She walked up to his house wearily, not sure if she should be there. They weren't close, not by far, but everyone else was gone and he was the only one she could turn to. She knocked on the door twice and took a step back, shoving her hands into the pockets of her thing sweatshirt. He opened the door in a daze, his eyes adjusting to the brightness of the porch light. She offered him a small smile as a way of saying sorry for going over so late. "Hi," she said somewhat awkwardly, her voice low and shaky.
He leaned into the door frame, a look of confusion on his face as well as looking completely pissed off. "Hey." He paused, expecting her to say something more, perhaps give reason as to why she was at his house at midnight. But she didn't, instead they stood in an awkward silence before he finally took it upon himself to continue. "What are you doing here?"
She let out a sigh which turned into a sob and he stood up straight, suddenly feeling bad for acting so cold when he answered the door. "I broke up with him." He wasn't sure why she was crying if she had been responsible for the break up but he never could ignore a girl in tears. So, he ushered her into his house, placing a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.
She walked into the house she'd only been in a handful of times over the three years that she had known him and perched herself on the edge of his couch. "What happened," he asked cautiously sitting down next to her on the couch.
She shook her head, trying to dry her tears. "I don't want to talk about it." He nodded, still a little confused by her actions. He still wasn't exactly sure why she was here. Yes she had broken up with what's-his-face and looked upset but she wasn't talking. Was he just supposed to comfort her? Tell her everything would be okay and hug her? He shook his head subtly. That would be weird. He silently debated with himself for another minute before resting into his couch. He'd wait for her to open up to him or leave.
After about ten minutes of silence, she turned over to look at him, her eyes red and puffy from crying. "Can we please not just sit here in silence?"
"Well what do you suggest we do?" It looked like she was staying for some reason that was beyond him. She shrugged, no help in solving the silence. He leaned forward and grabbed the remote off the coffee table, flicking on the tv before leaning back into the couch. He noticed her leaning back into the couch as well, still looking a little stiff. He cleared his throat and she turned his head to look at him. "Do you want something to drink?" She nodded and he got up and left her for the kitchen.
Once he left, she got up from the couch, her arms firmly crossed underneath her chest. She walked around the decent sized living room, looking at the picture frames that adorned the fire place and walls. She wasn't sure why she stayed. She didn't really feel like being alone right now, even if it meant hanging out with him. She stopped in front of a particular photograph and had to stop herself from breaking down in tears again. He may have come from a dysfunctional family but at least he had one that cared. He doesn't make his presence known but she can feel him staring at her back, trying to make sense of her. "Why do people lie?"
She had turned around and was now looking at him, waiting for his response. He sighed to himself before shaking his head. "I don't know." He honestly doesn't, it's a question that has plagued his mind as well but it's a question that never seems to have an answer, or at least no answer that one can find. She nodded, accepting that he, like her, doesn't have an answer. That made her feel a little better, like maybe she wasn't as alone as she thought she was.
She was looking out the window then, as if she were waiting for someone. "Where's your mom?"
"Gone for the night. Small business dinner out of town." She nodded again. She let out a long sigh and then made her way back to the couch, more comfortable than she had been before. He took the sat next to her, handing her the bottled water he had brought for her. She gladly took it, thanking him as she did so.
After an hour and a half of watching 'Friends' reruns (her choice), the tension that had been in the room was gone. It was no longer awkward and the soft laugh that escaped her mouth proved it. They ended up sitting closer together than they had originally been, something that bothered neither of them. She just got out of a relationship and wasn't looking for a rebound and he was possibly still in love with her best friend.
Deciding to make use of her sitting on her lazy ass, she turned to him once the show reached commercial. "So, how has your summer been so far?"
He tore his eyes away from the tv, looking generally interested in the Fruity Pebbles commercial that was playing. "It's been okay I guess. Not a lot of people in town."
She nodded in agreement. "Don't I know it. With Peyton off visiting her dad I feel like I'm going crazy." He looked back at the tv, trying to purposely take his gaze off of the brunette. "How goes things with you and Peyton?" The question he'd been expecting for the past few minutes.
He shrugged, not wanting to really get into it now. "We're friends." Everyone thought he still had feelings for her. In some ways he did. He still looked out for her, he still honestly and genuinely cared about her. But it wasn't like before. He broke up with her for a reason and though he told everyone it was because he didn't want a relationship in high school, it really had to do with the fact that he'd fallen out of love with her. He glanced back at her, her eyebrow now cocked in question, urging him to keep explaining.
When the show came back on, he returned his focus back on the tv, thankful for the distraction. "Why did you really break up with her?" It was like some odd Breakfast Club moment between the two of them and he wasn't exactly sure when she had become conformable enough to dive in to his relationship issues.
"She's a little too high maintenance," he said carefully. It wasn't that she wasn't a great girlfriend but he could only rush out to save her so many times. She nodded in agreement, surprising the blonde next to her.
"But we're all a little high maintenance right?"He turned to look at her, finding an amused smile on her lips.
"Surprisingly, I don't see you as being the high maintenance type. At least not as much as Peyton." The sentence made her blush and she looked down in embarrassment. Anyone who knew her would most definatly say that she was, but then again, those people didn't really know the real her. She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear timidly and looked up to see him smiling. She gave him a questioning look and he just shook his head. "You look pretty like that."
Before she knew it, their lips were on each others, her hands curling around the back of his neck, his hands made it's way into her brown locks. When air became an issue they pulled apart and then it hit her what she had just done. "Oh my god." She looked horrified and she immediately moved to the other side of the house. Neither remember who started the kiss but she felt as though she should apologize anyway.
"Don't apologize," he said softly, answering her before the question even left her mouth.
"I shouldn't have kissed you." Her hand found it's way to her lips and laid there, as if she didn't believe what she had just done.
He shook his head. "It's okay." He was being incredibly nice and understanding about it and that alone was enough to make her stop recoiling.
"It's really not. I've been through a lot today and I just I don't know where my mind is at."
"What happened tonight," he asked softly. Tears were back in her eyes before she could even process everything that had happened at the beach.
She shook her head, forcing a small fake laugh to try and keep her tears back and her spirits up. "It was mutual. We both wanted out. Him a lot more than me."
"What'd he do?" When she had asked him why people lied, he knew exactly what went down between. He had cheated on her and it had obviously been going on for a while. He wondered if she only said it was mutual because she wasn't used to getting her heart broken.
"I don't know why I cared so much about him. He was nothing special." The tears her now running down her cheeks and she tried to brush them away but it seemed pointless. "Stupid bastard can't just be with one girl." She shouldn't have expected any less from him though. He was a player and she had known that from the beginning.
He pulled her into a hug gently, her head finding it's way to the crook of his neck and resting there. Her shoulders shook as she cried and he rubbed her back softly, not even attempting to make out her sobbing sentences. Once her tears and come to almost a complete stop, she lifted her head to look at him. "Is there something wrong with me?"
"No! Of course not! You're as close to perfect as you can be." He tucked her hair behind her ears, letting his hands rest on her shoulders. Once again, there lips were on each others except this time, when air became an issue, neither one pulled away.