Guys Our Age (Wattys2017) (UNDER CONSTRUCTION)

Chapter 49: Goodbye Means Forgetting (Hannah)

"Full on ugly tears?" Mason added.

"Actually, Dad wasn't all that bad about it." I smiled weakly, "Justin was okay too."

"You're kidding! Dad threw a hissy fit when I left." Hailey grumbled, crossing her arms as she flopped back against her seat.

"Han, Johnny boy here was telling me you guys were going to go in together and buy an apartment. Is that true or is he as full of shit as he always is?"

I shifted my gaze from the road ahead of us to Mason in back, "It's true. We're going to split the rent. Although, I'm not saying that makes him any less full of shit."

Johnny mocked us under his breath, a smirk dancing back and forth on his lips.

"If you aren't dating, then why are you buying an apartment and wanting to live together?" Hailey questioned, blinking in confusion.

"We're good friends." Johnny muttered, catching my twin's eye in the rearview.

"Good friends?" Mason licked his lips, "As in friends with benefits?"

Blush crept to my cheeks as my sister and her boyfriend watched intently from the back seat.

"Possibly." He answered honestly. I buried my face in my hands and refused to look at the three of them, afraid I may start laughing nervously. It was a tell I'd had since I was a kid; laughing obnoxiously during awkward situations.

"You guys are idiots." I eventually mumbled. I felt Mason's hand on my shoulder less than a minute later.

"But," he paused dramatically, "you love us anyway."

*

By the time we made it to UCLA, the sky had grown dark and night had fallen. Deciding it would be better to go in tomorrow morning with fresh eyes, we headed for a cheap hotel. The boys, being the macho men they believe they are, wouldn't allow the people at the front desk to separate us and we ended up stuck with a small room with two beds.

"I'm not sleeping in the same bed as him." Johnny muttered when he saw Hailey set her things on the bed I'd thrown mine onto. Mason looked as if he agreed a hundred percent with his best friend.

He clasped his hands behind his head and fell back with a sigh, "Hail can sleep with me. If Johnny can't be a good boy, then he can sleep on the floor."

I laughed, Hailey rolled her eyes, and Johnny flipped Mason off.

It took a little over an hour for us to get situated and figure out what Johnny and I would be running out to get for dinner.

"I'm good with Mickey D's." Mase grinned, nudging Hailey.

"I'm cool with that too."

Johnny threw my jacket over my shoulders on our way to the door, throwing a goofy smile over his shoulder, "No funny business while we're gone."

Hailey blushed and opened her mouth, "I said there'd be no sex in-"

"You're not in high school anymore, sis." with that, I shut the door gently behind us and left my sister and her boyfriend in our hotel room to do only God knows what while we were gone.

"You okay?" Johnny fell into step beside me, throwing his arm over my shoulder. I shrugged, forcing out a long, heavy sigh of exhaustion.

"I'm just tired." I mumbled.

"It's more than that, Hannah. Is it possible it might have something to do with this whole leaving home and going to college becoming a reality?" His blue eyes were bright with concern, right side of his mouth curled into a sad, half smile.

"Maybe." I breathed, "I wanted to leave home so bad, you know. I wanted to get away from my father, from high school, from Justin. I wanted to leave it all in the past and move on without any issues. But. . . but now I wish I'd taken a little more time to consider what my life is without any of that in it."

Johnny stayed quiet all the way to the car, his lips opening and closing as if he were trying to figure out the perfect thing to say. His arm occasionally brushed against my own as we walked, side by side, toward his truck.

"Your life is what you make of it, Han." He finally managed to answer.

Getting back into his truck and staring out the window as the dimly lit houses and streets flashed by in a blur, I saw bits and pieces of my life.

I saw my sixth birthday; the only birthday Hailey and I had celebrated separately. I saw the day I met Mason in first grade; and meeting Johnny on the basketball court in fourth. I saw the life that I'd lived before and after my mother, before and after I understood that both of my parents had let Hailey and I down.

In the deepest depths of my mind, I felt the thought of what my life could have been tickle the surface. A life that may have happened if one thing had went different.

Feeling Johnny's hand grasp mine, I snapped out of my thoughts and looked into the darkness laid out ahead of us.

Maybe you can't change the past, and there's only a few things you can do to alter the present, but in the end, it's all the choices you make in life that decide your future.

***AN****

Hope you guys enjoyed! I know Brianna's will be better, but hey, here's a filler chap to hold you over until then! 

Let us know what you thought! 

~ChasingMadness24 & BriannaVore