drowning | ruel van dijk

five

KATE

"those are the best kind of stories," ruel says.

maybe that's true, but that doesn't mean i have to share them.

i know, i know. i'm not an open book. but ruel will just have to understand that. i don't just open my pages for everyone to read.

only one person is able to read, and that is meg.

well, was meg...

she shared a chapter of my life that i wanted to keep secret. a chapter that only her and i were supposed to know. honestly, i wasn't even going to share it with meg, but things happened.

i thought i could trust her.

now my whole school knows my story.

i don't need another boy to look at me weird; like i did something wrong.

i didn't do anything wrong. he did.

him.

god i wish i could skim past that chapter of my life. but it's already been written in ink.

permanent ink.

i finally decide to say something to ruel, since he's been looking at me patiently, waiting for a response.

"hey, i really liked hanging out, but could we just forget about my whole long-story thing? i... i don't want to talk about it yet."

the less people who know about it, the better.

"ya, sure. we're only strangers," ruel replies cooly.

he gets up from the sand and i take a better moment to realize how tall he is. my head barely reaches his shoulders.

not gonna lie, it's kinda hot.

but no.

i cant do this to myself again.

"so this is goodbye?" i say half a question half a statement.

"it doesn't have to be..." ruel says the same way back.

he smiles and makes forget about everything that's ever gone wrong in my past.

in fact, i feel more comfortable with a stranger who knows nothing about me, than my "best friend" meg who i've known since primary school.

"your right. it's not," i decide.

ruel smiles wider and runs his hand through his curtains.

in an awkward effort to not look at ruel, i go to pull out my phone to check the time, but remember that meg made me leave it at my house. she wanted us to be "cleansed" as she called it.

fuck meg.

ruel notices my situation and i try to explain.

"shit, i was going to check the time but left my phone at home and... " i start to say.

"hey can i have your number," ruel cuts me off, searching my face.

"oh, wow ok... um sure. but i still don't have my phone." i says, semi shocked he asked me outright. not sure if was a good first move, but it's chill.

i can get over my past.

right?

"here, type it in," ruel states, handing me his phone.

i make a new contact and contemplate putting a silly emoji next to my name, but i decide against it.

i'll let that choice be up to ruel.

he tells me his number, and i mentally remind myself to remember it.

i hand him back his phone, we say our "goodbyes" and i walk back to where i had set up my things on the beach.

when i get there i see meg.

great.

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hello, new readers! let me introduce myself. my name is sarah, i'm 15, and i'm "kinda" obsessed with ruel. im in the middle of a busy few weeks of school so if i don't update frequently, i'm sorry. just trying to catch up on writing. see y'all next time!