"What?" Aria shouted.

"You made out with him?" Spencer shouted too.

"Really?" Emily followed, raising her eyebrows.

"Yes, I did." Hanna quietly replied, nodding.

The four where in Hanna's bedroom, and she has told them about what happened that night.

"I broke that Travis thing, then I went to Caleb, so we kissed, we made out, we said 'I love you', and he also walked me home. But we're not back together, that's all." Hanna continued.

Spencer sighed.

"So... You guys are what now?" she asked, perplexed.

"Well, we... Uhm... I don't know actually. But that's true, I love him. I haven't already forgiven him, though. Maybe I just need some time in the friend zone with him, just to give him a chance to make up things..." Hanna replied, shrugging.

"Friend zone? Friends don't make out, Han." Emily said.

"I know, Em! Last night I just wanted to, so it happened. But a make out session doesn't mean that we're back together, that's what I wanna say." Hanna sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Okay, so... What did he say after?" Aria asked.

"He said he has missed me. And then he started to cry... Look, it was weird, I barely saw him crying since I know him." Hanna replied.

"Caleb crying?" Spencer asked.

"Yeah. So sweet, isn't it?" Hanna replied, smiling.

The three rolled their eyes at the same time, then someone knocked at the bedroom's door.

"Mom, is that you?" Hanna asked.

"It's Caleb." the voice behind the door replied.

The girls exchanged looks to each other, while Hanna jumped off her bed and started to fix her make up.

"Just a moment!" she shouted in the process.

"I guess it's time to go for us." Aria whispered.

"No, guys... Stay!" Hanna whispered back, without moving her gaze from her mirror.

"Thank you, Han, but I'm not exactly looking forward to watch you guys making out or worst right here in your bedroom, I really don't want to puke..." Spencer mumbled, crossing her arms on her chest.

Hanna rolled her eyes, then pushed her lips together to fix her lipstick, so she took a deep breath and opened the door. Caleb stood there, with his hands in the pockets of his jeans, shyly smiling.

"Hey..." he murmured.

"Hey..." she murmured back, with a small smile on her lips.

"Your mother let me in, she was leaving while I was about to ring the doorbell... Hey, guys!" Caleb greeted then, noticing Aria, Spencer and Emily behind Hanna.

"Hi." the three greeted him back.

"Do you want me to come back later? Maybe you guys are having some girl time..." he continued.

"No, it's fine. We were just leaving, don't worry." Emily smiled.

Hanna sighed as the three girls said goodbye and got out of the bedroom.

"I have the feeling I've interrupted something..." Caleb smiled.

"Don't worry, it's okay." Hanna said, letting Caleb in the room.

"Are they mad at me?" he asked, sitting on her bed.

"Sort of." she replied, shrugging, sitting next to him.

"Well, they have their reasons." he smiled.

"So... Why are you here?"

"I just wanted to see you..." he replied, searching one of her hands.

Hanna shook it off, standing up from the bed.

"Caleb, sorry... I need time before..." she started, but he cut her off.

"No, no... You're right. I'm the one who has to say sorry here." he said, biting his lip.

"Look, last night was wonderful, but... I just let myself deliver by my feelings. It's not like it's already all okay now. I want you to understand this."

"I do understand. It's okay. But.. Do you wanna go somewhere with me today? I don't know, a walk... Just to talk. I promise I won't take you by the hand, I won't come too close to you and I won't do anything that could annoy you. You're in?"

She smiled.

"Yeah, fine. Just make sure you'll keep your promises." she winked then.

"I will." Caleb nodded, placing one of his hands on his heart and raising the other signaling he was swearing.

Hanna chuckled.

"What?" Caleb asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Nothing, just... If a few months ago we had the house only for us with my mom gone, going out would have been the last thing on our mind." she replied, blushing a little.

Caleb chuckled as well.

"Look, if you want..." he started, but Hanna gave him a deadly glance.

"So, we were going, weren't we?" Caleb said then, smirking.

"Yeah, we definitely were." Hanna replied, rolling her eyes.


Caleb took Hanna to the Rosewood Playground. There wasn't anybody.

"Why are we here?" Hanna asked, even if she perfectly knew how that place was special for them.

"This place smells like us." Caleb shrugged.

Hanna smiled at his answer, then Caleb sat on one of the swings, as Hanna sat on the other.

"Seriously, when you gave me the best advice you could have ever given me, we were here. Exactly here." he continued.

"Well... You were really fuzzy that day. I knew I would have waited my pizza for the rest of my life if I didn't go searching for you." she replied, slightly smiling.

"So you went searching for me only for the pizza, huh?" he asked playfully, making a face to her.

"Definitely." she replied, pulling out her tongue at him.

"I completely realized how much you were important to me on that day. Well, I was already totally in love with you, but... I understood something that day. I understood that you were the closest person to me, I understood how much you cared of me, and... And without you, I would have never met my mom, my dad, my brothers. Hanna... I don't know where I would have gone without you. You made me the person I'm today. And I still don't know how to thank you for all of this." he continued returning serious, looking straight in her eyes.

Hanna sighed.

"I guess you've thanked me enough." she smiled then.

"I guess not, instead. I always thought I loved you so much than I couldn't do enough to show you. You've been not only my girlfriend. You've been basically everything to me. And... And then I threw you away like an idiot." he murmured, looking at the ground.

