Haunted

Chapter 58

Songs for this chapter

Don't Let Me Go - Harry Styles

The Way - Ariana Grande ft. Mac Miller

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I've never been to this park before", Lucy says as she looks around. "It's beautiful."

"I knew you'd like it", I smile.

I tried to make the best out of this date, even though I don't wanna be here. I owe it to Steven, and Lucy is actually nice.

"It's quite empty though..", Lucy trails off. I don't even wanna know what she's thinking.

"Probably because it's so small", I shrug and sit down on a park bench. She sits down next to me, maybe a little bit too closely.

"When I was little, me and my dad used to go to a park near our house all the time but then we moved away. I'm not from here, you know?", Lucy tells me.

"Me neither", I say and she laughs. "Oh really, Luke? No one would've guessed", she grins and I smile.

Sounds like something Ariana would say.

God. I need to get her out of my fucking head.

I haven't talked to her in nearly two weeks - I haven't seen her in nearly two weeks.

"Where are you from?", I ask. "Just a small town, not far away from here. We still go there from time to time", she says and looks at the small lake in front of us.

"Look!", she suddenly squeals. "Ducks!"

I laugh and we watch them for a few minutes. After a while a little girl comes over and feeds them with bread. As she notices us watching her, she sticks out her tongue at us and runs away.

"Oh wow", Lucy giggles. "How nice. That looked cute though."

Not as cute as Ariana.

I nod and she leans her head onto my shoulder. Oh joy.

"I'm glad you asked me to come here with you. I never would've expected you to ask me out."

I laugh nervously but she doesn't seem to notice how awkward this is for me.

Calum is right. I'm an asshole for doing this. Do I really need to hurt another person?

He hasn't talked to me since his party but I can't blame him. He's always been pretty protective over Ariana - not as protective as me but still.

"Why wouldn't I take you out?", I ask and she looks up at me.

"I don't know. You had such a pretty girlfriend and..", she stops as she feels me tensing up. "Did I say something wrong?", she asks and I gulp but shake my head.

"I did. Oh my god, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry", I fake a smile. "Let's not talk about her. This is our date."

The truth is I could go on talking about her forever but that wouldn't be right.

"You deserve better anyway", Lucy says. "Sounds like she left you and if she really did she wasn't good enough for you."

What the fuck did she say?

"You know nothing about her or our relationship", I say harshly.

Lucy's eyes widen and she looks like she's about to start crying but I don't care. No one says that about Ariana.

"I.. I'm sorry", she stutters. "This was a mistake. You're not over her."

Of course I'm not, I love her!

"Listen, Lucy", I sigh. "I'm sorry. I don't know, I just.. she's..", I can't find the words to explain everything that's going on.

"I can help you get over her", Lucy suggests and I look at her surprised. "What do you mean?"

She raises her eyebrows as if she wants to say "Are you serious?"

Oh. Not good. Definitely not good.

"Come here", she says and pulls me a little bit closer. What's going on?

She wraps her arms around my neck and I feel my eyes widen. "I'm sure you'll get over her soon", she mumbles into my ear.

"Maybe I don't wanna get over her", I say quietly and she pulls away instantly.

"Oh", she says and stands up. "I think I should leave. This doesn't make sense anymore."

"No, wait! Sorry", I say quickly. Yes, I want her to leave but I don't want to upset her.

"Luke, you still like her", she frowns.

Wrong. I love her.

"But..", I begin, not sure what I even wanna say. "But what?"

"Can't you stay?" Wow, Luke. This question definitely saved the date.

"Why would I?", she sighs. "I have the feeling you don't even wanna be here with me."

I knew I'm a bad actor.

"That's not true!", I quickly say. If I upset her Steven's gonna kill me.

"Proof it", she demands and crosses her arms in front of her chest.

"I.. Uh..", I begin and look around nervously. "Here", I say and grab a little flower. "That's for you."

I couldn't think of a better thing to do.

She looks at me confused, then she starts laughing. "You're the cutest", she giggles and takes the flower.

"It's as pretty as you", I say and mean it. The flower isn't ugly, it really is pretty, but nothing special. Exactly what Lucy is. She's not Ariana after all.

"Oh my god", she blushes. "Thank you."

Seems like she doesn't see the same in the little flower as I do.

"You're welcome", I mumble and look at my feet. This feels so wrong.

"Don't worry, you made me stay", Lucy says, I can nearly hear her smile.

Great. Why am I on a date with someone else than Ariana again? Because I'm an idiot, that's why.

I look up at her again and give her a little smile, which makes her hug me tightly.

Her hugs are so different to Ariana's. I wish she wasn't the one to hug me, I wish Ariana was here.

"Aren't you going to hug me back?", Lucy giggles and I notice my arms are hanging loosely.

"Oh, sure", I mumble and wrap my arms around her waist.

I actually feel like crying right now, remembering how I used to do this with Ariana all the time.

She was my girlfriend and best friend at the same time and I fucked everything up. And just days after she left me Lucy's here in my arms, where Ariana actually should be.

This hug has been lasting forever, I wanna pull away but maybe it'd annoy or upset her.

I'm not gonna hurt her.. I can't.

Just when I decide it's time to end this awkward situation, I hear an all too familiar voice behind me, causing me to freeze.

"Didn't take you long to get over me, huh?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for reading!

No one likes or reads this story anymore anyway so I decided to cut the author's notes short

Bye xxx