready for them to see through yet. I haven't even told them about me moving in with Harley yet. I wish I could lie about that forever, but I knew eventually the truth would come out and I would rather it come from me than anyone else. I didn't know how Finnic would take it, Liz would swear we were a couple or sleeping together.

"You two are so cute," Sara whispers in my ear and winks at me. "Top tear relationship goals."

"Just friends." I remind her with a head shake. I don't know why she and Liz are insistent on me dating Harley, if they knew the inside dynamic of our relationship, they would tell me to run far away.

"Friends with benefits?" She asks jokingly.

"Just friends."

"Just friends always end up as more than friends." She says in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Not this time." I deny her statement because girls and guys could be friends.

"Oh, definitely this time." She giggles and goes to help Natalie keep the napkins from flying away. I stare at them with amusement in my eyes as they jump up trying to catch the last few before they sit something heavier on top of the remaining ones.

My smile fades when I realize I probably won't ever be as carefree as them again. I'll always be tied to that night of abuse, tied to that court case, where all of my deepest darkest secrets were kept in file folders in a drawer somewhere.

A piece of me had died that night, and some when he got released, every time he had someone break into my place. I wonder how much more of my soul was left in there. What I wouldn't do to forget for ten minutes.

His presence in my life again has taken a toll on my sleep and I could practically feel the bags under my eyes forming.

The guest slowly starts to show up along with Finnic and Liz. When I see them, my finger starts to twist together subconsciously.

Finnic wraps me up in a hug. "I missed you." I hug him back.

"I missed you too." I meant those words. What I wouldn't do to tell Finnic everything that has happened over the week he has been gone but I couldn't it would just stress him out when there was absolutely nothing he could do. Plus, this weird feeling to protect Harley's image stopped me from telling them. I didn't want them to know that he was a part of a gang, I didn't want them to look at him like he was a different person because he had done it for me.