Don't Try To Make Me Smile!// [#Wattys2016]

The Cliff!

Summer was drawing nearer, finals were almost over and also was my time to leave getting really close. I generally wasn't happy about leaving but I wasn't even sure of my feeling about staying either. But weighing the circumstances, the reasons why I had to go weighed more than those about why I had to stay, that if is there was any.

Eric was more distant than ever, he hardly came to school even if he did, he didn't sit with us. We shared this weird eye contact half of the time and his eyes always seemed to say more than his lips did, like he wanted to say something but he was either too proud or too scared to say it.
But damn! I really wanted to talk to him but also I was scared of a second rejection. So maybe I could just leave like that, and somehow time will heal everything even my broken heart.

It was two days to my departure to London and Chelsea already to Los Angeles to visit her sister. I had decided to meet up with Nathan that evening at Starbucks to talk a little, to thank him for everything especially not telling Eric about my plan to leave.

"Do you really have to leave Cher, I mean you can go for summer but just stay for senior year at least" Nathan said to me as we sipped on our vanilla latte.

"I don't think you have the right to tell me that, you're leaving high school so who am I going to talk too?" I asked him.

"I'll still be around, I'm not going to college. I have to concentrate on my band and my music" he explained and I was still not convinced on his opinion on why I should stay.

"I'll still have no one to play with" I tried to smile but Nathan knew better.

"Have you told him yet?" He asked and I stopped midway in drinking my coffee because I knew exactly who Nathan was talking about.

"Who?" I tried to play dumb not wanting to admit it.

"Eric" and still that name sounded like a torture to my ears.

"I'm not going to?" I said firmly. "There's no point in telling him, it's not going to change anything. It's not going to change the fact that my heart is still broken"

"You should still tell him, you really don't know what's going on with him. You might break him"

I scoffed at that "break him?" I gave slight chuckle.

"Really Nathan? Break him? He broke up with me without telling me why, he pushed me away, didn't talk to me, told me to forget about 'us' after I found out he was the kid from my childhood and you're saying I might break him. Who's supposed to be broken here?"

Nathan signed deeply after my rant, running his hands through his hair.
"At least you should thank him for the other night, taking you home when you were dead drunk and passed out on the floor"

"What!" I looked at Nathan surprised, quickly recalling my night of rebellion, when I had supposedly thought it was Nathan who drove me home. "Wasn't it you?"

"No, it wasn't me. Eric was at my house when you drunk dialed his number and he rushed over like it was the last thing in the world to do" Nathan explained.

"Even if you don't want to tell him, you should at least see him one last time before you leave, even if it ends up in fits of treats or else you're going to regret it"

"Ohhh Nathan" I groaned loudly, running my hands through my hair and dreading to actual call Eric and go through what I went through last time.

"Now Cheryl, now" Nathan urged me and I groaned again as I did fished out my phone. I gave Nathan one last look, before I set out to send my text.

"Can we meet up?"

"Only if I choose the location" Eric replied immediately like he had been expecting my text, which got me suspecting but Nathan was innocently drinking his coffee.

"Fine" I texted back.

"The cliff" he replied immediately and I froze for a mini second wondering why Eric would want to meet there. It wasn't like that whole time was going to repeat itself again this night, because I was certainly not going to jump off any cliff to kill myself or save anyone.

"Why there?" I texted back because there was a lot of normal places that we could meet up, but the cliff?

"I'll wait for you?" He replied and it pretty much concluded everything, that he had made up his mind about us meeting there. This kid was so strange why?

"He wants to meet up" I told Nathan who didn't seem interested in talking to me anymore, but in texting whoever he was texting.

"Where?" He asked.

"Somewhere really weird" I replied not giving the exact location, and all bothered why Eric had chosen that place.

"Can you drive?" Nathan asked.

"I got my heart broken, not my hands and feet. I'll be fine" I said taking a final sip of my coffee, before grabbing my keys and heading out the door. I quickly hopped into my car and drove to the supposed cliff. The beginning of my friendship with Eric, his fulfilled promises, and just a lot of memories that were somehow locked with pride. I wondered what would have happened if Eric hadn't saved me then, I'll probably be dead or if I hadn't died I wouldn't have been so in love with him. We would still have been enemies or worse just tolerated each other's presence.

I finally arrived at the place, which hadn't changed a bit and seemed oddly cold or was it me. I saw Eric's car parked in a corner and I supposed he was already there.

Getting down from my car, I saw him. And no, he wasn't waiting for me. He was standing at the edge of the cliff, just staring down and not making a move. And that was when it hit me, Eric didn't just arrive he had been here all along, even before I texted him.

Shit!