I know the visions that flash through my mind only lasts a few moments, but it feels like they go on forever. My head pounds as hard as my heart with a synced pulse and I have to sit down as it happens all too quickly, feeling nauseous with every memory I seem to gain back.

"Hey Paisley," Jenny whispers, looking towards the doors of the library, which makes me automatically look in that direction to see what's caught her attention.

I look back at her confused, realizing that she is looking at Harold walk in, and wondering why, knowing she usually doesn't give nerds a second glance. When I look back at him, he's looking at me nervously through his big black framed glasses, as he rummages through his backpack, but looks away quickly when he notices I'm looking at him, which happens every time my eyes happen to fall upon him.

"I have the perfect dare for you." She now has an evil smirk on her face and I feel myself sink. I was happy to not have been dared to do much over the last little while and I can just imagine what she's thinking right now. "I dare you to date Harold for a month."

"What?" I say, louder than intended. "No way, Jenny!"

"That kid has had his eye on you since grade 9," she informs me, as if I didn't know already. "He'll love to date the popular girl—and it's only a month. It won't be that hard for you."

"I'm not doing a dare that's going to hurt someone in the process," I whisper yell. "He's probably a nice guy. No."

"A dare is a dare, Paisley, you know that."

I can sense that Harry is staring at me from the opposite side of the table as he sits back down across from me. I'm hunched over with my head in my hands, unable to fully come back to reality. The memories play in my mind like a movie projected on a screen before me. The scenes switching from one to the next faster than I want them to. 

I remember everything like it all just happened yesterday. I could feel how he pulled me in with his wit and his charm. How easy it was to be myself with him. He was comfortable to be with, even from the very beginning and I let him in quickly, even more so than everyone else I knew in my life.

I've been standing on the beach for what feels like forever, allowing the wind to blow through my hair as I breathe in the fresh air, contemplating everything that's been happening over the last six days. Harold has changed everything already in such a short amount of time. We've spent all our time together since our first date, because as weird as it is, we click very well, and surprisingly, I'm finding myself loving every second that I'm with him. It hurts to know that this all started with a dare, and I can't do this to him. I know that I need to tell him the truth before this gets out of hand.

"Why did you ask me to come here?" Harold asks, when I don't say anything even though I know he's now standing next to me.

I finally allow myself to look over at him. His hair has so much gel in it, the wind doesn't even move it. He's looking at me seriously, understanding there might be something wrong, because it's not normal that I'm silent around him. "Do you ever wish things were different?" I ask.

His head tilts to the side, clearly confused.

"Life. Ya know," I continue. "I wish things were different. We surround ourselves with people who are fake and lie and you have to pretend that everything's alright when it isn't."

He laughs. He laughs during a moment I'm being very serious and I can't help but smile at him as he does this. "You're asking a nerd if he wishes things were different. I don't even think you'd ever understand."

"But I do, Harold," I say, fully turning to him. I take a good look at him, gazing into his eyes. He really is cute, even behind those big glasses of his. His smile can take you away in an instant and his dimples are pretty much to die for. But those eyes. Those green eyes. I could get lost in them forever. It's in this moment that I know I can't tell him the truth. I can't hurt this sweet boy standing in front of me, because I know that every time I even look at him, my heart jumps. Every time he laughs, my stomach erupts with butterflies. And right now, at this very moment, I want nothing more than to kiss him.

The electricity that flows through me as our lips touch for the first time is like lightning. A shock to my system, only making me realize that somehow this was all meant to happen. Harold and I were meant to be brought together. I'm not meant to have feelings for him, but I know deep down that I do.

I'm having trouble breathing as it all unfolds before me. Harry doesn't say anything as he watches me work it out in my head. The memories turn to pictures, flashes of his face in every moment we spent together. Rollerskating. Dancing on the beach to Hedley. Holding hands walking down the hall at school. The way he laughed every time I sang and danced down the street like an idiot. Kissing him. Kissing him some more. His bedroom filled with books, with the Einstein poster. Laying in bed listening to music. 

Ever After. 

This one hits me right in the heart, and I understand the meaning behind his message in a bottle even more so than I did the day he gave it to me. I could be your perfect disaster. You could be my ever after. How did I not remember this at the time? He was trying to tell me something. So many things. The truth.

He had given me so many clues that we knew each other before, and I simply just couldn't remember a damn thing. Why didn't any of it trigger my memory? All those times I had deja vu. The nightmare I had with Ryan turning into Harry. It all should have made me remember. My subconscious was trying to tell me the entire time. I'm at a loss and I have no idea how I'm going to recover from this.

