It was late when Hanna came back home. She had texted Caleb throughout the day alerting him that she wasn't going to be home either for lunch or for dinner, busy talking with –A stuff and everything else with the girls. They all had eaten at Spencer's after spending the whole morning in the Brew. Caleb had taken advantage of the loneliness to study, even if he had also visited Lucas at some point of the day, because the guy had called him after their meeting in the morning. Now it was ten in the evening, and Caleb was sprawled on the couch watching a boring basketball match.
That was the last night that he was going to be able to sleep in the guest room since Ashley was going to be back the next day from her business trip.
Hanna opened the front door snorting, clearly tired and probably bothered by all the talk with the girls. It wasn't like they usually talked about simply and typical teenagers troubles, anything. It was stressful, most of the times. She came in the living room and Caleb greeted her with one of his charming smiles.
"Hey." he said, nodding his head towards her.
"Hey." Hanna replied almost in a groan, climbing on the couch next to him.
"Is everything okay?" he asked concerned, moving his eyes away from the screen and turning completely to her.
"Everything's a mess, as always." she shrugged, staring absent-mindendly at the TV screen.
He remained silent for a few seconds, pursing his lips.
"Do you wanna talk about it?" he asked.
Hanna sighed and licked her lips, as he followed it with his eyes.
"Not really." she murmured in response, quickly slipping off her five inches and then lying her legs across Caleb's lap.
Caleb didn't make any more pressure, but a smile crossed his lips at the easy way in which Hanna made herself comfortable on the couch. And he couldn't help but rest his hands on her smooth legs, left exposed by the not really long dress which she was wearing that day. They watched TV for a while in those same positions, without saying anything.
"Have you eaten something?" Hanna asked after a while, turning her gaze to him.
"Yeah, I made a sandwich." he replied, rubbing his hand on one of her legs.
"And are you ready for tomorrow's tests?"
Caleb smirked.
"Of course I am." he added cockily.
Hanna made a face and then reached for the remote, switching channel without asking for permission.
"Uhm... I was watching, you know." Caleb said, as on the screen appeared an episode of Gossip Girl.
"Oh yeah? And since when you like basketball? You don't even know the difference between Lakers and Celtics." she snapped, turning up the volume.
Caleb opened his mouth to reply, but he eventually didn't. After all, she was kinda right, basketball wasn't really one of his interests. She knew him too well.
"Okay, but... Gossip Girl? Seriously? Nothing better?" he said then.
Hanna hit his knee with her left heel.
"Shut up. This is one of my favorite episodes. I watched it like seven times..." she replied quickly.
"So why are you watching it again?"
"Shut up!" Hanna snapped once again, glaring at him with a surprising seriousness in her eyes.
Caleb sighed and rolled his eyes, giving in. He stayed on the couch with Hanna's legs lazily sprawled on his lap, silent, occasionally rubbing his hands on her soft skin. It just came up naturally, spontaneously. And Hanna didn't seem bothered about that, at all. Plus, she was the one who created that situation.
Hanna needed to relax. She was tired of listening Alison trying to win back her queen-bee role, all of her lies about her kidnapping, and she was tired of –A's games too. It just felt nice to come back home and find Caleb waiting for her with his usual smile plastered on the lips, and when she had felt the need to feel his closure she hadn't stopped herself. Caleb was a nice way to end her day. She could throw away her problems and stop thinking for a while, relaxing under Caleb's familiar touch.
When the episode ended, Caleb turned to Hanna and saw her eyes lost in the screen. She was clearly not paying attention at her 'favorite episode'. Caleb sighed and gently patted his hand on her thigh.
"So... Are you gonna tell me what's wrong?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Hanna looked into his eyes and shook her head.
"Honestly? Basically everything. I tried not to think about that, but the truth is that there's still this part of me who would never have wanted Alison to come back. But now she's here and I just..." she replied, ending with a huge sigh.
Caleb sighed as well and offered a hand to her. She looked at him confused, but then she grabbed it and Caleb pulled her closer to him, making her lift from her lying position until he could envelope her tiny body into an hug. He held her and placed his chin on top of her head. She was practically sitting on his lap now.
"It's understandable, Han. She never made you feel comfortable for what I know. It's clear that her unexpected return is causing like a drop of your stabilities." he whispered.
Hanna didn't say anything but let him hug her, and it was better to be into his arms, actually.
"If you need anything, you know I'm here." he added then.
