26

"CHASE WHAT THE hell are we doing?"

I glance over at Lila, still grinning.

"We're going on a date," I tell her. "I thought it was pretty obvious."

"No, I mean why do you have a bottle of alcohol and paper clips in your hands?"

I look down at my hands and then look back at her. "If I told you, I would have to kill you."

She blinks, "You're extremely frustrating."

I laugh, "You're extremely cute when you're mad."

She rolls her eyes, "Oh, bite me," she mutters.

"You would enjoy that," I wink at her.

She glares harder.

"Alright, alright. I cant actually tell you what these are for yet...but I will tell you that this is going to be the best date you've ever had, Matthews," I assure her.

She looks at me, "Good thing there's hardly any other ones to compare this to."

I clutch my chest, "Ouch. Have a little faith."

"The fact that I'm here is a miracle if you ask me," she retorts.

I grin at her, despite the fact that her words are meant to be mean.

A few minutes pass by while we drive in silence, and finally when we roll to a stop in front of our destination, Lila breaks it by saying. "A bookstore?"

I look up at the building once we've stepped out and it reads: THROUGH THE PAGES.

I turn back to Lila, "Come on."

She hesitates for a moment, "What about your paper clips and alcohol?"

I roll my eyes playfully, "Now you're a fan of them?"

She catches up with my long strides and shrugs, but the words die in her throat once I open the door.

I place a finger to my lips and give her my best stern look, though I don't it's very convincing at all.

Then I begin steering her away from the front desk and toward the aisles of books surrounding us.

It's only when no one is around that I lean down and whisper, "I thought maybe we could pick out a book for each other."

She blinks up at me, as if she's not sure what to say. "What?" she states dumbly.

I sigh, my breath fanning her hair. "Just take a look at the books and I don't know, pick out whatever you think would fit me, I guess."

Her brows dip, "What if I don't pick out the right thing?"

I shrug, "There is no wrong thing, Matthews. I trust you."

She nods, and I smile a little.

"Meet back here in fifteen, yeah?"

"Okay," she states, looking a little more determined. "You're on, Rhodes."

I grin, and then back out of the aisle with one last lingering look.

The moment she's out of sight though, I pick up my pace as I begin scanning through the titles of romance novels I can only hope she'll like.

It doesn't really help that there's basically a million of them.

My eyes coast over titles and author names as I slowly walk down the row of books, but it's when I see an oddly familiar one in the gothic section that I stop.

I smile to myself as I gently pick it up and and flip through the pages.

I don't even waste another second to try and find another book.

I grab it and walk back to where I asked her to meet.

When a couple of minutes pass by, and she still hasn't shown up, I make my way to the front desk and ask the clerk, "Do you have a pen?"

She hands me one and I write quickly across the page, stumbling over a few words until finally when I hand the clerk her pen back, Lila is just where I last saw her.

"Done?" I grin.

She nods, narrowing her eyes on the book in my hand, but I've diligently covered the title up.

"What's with the secrecy, Hannah Montana?" she says suspiciously.

I shake my head, "If I told you I would have to kill you."

She rolls her eyes at my statement and hands her chosen book to the clerk.

Once the clerk has nodded us off lazily we make our way back outside where Lila turns to me and hands me the book she's chosen.

Its thick, and has large pictures of many foods on the cover.

I clasp it in my hands, tucking the book I got for her in my pocket and begin flipping through the pages.

"It's a cook-book," I state.

She nods, "Yeah. Maybe you can actually make those pancakes of yours."

I look up at her, a moment passes between us and then I laugh, throwing my head back.

"Careful, Matthews. I think my smart-ass ways are rubbing off on you," I say, holding the book to my chest.

She shrugs, "Not the worst thing ever."

I gasp dramatically, "Lila from a month ago would be horrified to hear you say that."

She smiles, "It's a good thing that Lila isn't here."

"She would punch me, again."

Her laugh carries us to my car once more, and once we've situated ourselves and begin on the road again, Lila turns to me, "What's next on our to-do list?"

"Pull those paper clips out," I tell her, she does and places them in her palm. "And now we go to the park."

Her brows furrow, "The...park?"

I grin. "Yup."

"I don't understand," she says.

"That's the beauty of surprises."

"I think I drank too much," Lila hiccups.

I look at her confusedly when my vision starts to blur. I cough, "Too much what?"

Her brows furrow, "Shit. I forgot."

I rub at my eyes, then start laughing. "Me too."

Her face morphs into one of horror, "Oh my God. We're drunk. At a park. At night!"

I look around, taking in the swings and slides. "Huh."

"This was supposed to be a date," she frowns.

I hiccup again, "It is a date."

That much I'm sure of.

"I don't usually get drunk on dates," she presses her forehead against her knees, looking at me. "Do you?"

I blink, "No."

I didn't mean for us to even get drunk. Its just kind of happened I guess.

I mean we stopped by my house where I found a bottle of alcohol and decided what the hell after we finished off at the diner and then went to the library. And then we drove here.

