"Where are we going?" Hal said, breaking the silence. We had been driving for at least five minutes without talking and I had to admit, it was getting pretty awkward.
"Somewhere," I said plainly, not taking my eyes off the road. I watched her out of the corner of my eye cross her arms across her chest in frustration. Hal always had to know what was going on and right now I could tell she hated the fact she didn't.
"Just tell me," she urged but I shook my head. She gave a huge sigh and stopped asking. I was surprised she had given up so easily but I was also relieved.
Five minutes of excruciating silence later, were almost there. I took a quick glace over at her and by now I knew she could tell where we were going. Her expression remained unchanged though, which made me a bit nervous for some reason.
I pulled into the nearest parking lot and cut off the engine. "Follow me," I tried to smile but I could hardly force my lips to do such a thing at a time like this.
Hal didn't respond but she did as I had said and trailed closely behind me. Our feet sunk into the hot sand as we made our way across the beach. The waves looked calm today and the water; warm, although I had no intention of going in it.
From there, I lead Hal underneath a shady dock: my destination. I didn't look back to see her face, but I hoped it was the face of someone putting all the pieces together.
I didn't speak until we were completely underneath the dock in the cool shade. "Look familiar?" I asked her and finally glanced back to look at her. I swore I saw a small smile tug at her lips for a second, but it faded as I faced her.
"Ha ha, Hemmings. Cute. What kind of joke are you trying to play on me?" She scrunched up her nose at me in disgust. She was completely missing the point here. "Are you trying to torment me by bringing me to the place we had sex just to remind me I'm one of the hundreds of others!?"
"Hal!" I shouted with much offense taken. "I don't have sex with hundreds of girls! What kind of person do you think I am?"
Her eyes cast to the ground and she kicked the sand around with her feet. "I guess I don't know anymore..." She finally answered.
"Come here," I motioned and she joined me as I walked father away from the waves under the dock and sat down in the sand. "Look," I started, my heart beating fast. "This place is really special to me..."
Her eyes scanned my face and she pursed her lips. "And why is that, Luke Hemmings?" She cocked her head. I watched her grab a handful of sand and let it run through her fingers before I decided to respond.
"Because it is the place I lost my virginity..." I gulped afraid of her response.
"You took Aleisha here, too?" Hal spat as she continued to play with the sand. I shook my head and bit my lip. Why was this so hard?
"No, Hal. Aleisha and I never had sex..." It was embarrassing to admit because I had been with Aleisha for a very long time. But it had never came to that point with us because we simply just did not click like...like Hal and I had.
"You... brought Talia here?" Hal smirked raising her pierced eyebrow. By now I knew she was just trying to mess with me.
I took a deep sigh. "No, Hal. I did not bring Talia here. I have brought no one here but you!!"
Hal stopped poking at the sand and looked up at me slowly. "...Luke... wait, are you serious? You lost your virginity to... me?" She breathed, blinking rapidly.
I nodded with a neutral expression. "Yes," I said to confirm my confession. Her mouth hung slightly open in shock and I waited for her to say something else because I had nothing left to say at the moment.
"I didn't know you were... I just thought..." She trailed off in thought as she watched the waves. "...I'm sorry..."
"Hey," I smiled because her apology had seemed sincere enough for me to be able to let it slide. "It's okay."
"Why me, Luke?" Hal piped, still in a trance watching the waves.
"Why you? Because it's you..." I said but it had sounded stupid.
"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?" She tossed herself backwards into the sand so that she was laying in it. She was going to get sand all in her hair and clothes but I knew her well enough to know that she wasn't the type of girl to care about things like that.
I laid back beside her in the sand. I guess I didn't care if I got all sandy either. "Hal, you're the perfect girl," I began.
I could almost feel her rolling her eyes. "Nobody's perfect, Lucas. Especially me. I'm looking for an actual, believable reason from you here."
"Okay, here's one." I started. "Day one, I met you. You were absolutely awful. Completely rude over the stupidest thing. To this day I can't chew gum without being paranoid you'll pop out of somewhere and yell at me for it. Anyways... then I got to know you and I learned you were just as awful as the first day we met. But I got to learning it was because some douchebag had cheated on you. That's when I realized you weren't a bitch, you were just hurt and you were afraid of being hurt again by a boy like me. So, I had to show you I wasn't that guy. I guess it worked because we became pretty good friends. Good enough friends to make this crazy promise, right? That we'd stick by each other's side. Well, I have to admit... I wanted to be so much more than friends with you. But I knew you didn't want that. So, I decided if you were that worth it, I'd have to take the long road. And there was still that possibility we would never work, you know, even if I did take the long road. Two years later and... I guess I just saw the right opportunity to make you mine... or maybe I was tired of waiting.. Or I don't know!"
I took a breath and continued, looking straight into Hal's eyes. "And look, I know it seemed for so long that I only treated you as friend that I made mean jokes about and teased about everything under the goddamn sun. But I had to. I had to even convince myself I didn't like you in that way just so you wouldn't think I was using your heartache to my advantage. I guess it all seems kind of stupid out loud, but it's the truth."
There was a long silence until Hal spoke. "What about all the other girls you were always with?"
"A distraction," I answered. "You had found other guys to go to... I couldn't just... You know..."
"Yeah," she said quickly. "I get it."
"Sooo?" I drawled. I was expecting a better response from her than that, but then again I had just laid a lot of information on her. There was a lot for her to be taking in right now...If she didn't already know it.
"Sooo, I understand now," she blinked.
"That's it? You understand!?" I yelled. I was getting upset now that I had just poured my heart out to her and she was still trying to hold grudges against me or whatever she was doing.
"Calm down, Hemmo." She giggled, "You haven't heard my side of the story yet."
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the promise ➳ hemmings
Fanfiction| Promises are just very sincere lies. We make them thinking that we'll keep them. But in time, our motivation to keep them fades-- just like the hope and trust others had in us that they wouldn't. It's just sad to think that's what our relationship...
