"What did?" I asked, my voice barely above a squeak. "What started last summer?"

Callie swallowed nervously, her eyes darting between mine. She took a deep breath.

"You'd just come back from LA after visiting Harry, and you thought he'd been shagging around behind your back with Taylor Swift. You were a mess. You were barely eating, barely functioning. You looked like death. I convinced you to come out one night, and we ended up in the same bar as Nick Grimshaw. You had another row with Harry on the phone, I can't even remember what about, and that set you back even further. You were moping around, crying all the time... I was so worried about you."

I shook my head wordlessly, unable to fathom where this was going.

"All he ever seemed to do was humiliate you publicly. There was the story about him hooking up with some girl on tour, only a few days after you two met -"

"Which had happened before I even knew Jess," Harry put in.

"Then there was the whole Taylor Swift fiasco, then there was that girl who had the matching tattoos who was dating him while you were supposedly seeing him -"

"We've been through this, that was a load of bullshit," Harry growled.

"I know!" Callie snapped. "I'm setting the scene, trying to explain, if you'd just shut your arrogant mouth and let me speak."

"Careful, you almost showed your true colours," Harry sneered.

I stared at them both in shock, momentarily silenced. I had never heard them speak like this to each other before. I had never heard Harry speak like this to anyone before. It was uncomfortably out of character.

"Anyway, you ended up dumping him on the phone, and I remember being astounded that you were the one to break things off, considering how crazy you were about him. I mean, you were in love with the guy when all he did was treat you like shit."

Harry opened his mouth to protest and Callie glared at him.

"I'm telling it like I saw it, before you interrupt me with your self-inflated opinions."

He shut his mouth again and looked away, his lips set into a hard line.

"The second break up was even worse than the first," Callie continued. "You just cried constantly. I was worried you would hurt yourself, or worse... I've never seen you in such a state. And then we went to the Big Weekend and you seemed to be a bit happier; you were laughing and joking with us, and it was so obvious Gary had a crush on you. I hoped he might be just what you needed to move on from Harry, but then Harry showed up with his sister, and I thought she was his girlfriend and you kissed Gary to make Harry jealous and everything went wrong again. You had another row with Harry, and you were back to square one: a trembling wreck. And it started to become obvious that every time Harry came into your life he just made you miserable. He couldn't go five minutes without messing you around, or making you cry, and I knew you would never be happy as long as you were hankering after him."

I felt a pang of misery as I remembered those awful few weeks last summer. I couldn't deny that it had probably been the worst time of my life.

"Anyway, you left us in Norwich and went to your mum and dad's, and Harry came up to me at the bar. He was looking for you, and he was almost in as much of a state as you were. He was pulling at his hair, asking me where you were, and his eyes had this look of desperation. I realised then that he was in love with you, but you'd said you needed to break all contact with him to get over him. I tried to call you to tell you he'd been looking for you, but your phone was switched off. I texted you, asking you to call me urgently, but you texted back saying you didn't want to talk. I took that as a sign that it wasn't meant to be. I didn't want to get your hopes up by telling you he was in love with you, because I knew that would make it harder for you to let him go. But as it turned out, he drove to Cambridge to find you, and all of a sudden you were back together again. When I saw you at the Fleetwood Mac concert a week or so later, it was as though someone had flicked a switch. You were on cloud nine, and that worried me again, because he seemed to have such power over you. He held your heart in the palm of his hand, and he controlled your feelings. If he was nice to you, you were flying. If he messed you about, you were practically suicidal."

"Hardly suicidal," I scoffed, but she raised her eyebrows at me.

"OK, maybe that is a slight exaggeration, but it's not far off the mark," she argued. "And then at the Fleetwood Mac after-party, he upset you again. You wouldn't tell me why, but you'd disappeared off with him and when you came back your face spoke a thousand words. He was lurking behind you looking miserable, and I knew he'd fucked up again - he even admitted it."

The fiery exchange between the two of them on that night flashed through my mind.

What have you done now?

Been an idiot.

Nothing new there, then.

"I didn't like the way he seemed to treat you. He came across as arrogant to me, like he knew the effect he had on you and sometimes he played on it. And if he loved you, why didn't he just tell you? I'd always thought he looked like a bit of a prat, but it just seemed like everything he did compounded this image I had of him. I disliked him more and more."

"He isn't arrogant," I defended, and Callie didn't argue, but instead flicked her gaze briefly to Harry and then back to me, before continuing.

"Anyway, you made up again and things were great, and he finally told you he loved you -"

"You told her about that?" Harry muttered to me, and I gave a brief nod as Callie carried on.

"-and then... then he slept with that model in New York. I knew, Jess - I knew the second I saw the news article about her leaving his hotel that he'd been unfaithful to you. And you literally fell to pieces again, because of him. You hit rock bottom, and I hated him for it, and at the same time I felt so guilty for being the one who had taken you to that house party where you first met. He broke you again, and yet something didn't feel right about it all. I told you at the time I thought there was more to it, didn't I? I mean, the guy loved you. Why would he cheat? The whole thing was weird. I wondered if it had been a fake story, set up by his management to increase the band's popularity, but then I did some research into One Direction and soon realised they were fucking massive. They didn't need to worry about trying to become more appealing.

