A/N:-
so hey people of the universe! i just wanted to say a brief thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you (wait, that wasn't brief) for getting Love Happens to 1.22 k reads, one hundred and sixty votes and more than two hundred and fifty comments! like whoaaahhh! I seriously love all of you guys and each one of your inline comments makes my day. The past few weeks have been downright dreadful and I've been miserable, and the only thing that makes me grin are your comments. So feel free to comment whatever shit you'd like to, and yeah :D
I stayed up till 2 am writing this chapter. All I had next to me was chocolate and Ed Sheeran playing on repeat ♥
kay. happy reading!
-x-
The silence was so painful, that I wanted to cry.
I hated him for being such a lamehead. Did he have to propose his love in that way? That horrifyingly awkwardly mean and terrible way? He just blurted it out. And we hardly even knew each other.
I pressed my hands into my face, as Cage continued to drive, him not looking at me and me not even turning my head towards him.
As we continued to drive on, I suddenly realized that I had no idea where we were going. But this time, I couldn't even find the guts to ask him.
"Back to the resort," Cage spoke, his voice hard- but it was like he read my mind. I peered at him through my fingers.
"I thought we were lost." My voice sounded small and like a little girl's. He didn't even glance at me, as he responded. "We are lost. But I don't exactly want to spend the entire day driving you around. So I've found a way to get back to the resort."
Ouch.
I raised my eyebrows, stung by his comment. Okay, it wasn't that mean, I stay stuff like that all the time to Cage. But I guess I deserved it.
"Um... Thanks?" I replied, trying not to let the fact that his words hurt me way more than they were supposed to. So what was up with Cage and all his bipolarness? One minute, he'll be forcing me to Burger King, the next minute he'd be punching some guy up because that guy was being a pervert, the next minute he'd be jealous, and the minute after that he'd be declaring his love for me. And then, you have him being a cold, cold jerk.
Cage's eyes were still on the road, not once meeting mine. I hated this. Couldn't it be normal again? What an eventful day.
That was when I glanced at the dashboard to see that it was already six pm. Wait, what?! SIX PM?! IT WAS SIX'O'CLOCK ALREADY?! WHAAAT?
"When are we going to be back at the resort?" I asked Cage, trying to sound light and cheerful like nothing ever happened.
"When we go back."
It took me a minute to register his lame sarcastic comment, and I rolled my eyes. "Stop it, Cage."
"Stop what?" that was when he finally looked at me, the frown still on his face, the coldness in his eyes.
"Stop being so mean!" I protested.
"I'm the mean one? Then, what are you?" his voice dripped with scorn, annoying me.
"All I know is that I'm not this bipolar idiot who randomly blurts out stuff that change his entire demeanor and also change my entire demeanor and basically ruins the whole freaking thing, the thing that we had, the thing that we may still have and-"
"Kit?"
I glanced up at him. "What?"
"Shut up."
He wasn't smiling- but the coldness on his face had eased a little. I scowled at him. "I hate you."
That wasn't the right thing to say at that moment, apparently. He glared at me, suddenly furious by those three words. "You suck," he hissed. Whoa, there.
"Really?! You're the suckier one here."
"I'm not."
"You are too!"
"No, I'm not!"
"Yeah, you are."
"Oh my god, Kirstin, stop being such a kid!"
"Well, at least I'm not a pathetic loser!"
"Is that the best you can do?"
"Get a life, Cage."
"You are my life."
I almost had a whiplash as I turned to look at him. And then, there was a pang in my chest as I realized that he was smirking. That old, boyyish, good-old Cagish smirk. Talk about being so creepily bipolar.
"Why are you smiling?" I asked him, suddenly a little freaked out by him. He rolled his eyes, slightly annoyed. "I'm not smiling- I'm smirking, Kit. Learn the difference."
"So... you're not mad?"
"Mad about the fact that you're in denial?" he glanced at me, the smile fading. "Kind of."
"Denial?"
"Yeah."
"Cage..." I wanted to smack him on the head. Of course, the narcissistic, egoistic side of him still existed. Where had I expected it to go?
"I'm... not in denial, Cage," I rolled my eyes, laughing but it sounded like I was just trying to convince myself.
He nodded. "Suuure."
I sighed. "Forget it. Are we still heading back to the resort?"
"I never changed my mind."
I sighed. "Look, Cage..."
"Don't."
"Don't what?"
"Don't give me the shitty apology where you go Its not you, its me and all the other crap about how you don't return my feelings."
"Fine," I mumbled. "But we're still friends, right?"
Cage rolled his eyes with an exasperated sigh as the car slowed down due to traffic. "Girls. They just can't make up their minds."
"So you don't hate me?"
Cage sighed again, drumming his fingers around the wheel. "I could never hate you, Kit."
Something in me fluttered. "You know, you're actually a pretty cool dude. You don't suck."
Cage smiled a little more. "I've changed my mind. We're not going back to the resort. I mean, we never were lost, I just wanted to spend more time with you. I don't mind spending time with you now."
"As friends?" I asked, as if I wanted to make sure of something. He rolled his eyes. "As whatever."
"Okay," I grinned. "Where to?"
"It's not much. But you'll see."
-x-
Three and a half hours and a stop at McDonalds later, we were still in the car, me almost dozing off in the car seat. The night was pitch black, and the roads were quiet. We weren't speaking too much, but the soft music from the radio played in the background.