"Caleb... That's not what exactly happened. You didn't throw me away. We had, well, you had much stuff to deal with, and... And yeah, you left me."

"I could and should have found a different way to protect you instead of leaving making you believe I was cheating on you. I made a mess, that's all." he murmured.

"Yeah, well, that's definitely right. I totally agree with that."

"I should have thought that some guy could have stolen you from me..."

"You should have just told me the whole truth since the day one, Caleb. We would have avoided the Travis' stuff, the lies, the pain and all the thousand fucking tears I poured over you. And most of all, the thing that I definitely can't stand about this whole story, is the fact that it was me the one who searched for you to tell me the truth. Caleb, I find really hard going on with this doubt... Would you have ever told me the truth one day? Were you really willing to lose me drowning in your lies without doing anything to save our relationship? If I haven't searched for you in Ravenswood that day... What would have happened?"

Caleb swallowed, then licked his lips, staring at the ground.

"I thought I was protecting you. The less you knew, the more you were safe. I was losing you like this, that's true, but I was ready to that because I would have rather lost you than put you in danger. Our love was the best thing I've ever had, believe me. I thought I was enough strong to going through this without it, but I was wrong. Without you, all my world stopped. I might was enough strong to leave you, but not enough strong not to need you. I understood it late, and I became aware of my huge mistake, but... But I thought that before everything, I would have broken the curse. Only after that, I could have come back to you. In fact, that's what I did. And look, I probably wouldn't have told you about the curse if you wouldn't have found out about it. Well, I would have tried to make you clear that I wasn't cheating on you the whole time with another kind of story, but I wouldn't have told you about the curse. I don't think so." he sighed.

"Why?" Hanna asked.

"Hanna... That's an absurd story. Who would have believed me about ghosts and demons and all that dammit stuff? You're probably the person who knows me better in this whole world, regardless of our relationship, and also you found really hard to believe me when I told you, well, when I had to tell you. Why the hell would you have believed me after months, after you were thinking that I left for another girl? Makes no sense! And furthermore... That's kind of dangerous stuff." he replied, biting his lip on his last sentence.

"Yeah, I might would have found hard to believe it, but I'm sure I would have done it eventually. We've always tried to avoid lies between us, haven't we? And well, maybe making me aware of the truth would have been dangerous if the curse would have still been on, but... If you would have come back to me after have broken it, I really don't see what could have been the danger."

Caleb sighed. He thought about all the problems he had even though that damn curse was broken. That was what he meant with 'dangerous'.

"Hanna... Do we really have to discuss about the curse?" he asked then, looking her in the eyes.

"Well, that's basically the reason why you left me!" Hanna exclaimed, widening her eyes.

Caleb nodded slowly, swallowing.

"What other kind of explications do you need?" he asked.

Hanna took a deep breath.

"No more. I think we wasted a lot of breath talking about it for today, you're probably right. But... I have a feeling." she breathed out, looking in his eyes.

Caleb looked confused.

"Like what?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I don't know, actually. But when you talk to me, when you look at me, I... I find you different. You're changed. You seem still so far away... I don't know, maybe it's just a feeling."

Caleb shyly smiled. She knew him so well. She could see the darkness in his eyes, the pain in his voice.

"The curse is broken, but I still feel like a hole in my chest. I'm a bit traumatized, I guess." he replied.

"That's all?" Hanna asked, with worry in her eyes.

Caleb avoided her gaze.

Someway, he felt awkwardness.

He felt an idiot. He felt weak. He felt an half-man.

He didn't want to tell her that he became a monster during the night. He had fear that Hanna couldn't have recognized him. Because that monster persecuted by ghosts and nightmares in the night, it wasn't Caleb. It wasn't himself. That part of him, was a part that him didn't want to show to anybody. Nor to the love of his life.

"That's all." he smiled, nodding.

He was hoping that spending time with her would have helped him to slowly come back to a normal life. She could have helped him, for sure, even if she wouldn't have known how much helpful she was. She didn't need to see that dark side of him, didn't she?

But maybe, acting like this, Caleb was unconsciously restarting lying to her, hiding the truth.


A/N: I'm so so so sorry for the late... Exams' fault :( Anyway, here is it :) Well, just to clarify with the guest who left a review to the last chapter saying Ashley was OOC because she encouraged Hanna to stay with Travis... That's ABSOLUTELY NOT what I wanted to say! Look, Ashley said she was grateful to Caleb, that she has always known Hanna was still into him, AND she didn't say anything, neither a word, in favour of Travis! Absolutely! She just said to Hanna to be careful, because I know that Ashley adores Caleb and that's clear, yeah, but she saw Hanna so hurted because of him, too. I just wanted to portray Ashley like the thoughtful mom she's always been, nothing else. I didn't want to make her jumping for joy at the sight of Hanna and Caleb together just because I thought she has still some sort of fear that he could hurt her daughter again, but she absolutely wasn't repudiating Caleb... He's like her second son, isn't he? Anyway, sorry if you found her OOC, it wasn't my intention. Ooookay, that being said... What do you guys think of this chapter? Caleb's problems are coming to the surface... Pretty intense! I think there will be also a bit of Caleb/Travis in the next chap ;) I don't know when I'll update, I'm going to try my best to do it soon, though :) (is coming the next chapter of NLMG too!) ...So, thanks for every single review, I'm so happy to read your opinions so I hope you guys are going to leave one to this chapter as well :) Thanks for reading! xx -Atramea.