It's then that I hear in my head, the last words he ever said to me in high school. The words that made me think I deserved the life I was given afterwards. 

"You just wait Paisley. Karma will bite you in this ass for this, if I don't get to you first."

I didn't try hard enough to get him to come back to me. I wasn't in the right state of mind to do much more than I did. I called him so many times to apologize. To explain. I wanted him to know how I felt. I wanted him to know that I needed him, that I cared, that everything between us was real and that I never lied. Except for the dare. I kept the dare from him so I could keep him. But I had lost everything I had ever known in an instant, and I didn't have the slightest clue as to how to live without it all.

It's with these last words that I understand what's happening in front of me. The reason Harry is sitting across the table from me wearing these glasses is because he is finally getting his revenge on me. I fell in love with him and he's here to do just the same as I did to him. He's here to hurt me. To break my heart the way I did him, because he doesn't know that karma already got me for what I did. He doesn't know the truth.

I finally lift my head to look over at him, feeling my breathing stop altogether with this realization. I feel the panic set in in my stomach and the strings of my heart pull apart one by one. I swallow hard, trying to keep the tears from coming, but I know that no matter how hard I try, they will make an appearance. This can't be happening. This isn't happening. This is just another one of my nightmares. It has to be.

"This is quite the act you're putting on," Harry finally says. His tone is condescending, cavalier, in a way I've never heard him speak to me. I'm still trying to come back to reality from all of this, unable to comprehend what's real and what isn't. "Ya know, you really are a fantastic actress. You should ask Niall and Nova if you can play in one of their movies."

"What are you talking about?" I ask. I'm not acting, what the hell is he getting at?

"I don't know how I didn't see it before this morning, but I figured you out, Paisley," he tells me, taking the glasses off and crossing his arms. "You may not have remembered who I was in the beginning, but I know you have since Christmas."

"What?" Now I'm even more confused. If anything, he's the actor here. He knew who I was this whole time. And somehow this is all getting turned around on me, and I have no idea as to what is happening.

"Don't even try to pretend," he raises his voice. "It all makes sense. You've been different since Christmas. You changed. You figured me out, didn't you? And that's why you were all into fooling around with me all of a sudden. You were all of a sudden this new person who was confident. And I'm just realizing now that you've been playing me since then, because you knew I was playing you too."

I can't help the tears that suddenly appear in my eyes. The truth is out. It was all a lie. Hearing him admit that he was playing me this whole time burns a hole in me, and instantly I feel empty.

"Well, guess what?" he goes on. "You don't get to play me again. You don't get to be the one who breaks me this time. You thought I wouldn't find out what you've been doing? Playing my own game. That's just great, Paisley. Really funny."

"Harry, please let me explain," I try, through tears.

"It's funny how it always comes to this, isn't it?" he asks. "Always trying to hurt each other. It's what we do, isn't it?"

"I never wanted to hurt you, Harry," I retort. "Not even in high school. If you had just picked up the phone—"

"Just to hear another one of your lies?" he asks. "Ya know, I'm a smart guy. I wasn't going to fall into another one of your little manipulative traps again. And I don't know why I thought you were any different this time around. But you're still the same lying bitch you were then."

My breath hitches in my throat with his words, as more tears fall down my cheeks uncontrollably. "Harry, I didn't remember who you were until I walked in here a few minutes ago. Why are you acting like this? I didn't play you."

"That's bullshit and you know it!" he counters.

"It's not bullshit!" I raise my voice. "If you would have let me explain, you would know that the only thing I ever lied to you about, was the dare. You would know that my feelings for you were real. You would know that I loved you then and you don't need to try and hurt me right now. You didn't need to waste your time with me this year, because karma already got me. I lost everything because of that dare. I tried to kill myself because of it all. Why do you think I moved to Vancouver?" I take a second to allow myself to breathe and wipe my face with the sleeve of my shirt, even though the tears aren't going to stop any time soon. 

"Stop lying, Paisley," he says through gritted teeth. 

I can't believe he's not believing my words. I can't believe the person I love more than life, is sitting across the table from me, accusing me of lying. It's obvious he's made up his mind about what he thinks of me. He thinks he has me all figured out, but he's got it all wrong and I don't know how to make him see it differently.

"I never played you, Harry," I sniff. "Everything was real for me. Why would you think I'd ever do anything to hurt you? I love you."