Hanna nodded briefly against his chest, and then pulled away a little to look into his eyes. Caleb gave her a small smile, and then Hanna didn't understand anything more. She just knew that she was attracted by his lips in a totally strong way, and then she kissed him like it was the last thing she could do in her life. She saw in him everything she needed at that moment, and she just let herself go, kissing him hard, without hesitation, parting his lips with her tongue and exploring his mouth. Caleb was more than surprised, but he kissed back as strong as he could, gripping her thighs as she pulled at his hair. They went on for a few minutes. Hanna didn't think about anything, while Caleb thought about everything. He thought that it felt so nice, so right, so good...and then it felt so weird, so random, so wrong. He suddenly pulled away, the taste of strawberry still into his mouth. They were both flushed and breathing heavily, and Hanna attempted to kiss him again, but he gently placed two of his fingers aganist her lips.
"Wait..." he panted, biting his bottom lip.
Hanna looked at him confused, as he took a deep breath and continued.
"We can't keep doing this, Han."
"What do you mean?"
"I can't keep being here, so close to you, kissing you randomly knowing that you're not ready to take me back yet. It's wrong. You need space and time, and I think that acting like this, well... We're just messing with your thoughts, and I don't want you to be confused about me. We shouldn't play with our own feelings. I want you to trust me again, I don't want you to think that I'm just having fun with you. I shouldn't have accepted to stay in your basement, I knew it was a bad idea from the first day."
Hanna moved away from his lap and looked at him, more confused than before.
"Caleb... I don't get it." she murmured.
"Look, I could have acted like the cocky guy I once was and just take advantage of you and your instincts towards me, but I don't want to. I don't want you to do things that you're gonna regret. I want you to be sure, I want you to kiss me and be with me only when you're ready to give us another try. Last night was wonderful, and this was wonderful too, but... But I thought about what happened, today, and... And I feel like we're doing the wrong thing, Hanna. I'm willing to wait for you, okay? And I will. The thing is that I don't want to play any games with you. The time I spent away from here made me realize how much you're important to me, and I'm telling you this right because of that. We should take our distances until you make up your mind."
Hanna looked at him and then sighed deeply, moving her gaze away.
"I'm pretty sure you kissed me last night, or am I wrong? What the fuck is your problem, Caleb?" she snapped then, suddenly.
"Maybe is the fact that I... I-I love you."
Hanna returned to look into his eyes and swallowed hard. There were some seconds of silence before Caleb broke it again.
"Today I saw Lucas. I mean, after this morning at the Brew. I spoke to him and he said I can stay at his place for a while."
Hanna furrowed her eyebrows and turned to him.
"What?" she asked.
"I can't stay here, Han... And I told you why. I'll go crazy if we're gonna keep doing this, and I'm not sure if I can avoid it."
"You can stay until you'll find a place on your own. You don't need to go somewhere else right now. You know you can stay here as long as you need to, Caleb."
Caleb sighed and rubbed the palms of his hands against his own thighs.
"Again, I don't think that's a good idea."
Hanna laughed sarcastically.
"How funny. You kissed me and teased me and everything, and now you gave me an ultimatum. Like... I haven't been able to take you back yet, so, since you're tired of waiting, you just leave and go somewhere else. Yeah, seems really good. And then what? I'll give you a ring saying 'Hey, Caleb! I'm ready! Come over and let's have make up sex!'? Seriously?" she snapped, shaking her head at him.
Caleb sighed and looked down.
"I think that having me away will help you to clear your ideas." he murmured softly.
"Don't you think you've already been away from me for enough time?"
That made him feel Caleb like a total douchebag.
"I'm sorry, Hanna. But, really, I think—" he started, but Hanna harshly cut him off.
"Look, stop. I got it. You could have just told me that you weren't interested."
She got up but Caleb grabbed her by the arm.
"You really think that? Then why did I come back here in Rosewood? Who do I have here? My family? No. My friends? No. I have you, Hanna. I love you. It's always been you. I just care too much about you to risk that you're gonna be hurt by me... Again." he said earnestly.
"Well, it doesn't look like you love me if while we're making out you stop to tell me that you're going to move out."
"What about cuddling with you to make you sleep at night? What about watching Gossip Lame Girl with you while rubbing your legs trying to make you relax? What about... What about everything we've been through? I never stopped loving you, Hanna. Look into my eyes and tell me that I'm lying now."
Hanna bit hard on her lower lip amd stared at him intensely. She didn't understand him, but she could tell he was honest. Maybe he was really doing that for her.