The car suddenly came to a halt. "Kit? Wakey. We're here."
Which eighteen year old boy you know says wakey?
I sat up in my seat, rubbing my eyes. "Where are we?"
"You'll see," Cage said with a twinkle in his eye. He slipped out of the car, and I opened the car door and got out. It was so dark, that all I could make out was we were in some sort of parking lot. Cage pulled a bundle of blankets from the back of the car, and a basket.
"Need a hand?" I asked, as I watched him struggle to hold everything. "Nope," he responded, finally locking the car and walking towards me.
"Follow me," he said, as he started to walk towards a random path. I bounded after him, suddenly excited. We walked and walked through what seemed like a passage way surrounded by thick trees. It was dark but not chilly, and I could hear the soft chirping of crickets.
And then, suddenly we were walking into a large plain. Just miles and miles of grass spread in front of us and in the distance I could see a few tents and campers. The only light that illuminated the area was from the stars, the blanket of diamonds in the sky made my heart skip a beat.
"Holy shit, Cage," I breathed excitedly, grabbing his arm. He inhaled quickly when I touched him and when I turned to look at him, I saw him staring at me. His shiny blue eyes had a strange dazed look in them as he watched me, biting his lip slowly.
I felt myself blush.
"Like the place?" He smiled softly. I realized I still had my hand on his arm. "It's beautiful," I whispered, staring at the gorgeous sparkling white diamonds laid out above us. "I love it."
"I'm glad," Cage said, spreading out the thick blankets onto the grass. He propped the pillows into place and removed two separate blankets from the basket.
"I thought that basket had food in it," I said, disappointed. He smirked.
"I could never forget, babe," he said with a wink before handing me a large bar of kitkat. I grinned before falling back onto the rugs. I sighed in comfort, laying down on my back, watching the sky. He fell down onto the rugs next to me, with a happy, goofy smile on his face.
"So," he spoke as I bit into my Kitkat. "Why do you hate love?"
I chewed slower. "I don't hate it. I'm incapable of loving."
Cage scoffed. "Bullshit. You're scared of it."
"What would you know?" I scowled.
"Have you ever fallen in love before?" He pressed on. I shot him a look. "Have you?" I countered- but then regretted it. He breathed slowly, deep in thought. "Yes."
"Oh," I murmured, my heart heavy. "Who's the lucky girl?"
Please say it's me, please say it's me, please say it's me...
"Her name's Maya."
"Oh."
"She's so beautiful. And hot. Black hair, tanned skin, hazel eyes. She's the most popular girl in highschool."
The girl who he described, seemed to be the utter opposite of what I was. I continued to eat my Kitkat.
"How did you meet?"
"Well, this was last year, so we were juniors. I broke my arm and I couldn't come to school for a month. When I came back, she lend me her notes. And that's how we started to talk."
"Lemme guess," I cut in, ignoring the stab in my chest. "She's the cheerleading captain."
"How do you know?" Cage seemed atonished. I shrugged. "Guessed."
"Well, yeah, she's head cheerleader. And I started to really like her after some time, and when I asked her out, she said yes. She was perfect in every way, and I was completely in love."
Oh.
"But then we started to... have problems. You know? All relationships have problems. But one day, I caught her cheating on me."
"Ouch," I watched how Cage's face scrunch up as he recalled the memory.
"And then we broke up."
"You still believe in love after that?" I couldn't help but ask him that.
He sighed. "When I was sixteen, I was a rebel. You won't believe it, but I was really badass and troublesome. Julia couldn't handle me and I was setting a bad example for Alesta-"
"Whoah, slow down," I interrupted. "Who are these people?"
"Julia's my aunt and Alesta's my annoying twelve year old sister," he explained. "So, Julia wanted to send me off to delinquent school and something in me snapped. I went mad, doing drugs and smoking- but Maya changed me. I changed for her, for love. She basically saved my life."
"She cheated on you," I said, shaking my head. "Doesn't that hurt?"
"It hurts a lot. I can't even look at her anymore," Cage murmured- but shut up after that.
I sighed. "Was Maya the ex you saw in the airport terminal? Why were you so surprised to see her?"
"Shortly after we broke up, she moved to L.A. I didn't know she'd be back so soon."
"Cage, I still can't imagine you as a delinquent," I smirked, my eyes travelling from star to star, connecting them together in my mind. "You're always so happy. So cheerful. So optimistic and good."
"I never was like that before I met her."
I inhaled slower. "...really?"
"Yeah."
There was silence as we both lay there, staring at the stars.
"I shouldn't have told you I liked you in that way. I'm sorry about that, I messed up. It was a mistake."
"It's okay," I smiled, ignoring the hurt I felt when he said mistake.
"But... I think this brought us closer."
"Kit," Cage suddenly said, his tone urgent as he turned to his side to meet my eyes. "Are you afraid of loving me?"
I sucked in my breath. "Um, haha? I don't know. I can't fall in love."
"You're so stubborn," he whispered. "But you'll fall for me one day."
"Never," I smiled cheekily.
He laughed softly. "Don't worry, I'll make you fall. Goodnight, Kitteh."
And I watched him gently close his eyes, slipping into a slumber. And I never felt more infinite.
-x-