𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐌𝐄 ( 𝐂𝐇𝐑𝐈𝐒 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐎𝐋𝐎 )

𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄

- CHRIS

"okay."

"okay?"

"okay."

brielle let out a sigh of relief and wiped a couple tears off her eyes. the two of us walked around the bench and sat on it. i didn't dare to look at her. i didn't even want to be talking to her but i had to. i wasn't the type of person to break a promise. mad, or not. 

"so," brielle started as her knee bounced up and down. "what did you see that day?"

i shifted uncomfortably next to her as i thought back to that day on the beach. i was so excited to see her that day. i think i was gonna tell her i was in love with her. not that it matters now anyway.

i cracked a knuckle on my left hand. "you and hayden. you were smiling at him and he picked you up. you were laughing with him and you looked.. happy."

"it didn't look like a shoot, did it?" i felt brielle's gaze on the side of my face and i refused to look her in the eyes. i knew that if i did, i would lose control over the situation.

"no," i said bitterly as i held my eyes from rolling to the back of my head. "it didn't."

"well it was," brielle responded in barely a whisper. i was getting tired of her short answers. i just wanted her to get her words out so we could get to the hard part of all of this.

i finally turned my body towards brielle and looked up at her eyes. just for a second. the usual brightness her green eyes carried was gone. it made me sad. 

"how am i supposed to believe that?" i sighed and scratched the back of my head as i tried to find a nice way to say what i was going to say. "you were smiling at him with my smile. it looked like a date, brielle."

"chris i promise that it wasn't your smile. no one is special enough for it." brielle reached her hand out to touch my knee, but quickly pulled it away. she looked down at the space between us before continuing. "i'm gonna explain everything from the very beginning, okay? i just need you to listen."

"alright," i said with a nod, even though i was still unsure of the situation. "i'll listen."

brielle didn't waste a second. "hayden and declan were best friends growing up. he lived across the street from us up until 5th grade when he had to move to la for his dad's work."

"how come i don't know him?" i questioned in an accusing tone. i didn't know of a hayden summerall until he was spinning my girl around in circles. "we all would've went to school together but i don't remember him."

"i don't think many people do remember him," brielle looked up at me with sorry eyes. "he was extremely sick growing up. in and out of hospitals all the time, so he was just homeschooled."

"oh," i simply said.

"yeah, oh." brielle sighed and bit her lip. "so anyway, because declan was really hayden's only friend, they kept in really close contact over the years. music was their favorite thing to do together, so after hayden beat his cancer about two years ago, they started working on projects together."

brielle looked at me to see if i was still listening. i was.

"fast forwarding to now, they wrote a song together. it was hayden's biggest dream ever since he was that little kid to make a song with dec, so when it finally happened, i wanted to help," brielle said as she looked away from me again. the pieces were starting to come together and i was starting to feel bad.

"that day, i thought hayden and i were just going to be taking pictures because their song wasn't finished yet. but when i got there, declan told me they were done and wanted to film a youtube video for it," brielle looked up at me and paused. "the song is about the teen romance that hayden never got to have."