"Well... Okay, I believe you. But... I don't agree with you. I think that your closure is what is helping me to make up my mind, so... Even if I'm still too scared to make us a thing again, well... I'm asking you to stay. I don't want to take any distance, okay? I know you're not playing with me. I know you. So... Can you just do what you want to do without worrying that much about me? Can we just live everything as it comes?" she stated slowly.
Caleb couldn't help but smile sofly.
"You won't change your mind, will you?" he shrugged.
"So..." Hanna whispered, sitting back on his lap, straddling him.
Caleb swallowed as Hanna kissed down his jawline.
"Hanna... Are you su—" he tried to say, but Hanna shut him up planting a kiss on his lips.
"Stop asking. And stop thinking." she added, rubbing the tip of her nose against his before kissing him again.
It was so much more eager than the previous kisses, and Hanna's hands went immediately to unbotton his shirt. She needed him, that night. But as soon as Caleb started letting his hand roam on her curves too, finally convinced, the front door opened suddenly. Both of them, luckily, heard that and immediately recomposed themselves, before Ashley Marin entered the living room, finding Hanna and Caleb sat next to each other on the couch with the TV playing the nth episode of Gossip Girl.
"Mom? I thought you were gonna come back tomorrow..." Hanna asked, standing up awkwardly.
Ashley pulled her into a tight hug.
"Honey, are you okay? Did the tornado scare you? Oh my God, I was so afraid..." she said, holding her.
Caleb stood up, shoving his hands on the pockets of his jeans as Hanna reassured her mother.
"Caleb... Long time no see, huh?" Ashley said then, slowly pulling away from the hug.
Caleb motioned a shy smile and nodded towards her.
"Yeah, yeah... Nice to see you again, Ashley." he murmured.
"Same here." Ashley replied, smiling.
There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, before Hanna spoke again.
"Caleb had dinner here. I had to help him to study, he has some make-up tests tomorrow to come back to school."
Ashley nodded, looking from Hanna to Caleb, slowly.
"So I guess you're back for good, Caleb?" she asked then.
Caleb took a deep breath and then nodded.
"Yes." he said, making another little smile.
Ashley nodded again.
"Well... They've let us come home earlier, so I took the first flight. Now I'm totally exhausted, though. I think I'll go to bed. Do you guys mind?" she said then.
"Of course not. I'm going home soon too." Caleb shrugged.
Hanna nodded next to him.
Ashley smiled with the corner of her mouth like she knew that they weren't telling her the truth, but she pretended to believe them. Honestly, she was happy to find Caleb home with Hanna instead of Travis.
"Goodnight guys." she concluded, heading upstairs.
Hanna and Caleb replied to her goodnight and then waited for her to close the bedroom door before speaking again.
"Holy crap." Hanna growled under her breath.
"Is there any risk for her to get in the guest room? There's my stuff all around the room and the bed is like a mess." Caleb asked.
"She never goes there if there aren't guests. And she thinks there are no guests, so... No, there's no risk. It's not like she goes to check... She just cleaned the room sometimes, but she doesn't do it at this time of the day."
Caleb let out a deep breath and nodded slightly.
"I'd better go to the basement now. And when she'll be out tomorrow, I'll recollect all my stuff from the guest room." he added.
"I'll think about it, don't worry. She doesn't have work tomorrow because she was supposed to be still away, but we have school. I know her timing, I'll fix everything."
"Okay." Caleb agreed.
"Okay." Hanna repeated, smiling.
She came closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing his lips gently. Caleb, then, looked down at her and smiled back.
"Goodnight, princess." he whispered.
"Goodnight." she replied.
And then, she pulled away, letting Caleb go down to the basement. She went upstairs glad that her mother was already in her room, and she slipped into bed.
She didn't think about Alison or –A. Now the only thought was Caleb.
Her mobile was on the nightstand.
She had an idea.
She smirked.
A/N: Pretty intense chapter :) Hope y'all enjoyed it. And I hope you guys could understand Caleb's reasons against the kiss, even if he eventually gave in :P Love is love ;) Thank you to all of you who reviewed last time. Glad you liked Caleb+Lucas scene. Let me know if you enjoyed this chapter as well :) This story's almost over btw, along with "The Mall" (the epilogue of that is almost ready) :) I'll try new storylines then ;) So guys... Wish you an amazing and happy new year! May love be always on your way! Happy 2015! Love you! xx -Atramea.