𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐬 || 𝐭𝐨𝐦 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝

15. I'm Sorry

- Narrator POV -

Tom had dragged Y/N through multiple crowds of people, passing through crosswalks, slowly inching farther and farther from the school. Walking through a park they stumbled upon, they sat on the grass near a large pond. Birds were floating above the water, and little fish filled the pond. The sound of children laughing and cheering on the playground filled the air as they we're happy to be free from their day at school.

The pair had sat quietly beside each other observing their surroundings. The silence was anything but awkward. The longer one waited for the other to speak, the longer they'd be here together. Tom didn't mind.

"I don't have all day Tom." Her voice brought him out of his thoughts. This was the moment he dreaded for since the day he left her.

"First, I just want to say that, I'm sorry."

"You're forgiven."

"Y/N, I wasn't done."

"Yeah, well I am. Tom, you left years ago. Sure, it hurt that you just got up and left without telling me, or any of our friends at that." She stopped and let a sigh thinking of her word choice carefully. "But I got over it. It's fine."

"Y/N, it was so selfish of me, I should have told you. I don't want you to forgive me so easily."

Tom knew Y/N. He knew her well. He knew that she would forgive him easily. But he also knew it was part of her facade. The one she spent so long building.

"Y/N, I'm just looking out for you. Now that you're here, I have a second chance at fixing what I left broken and-"

"Did you just say I was broken?" Tom was flustered, not thinking about his word choice and how that came out terribly wrong.

"No, Y/N not you. I-I meant our friendship. Ya'know, because when I left-"

"When you left, everyone was fighting. When you left, our friends were tearing each other apart. Everyone started to have this internal war with each other." She finished for him.

"Yeah..." He felt bad because he knew she was right. Leaving didn't help their situation at all. It worsened it. "How are they, are they okay?"

Y/N was silent upon the memories she had before leaving her home and coming here. Her eyes started to water at the thought.

"Honestly..." She started. "They aren't. Not when I left at least." She took a deep breathe in, not wanting her tears to spill.

"When you left, everything fell apart. Nathan and Taylor went at it everyday for weeks. Kayden hates me, saying you left because of me."

"You know that's not true."

"Claire and Luke, they're having a baby."

"Wow, that's great! Didn't expect that to happen actually. I'm happy for them." Tom was surprised at the new discovery. This was the first time he was hearing about his friends in a long time.

"They broke up a few months ago." Tom's expression fell.

"Oh." He was shocked. One of his closest friends ran away from such a big responsibility life could give.

"Yeah. She isn't due till next March. Everyone back home has been trying to help her wherever they can. It must be hard for her going through this alone."

"You left at a bad time."

"She's the one who encouraged me too." Her attention was focused on her surroundings. She couldn't look at Tom. Not now at least. "She saw how everyone was. She was the one who told us all to find something, anything, that could make us feel any sense of satisfaction."

"And moving away was yours?"

"Yeah, I needed to get away. Not only that but I got transferred, so it came at a good time."

"You got transferred again?" He was now looking at her. Seeing how the sunlight bounced off her skin, making her glow.

"Yeah," She hummed. "We did something. But I took the fall." Tom started to see her eyes becoming glossy, while her breath hitched at the end of her sentence.

"Y/N, I know you're mad at me, and I'm grateful that you've given time for me to talk to you today. Even if I haven't explained my entire story, I promise, when you ask. I'll tell you everything.

"Everything?"

"Everything." She hummed in response. Her voice seemingly disappeared after unlocking the somewhat sensitive topic.

"Y/N, I just want to make it up to you." As the words left his lips, she stood up abruptly. Her feelings were running wild. She didn't want to talk to him anymore, let alone see him.

"I should go."