I ENDED the call, slipping my phone in my pocket, and tugged lightly on her hand to let her stand properly on the sidewalk. She still looked shock, staring at me as if I was the most surprising thing she'd seen all day. Not to sound boastful or anything, I probably was.
A bead of swear started to collect on my hand. Truth be told, I was scared.
This girl, who had I become quite enamored with since the moment she texted me, was the only thing keeping me sane in this whole acting business. Ever since Dunkirk exploded into this whole amazing mess, I was afraid of the media overcoming me, all this attention consuming me. But when Hanna started talking more, feeding me little, random things about her life, someone so normal and didn't have over a million people knowing their name, she had become an anchor. My anchor to the real world, where everything maybe wasn't nice, but simple.
So standing so close to her, revealing who I really was, well, I was afraid of scaring her away. After all, she would either act in two ways: become completely overjoyed of meeting me, or being so shocker she refused to talk to me. From the look on her face, I was betting on the latter.
"Hanna?"I asked softly, my forehead creasing.
I must've managed to get her moving again, she yanked her hand out of mine. My heart sank.
"You!"she managed to sputter, stumbling backwards like her legs weren't working fine.
Her horrified expression, the way she'd backed away, she clearly wasn't pleased. A breeze flew by, blowing a loose strand of her hair on her face. She was beautiful.
I did realise, in that moment, I do not want to lose her.
"Hanna,"I pleaded,"Say something?"
She blinked twice, managing to open her mouth, but nothing came out. She closed it.
After a moment, I was ready to break the silence.
"Hanna, please-"
"You?! This whole time?! Not cool, man! I've been talking about how cute you were this whole time and complaining about my cousin to you?"she ranted. "I do not like being lied to, Whitehead. Even if it's from you. You have one chance to answer."
I closed my eyes as she asked the inevitable question.
"Why?"
Her eyes cut into mine, demanding an explanation, looking hurt and devastated, like she's relieving a painful memory she promised herself she won't ever dwell on. And possibly screwing it up more, I opened my eyes and said, "This is exactly why I didn't. I was scared you would act this way and I didn't want to scare you off.
"Because, you see, when someone accidentally texted me asking for a taxi, I was quite wasted and wasn't thinking right. Laughing, I decided to humor you. This whole thing..."I waved my hand at myself. "It's not really...me. I was Tommy for a movie, but now, I'm not entirely sure where I am. But you, you made me feel like I was actually a bit more worth something, not just a face of a movie alongside a person who's been more famous. So I want to say....
"Thank you for everything, and I really, really hope you'll forgive me."
I sighed, waiting for her verdict. She was breathing heavily, her lip trembling, and now I was generally feeling like a good kick to my ass wouldn't hurt as much as seeing her like this.
Her eyes met mine, and for a moment, I hoped she would accept my apology and we could be friends...possibly more.
But then something changed - she made a choice, I would later realise. But all I remembered from that moment was my own heart being crushed to pieces.
Because she mumbled, "I-I'm sorry."and walked off, acting like nothing had happened.
And I watched her go.
-
Considering half of this written at school, it's pretty weird. But I do hope you like it and I want to assure you that this is not the end, unlike Abbie's story. There will be a next part, and more, because y'all are awesome and a friend of mine will kill me if I make this another sad ending.