"In the meantime, you'd zoomed off to Brussels to confront Harry, and I was convinced you were going to take him back. But he turned you down and sent you away, and told you he didn't love you. I mean, it confirmed once again that he was a dickhead, but it didn't make any sense. I knew there must be more to it because I knew he did love you - he had all but admitted it to me. But you were so broken over the whole thing that I didn't push my theories onto you. You had finally opened your eyes and seen him for what he was, and to be perfectly honest I was glad you'd decided to give up on him because he brought you nothing but pain and misery. But I also couldn't throw away all your stuff when you asked me to, because a little part of me believed that one day you might just get the answers you wanted, and that maybe you would want to keep some of the stuff for the memories. Or you could just sell it on ebay and make a fortune."

I didn't laugh at this. I was completely absorbed in her story, living the last year of my life through Callie's eyes and suddenly understanding why she hated Harry so much. If I had witnessed someone putting Callie through all of this trauma, I would have hated them too.

"As the days passed, you just seemed flat; numb, almost. You'd stopped crying over him, but you just seemed disinterested in everything. I was worried you might be suffering from depression. I managed to convince you to get out for the evening and set you up with Adam, and for a while it seemed like you were starting to perk up. Then we went to Libertine, and something happened between you and Louis outside. I could tell you were jittery, and then of course Harry showed up, clicked his fingers and you went off back to his hotel and let him ruin you all over again. I tried to warn you the next morning when I saw the gossip articles about you, Louis and Harry, but by the time I spoke to you, you had completely shut down. I know you argued with Harry again, and he told you he set you up. I hated him with a vengeance from that day forward."

I shook my head wordlessly. Hearing our relationship relayed like this was making me uncomfortable.

"That night seemed to be a turning point for you. It was like you had finally realised you needed to let him go. You seemed almost resigned to what happened, like you were numb to it. And finally, you started seeing Adam properly. I'd told him you'd had a rough time with your ex and warned him not to mess you around. He's so sweet and genuine, and I started to hope maybe he would be the one to help you get over everything Harry had put you through. And you seemed to be making progress - for a couple of weeks at least. And then something happened with One Direction - something to do with the guy that left? - and you tweeted a picture of Louis-"

"Zayn had no chill," I offered, and Harry raised an eyebrow at me. "There was a hashtag trending on Twitter about it," I explained, a little defensively. "Hashtag Zayn has no chill. He called Naughty Boy a fat joke."

"Oh yeah," Harry frowned.

"Anyway," Callie continued, "suddenly you were wondering about Harry again. He had tweeted a picture of one of your in-jokes, the Hey There Delilah thing, and it was like you were slowly being pulled back in. Just before you went to Cardiff we took you on a surprise night out and Harry texted you out of the blue... I could tell straight away you were preoccupied by his messages, and you were practically on the edge of your seat waiting for him to reply. I tried to convince you not to get sucked in again, but I knew in my heart you weren't really listening to me. I tried to remind you how it always ends, but it just went in one ear and out the other. When I came over to say goodbye to you the following day before you left for Cardiff, you showed me the texts between you and Harry, and you'd finally put your foot down and told him you weren't interested. You'd decided that he was only being persistent with you because he wanted what he couldn't have. You were still convinced he didn't love you, and I started to wonder if maybe you were right... but then why would he keep on contacting you? The guy could have any girl he wanted - and he did, while you were together! And yet he just couldn't leave you alone."

"I couldn't leave her alone because I was heartbroken!" Harry snapped.

Callie rolled her eyes.

"Anyway, a couple of weeks later he showed up again didn't he - this time he turned up in Cardiff and finally gave you the explanation you deserved, and confirmed what I had suspected all along: that there was more to your break-up than any of us knew. Suddenly it all made sense. And while I thought he was even more of a prat for taking drugs, I couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for him. He'd made a massive mistake, and I believed that he wouldn't have cheated if he hadn't been high as a kite. It fitted in with everything else I had seen of him over the previous few months."

"I wondered why you seemed more accepting of him after that!" I exclaimed. "I thought you would take the opportunity to slate him, but you didn't."

"You were pissed off that I hadn't told you that I'd worked out he was in love with you weeks earlier," she recalled. "You asked me if there was anything else I was keeping from you. I didn't dare tell you I'd kept all your concert memorabilia and his hoodie and stuff. You would have flipped, or worse - started longing for him all over again. You had sent him packing, and for once you seemed level-headed and sensible. You were finally on the road to recovery."

She paused, and I risked a glance at Harry, who was watching her with his arms folded, the corner of his lip pulled between his teeth.

"I still don't understand," I said, after a moment. "You've explained why you don't like him, but what did you do that you didn't want Harry to tell me?"

She hung her head. "I'm getting to that part. I just needed to explain the chain of events that led up to what happened."

I swallowed nervously and looked at Harry again. I couldn't read his expression, but he didn't look worried, exactly; more resigned, and in that moment I couldn't be sure what that meant for us as a couple, both now and in the future.

---***---

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know I decided to break the chapter here so I could give you an update sooner rather than later as I know I haven't been posting as often as I used to. I have written further ahead, but the chapter was getting longer and longer without the end in sight, and I knew it would be another few days before I would have the time to finish the whole thing, revise it, edit it and post it. So I really am sorry for leaving the explanation part way through, but I thought it better to post something rather than nothing. I will try as hard as I can to finish the next chapter in the next few days, so look out for the notification :)

Thank you so much for the continued support for this book, and I'm sorry I haven't replied to any comments on the last 3 chapters; I read them all and will go through them as soon as I have time to respond properly.

Have Callie's words affected how you see her? Have they influenced your theories about what she didn't want Jess to know? And what part has Harry played in all this? Comment and let me know what you think, and also please, please don't forget to tap the yellow star and vote for this chapter if you are enjoying the book! xx