Everyone Pretends They're Happy

I was still stood in the kitchen, Loretta on my left, getting ready to defend me with her new found drunken confidence and Garrett was stood protectively in front of me.
‘‘Thought I’d find you two together.’’ Harriet spat as she came into view.
‘‘Harriet, go away and calm down. You don’t need to start anything with anybody. You’re drunk and you just need to go home.’’ Garrett said calmly.
‘‘Shut up, Garrett, I don’t want to talk to you yet. This is between me and her.’’ She glared at me from where she stood.
‘‘If you don’t stop, I’m calling mom and she’ll come get you straight away.’’ John said, pulling her back from us.
‘‘My mom wont be coming for me, my mom’s dead!’’ Harriet yelled at John. He threw her arm to her side and warned her never to go back to his mom’s house again, not even when she’d sobered up. It didn’t seem to affect her since she charged forwards to us again.
‘‘Harriet, what ever it is you want to shout at me for, lets do it away from everyone and be calm about this.’’ I said to her, but I should’ve listened to Garrett about her not wanting to talk normally. She started off on a rant about how I stole Garrett from her and how it was my fault that he hates her. Then she started on something I didn’t think she’d ever find out about.
‘‘How do you know about New York?’’ I asked, immediately sobering up and pushing Garrett aside slightly to talk to her.
‘‘Oh, you thought I didn’t know. Thought I’d never find out about Tyler, and what he did to you.’’ All of a sudden things went quiet and the whole room was staring at us. My heart was racing, my palms were sweating and my stomach had dropped. I wanted to tell Garrett about New York, but I never wanted him to find out from Harriet.
‘‘Don’t dare, Harriet. Its no one else’s business in here but mine so I’d appreciate it if you kept it to yourself.’’ I demanded calmly and quietly.
‘‘So you want to parade your relationship about with Garrett right in front of my face, but you don’t want me to tell him your secrets?’’ She laughed. ‘‘You hurt me, I hurt you.’’ She snarled.
‘‘Harriet, please! I’ll tell him when I’m ready to. Do you not have a heart? Do you not understand how much of a painful subject it is for me?’’ I asked her, shocked and surprised at her thoughtlessness.
‘‘I do have a heart, just not for the people I hate.’’ She replied simply. John tried to pull her back and Pat joined, hoping she’d listen to him, but she wasn’t. She wasn’t going to listen to anyone.
‘‘I didn’t think you were like this, if I knew how much of a bitch you’d turn out to be, I’d never have moved here.’’ I snapped at her.
‘‘So you’d stay in New York with Tyler, who’s currently looking after his and your best friends baby? They named him Harry, by the way.’’ She blurted out all too quickly. My heart felt like it had just been ripped out. ‘‘I also found out about your little miscarriage. Something unplanned and unexpected. You were both very happy anyway, wanted to care for it, and love it but you were just too useless, that didn’t happen. He got bored one day and knocked your best friend up. You couldn’t deal with it so you ran away from your problems.’’ Harriet finished up her argument with a smug smile.
I wanted so badly to cry, but I couldn’t. instead I balled up my fists and lunged at her, I threw punches and pulled at her hair, I was screaming so much I didn’t make sense and finally Garrett managed to pull me away.
‘‘Leave me alone. I hate you!’’ I screamed at Harriet and ran past everyone. They were all speechless and staring at me as I ran.
‘‘Running away from your problems again?’’ I heard her yell at me.
‘‘Just leave it, Harriet!’’ I heard Garrett shout at her then told me to wait. I couldn’t do that. My legs wouldn’t stop. I just wanted to get as far away as possible. I wanted to drive but my car keys were in my room and that would be too much effort. I ran down streets I was only vaguely familiar with, ran past people I had never seen before. Tears were streaming down my face so I most likely looked crazy and drunk and homeless, but I didn’t care, I couldn’t give myself time to care.