The Heartbreaker #Wattys2017

Chapter 14: Player, Player; Liar, Liar

Paxton's POV

I woke up to light streaming in through my eyes. I sat up and froze for a moment. I wasn't in my bed. Oh hell, I wasn't in my house! I quickly sat up and pushed off the blanket covering my body. But then my eyes went to the sleeping figure next to mine and I was attacked with the memory of everything that happened last night. I wanted to bang my head on a tree for my stupidity. This went along with something like that;

"Enough of moping around. We've come to picnic and we'll enjoy it." Chris gave me a wide smile and pulled me to walk along with him.

"I wasn't moping around!" I whined.

"Yeah, right." He rolled his eyes and pointed at the forest in front of him.

"You want us to go there?″ I questioned his sanity and he gasped. It was getting dark and I wasn't a fool to go inside of a forest in a nighttime, especially with him.

"You of all people know it'll be fun!" I wanted to say no again but as his stupid puppy eyes made me say yes...Oh well.

He stepped back slightly with a half grin and his hand came up to capture mine. Gulping I took his hands to mine and he relaxed. We left the park road, crossed a bridge and then went over a small hill. After walking more, we were going to the deepest side of the forest. When we were young, we would always go to the forest for vacation. Max and I, would prank each other going to the deepest side and that terrorized our parents to the point of grounding us for a month. I smiled at the memories we had. When there wasn't any pain, no horror in the memories.

"Hey, are you OK?″ Chris stopped walking and pulled me into his arms and leaned back to study my face. I swallowed thickly. My face must've looked like grim so I grinned forcefully.

"I'm just thinking how far we're going to go. My legs kinda hurt." He didn't answer. His arms just tightened around me.

"You are not alright." He squeezed my arm, searching my eyes for what...a broken girl?

Or a selfish, manipulative one?

I took a deep breath and met his gaze, "No, I'm fine. Let's keep walking to...wherever we are going."

Suddenly he was too close. I can almost feel his breath and it made me breathless...just for a second. Risking a gaze I looked at his eyes and they were bright brown under his glasses as they stared at my blue ones. Then his gaze dropped to my lips. Was he thinking what I was thinking? If I lean in now I can kiss him. But will it be worth it? As if knowing it'll risk our friendship we both stepped back. I heard an audible hiss and then a sigh.

"We can stop by the lake. Come on." I stared into his eyes and nodded. It wasn't for me to talk now. We both found a lake just outside of the forest and Chris pulled a blanket from his basket. We both slumped to the ground and stared at the lake. After some time he cleared his throat.

"Uh...about today, you don't have to live in the past, Pax. You can live in the present." I looked at him trying to see him truly. He was serious but his voice had an edge that reminded me of a person I see every day at the mirror mimicking me.

"Do you live in the present, Chris?″ I asked back. For a moment he was silent. He was getting angry; I could see this in his eyes and then he spoke,

"No Pax. But I don't let the past haunt me either."

"What's your story, Chris?″

His body jerked to my question and I knew I was right. He had also his share of past and secrets that made him a piece of a puzzle to me. I wanted to solve him badly as I never did before.

"I'll tell you if only you tell me about you. What happened to your parents? You never talk about them, when I ask you about them you change the subject."