He laughs, leaning his elbows on the table, not taking his eyes off of me. "Funny. You love me. Quit the fucking act. It's done. This whole game we're playing, it's over. I can finally move on and stop wasting my time with you."

It starts to sink in that none of this was real. That he's played me this entire time. It makes sense why he wanted me to trust him so bad in the beginning. He tried so hard, and I fell into his trap like the lost little girl that I was. The girl who needed to cling onto someone just to help me. And I was in the same position as he was in high school. Naive. And I became too trusting with him. How could I have let this happen? Good things don't come to those who have ever done wrong in the world, and being friends with the people I was friends with back then, there was barely ever an ounce of time to do anything but all the wrong things. Karma is still giving me what I deserve for all I did in the past.

"It took a lot longer than I thought it was going to," he says after a long silence. "I thought for sure I'd get you to fall in love with me quicker than you did. But it was fun, pretending I believed your lie about being a virgin. That was a good one. But hey, it only made me want to have sex with you more, thinking that it was some kind of important thing to you that we wait. And man, it made this moment even better, I must say. Knowing I got you right where I wanted you—Under me. You'll always be beneath me, Paisley. Don't you ever think for a second this time around, that you're better than me." He now has an evil grin on his face, as he seems to be enjoying himself, knowing that he has some kind of upper hand in this. "I mean, I get it now. It was all a lie. You don't actually love me and you just made me wait for the sex, because what? You wanted me to suffer? Jeez, you're good, Paisley. We should compare notes to see who did who the most wrong."

I'm at a loss for words. I can't seem to find a simple thought to voice. The sanity in me feels like it's gone and I feel broken. I don't want to try and fight the fact that he's wrong about me playing him. Nothing I say will make this situation better. And I don't even think I care anymore. He was in this to hurt me the whole time. And even though what he thinks, is a lie, he apparently wanted to do this to win this game. This game that I was very unaware of. Even though I wasn't in on it, I surely lost.

Everything that I had come to know over the last six months, was all based on lies. I thought for sure I knew Harry's feelings for me. I thought for sure I could feel it. I thought I had his heart. I was stupid to think that he would ever love me. Everything that he ever did, was to get me to fall in love with him, just so he could make me feel the same way he did. And that's exactly what's happened.

My heart is broken. I'm broken. And I know deep inside of me, that there will be no coming back from this.

I stand from the table, knowing I need to leave. I can't sit here and cry in front of him anymore. I can't listen to another hurtful word that is bound to come out of his mouth. I can't bear to look at him right now, knowing how much more it will hurt.

"I hope you're happy, Harry," I say quietly, looking at the ground before me, as more tears well up in my eyes, blurring my vision. "You're wrong about me and I hope you know that you will never find someone who loves you like I do. You just lost the only good thing that will ever happen to you."

I turn on my heels and walk as fast I can to the entrance, unable to hold in the sobs any longer. This is the worst possible thing that could ever happen to me right now. I will never in my life, be able to trust again and I lost the only person in the world I would ever love. I make my way down the street, to lean against the wall to cry. I don't care who's watching. I don't care about the stares I'm getting as people walk past me. I need to let it all out. This organ inside of me that was made to make me feel, is shattered. And there will never be a way of putting it back together.

I'm taken from my thoughts, when someone grabs hold of my wrist tightly, and yanks me around the corner and shoves me into the wall. I close my eyes with the pain my body is inflicted with as it collides with the bricks, and I'm afraid to open my eyes. My breathing becomes unsteady and I can feel myself start to shake when I feel them press themselves against me and all I hear is breathing in my ear.

"Well, well, well. Look who I found here."

I didn't need to hear his voice to know who it is. I could tell the second he grabbed onto me and pulled me away from the wall I had been leaning against. I was wrong when I thought that Harry breaking my heart was the worst possible thing to ever happen to me today, because this moment—This very moment, I would take Harry breaking my heart a thousand times, over what is happening right now. And when I open my eyes, my worst fears are deemed true.

Because here, pressing his body forcefully against mine into the wall, is Ryan. 

A/N: I didn't make you wait as long as I thought I was going to. I'm still not feeling 100%, and I'm hoping that this chapter still turned out alright, even with my head still not being in the right place.

So, thoughts on this chapter? Sorry if I've broken your hearts! I still love you! ♥

Thank you SO much for 21.9K reads! I cannot express to you enough how much I love you for reading my book! Don't forget to vote if you like it! Thanks for always making me smile!

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