I grab her hand, running my finger over the paper clip ring I made her.

And the one she made for me that ended being too small.

"It's the football hands," she had told me as she took another sip of the alcohol. I grinned lazily at her and said that they were vital.

She asked, "Why?" and I told her that maybe she would get it one day.

"So I'm just lucky then?" she hums bringing back to the present.

I tilt my head to the side, and lift my hand to brush a strand of hair from her face. "No. Just special."

She laughs into her palms, "Why thank you."

I grin, "You're welcome."

I lean back on my hands, head tilted up as I look at the twinkling stars in the sky. "Hey, Lila?"

I can feel her gaze on me now, but I don't look back at her. "Yeah?" she replies.

I smile secretively, "Tell me a secret."

"A secret?"

"Yeah."

She unfurls herself from her position and moves to sit by me, looking up at the stars just as I do. "Okay. When we left Arizona," she hiccups. "It wasn't just some random decision."

I don't say anything. Truth be told, I'd always wondered when she would finally tell me what really brought her here. To me.

But she had promised to never push me, so I could only promise the same.

"It started with this lie I made up—about me becoming this national music pop-star," she shakes her head, as if remembering. "I was young, but I was pretty good at lying. And I became better at it, of course."

I watch as she wipes her nose with the back of her sleeve.

"Anyway, remember my first kiss? Yeah. Well it wasn't just bad because of the braces. He'd told everyone that I had sex with him a day after, at fucking fourteen. And I guess when you're a boy, and you have any sort of power at all—anyone will be believe the stuff that comes out of your mouth," Lila grimaces, shutting her eyes closed.

"And that's exactly what happened. Rumors spread, and I would start finding notes stuffed into my locker with words like slut written on them," she laughs bitterly. "And even my own friends believed it. They started isolating me from everything," a tear slips down her cheek and I'm suddenly frozen.

"And of course no one believed me when I tried to tell the truth. I was the liar, right? I was the girl who was just another victim of a boys power," another tear slips down. "Then my parents decided to make the move when my locker was vandalized. We have family here, it made sense I guess. And I haven't gone back since."

Lila turns away from me, and for a moment I'm shocked into silence.

I don't know what I was expecting to here, but it wasn't that.

When you look at Lila, you see this quiet confident girl, with a fire in her eyes that couldn't be put out with any type of water.

But i guess when you think about it, there has to be something to build that fire.

And this is what did.

I clench my jaw in anger, for her. For having to even experience that.

I turn to look at her, my heart breaking as I see more tears slip down her cheeks, her eyes glassy as I lift her chin and stare into them.

"I don't know how to make it better, Matthews," I whisper. "But I want to. Tell me what I can do. Please."

Her brows furrow, "You don't think I'm weak? For running away?"

I shake my head quickly. "Lila. You were a kid. You can't expect to be that strong at such a young age."

She presses her forehead against mine, "It's funny. You're presence alone makes everything better, Chase."

She shuts her eyes, and I feel her eyelashes brush my cheek. And I know in this moment that we were supposed to pretend. But everything I feel for her is the realest thing I've ever experienced.

"Lila?"

She hums.

"I know you said I couldn't kiss you, but if I don't I think I might fucking die," her eyes fly open and a surprised laugh breaks out of her lips, and fuck if it doesn't make me wanna kiss her more.

"I was wondering how long it would take you for you to finally break," she admits.

"Too long, Matthews, too long," I mumble, and. then my mouth is on hers.

My hands move to her waist, and I hold her in place, feeling as her hands explore the nape of my neck.

The blanket underneath us shifts as I lay her down and crawl on top of her, my mouth never straying from hers.

She whispers my name, and I whisper hers back. Her legs shift underneath mine and I find my hand sliding up the length of her shirt, feeling the skin underneath.

"Lila," I mumble, kissing down her neck.

"Chase," she replies as she shivers.

My hands move to her hips, and I squeeze there as her own move to my hair, connecting our lips again.

Its only when I pull back to catch my breath that I whisper, "I want you to know, that I could watch you talk for hours and never be bored," I plant a kiss on her forehead. "I could listen to you complain about anything and still want to be right next to you," I kiss her eyelids as they flutter shut. "And nothing you say could ever change that, Matthews. You're my favorite person, okay?"

I kiss her lips one last time.

She opens her eyes and looks at me, "I was right. You're a very bad idea, Chase Rhodes," she laughs. "But I knew that from the second I met you."

I roll onto my back and place my jacket on top of her, moving closer. "Glad to be of service."

She whacks my arm, "You're car is pretty great too. And your kissing."

"So that was a ten out of ten, then?" I prompt, gazing at her.

"I don't know," she grins, and I count it as number forty-eight. "Let's try again and see."

I oblige.

"Congratulations Chase. That was a ten out of ten," she smiles at me.

I smile back. "Damn right it was."

She laughs, "Shut up."

"Will you kiss me again if I do?"

She thinks for a moment, "That depends."

"On?"

"What will happen if we kiss each other? What does it mean?"

I pause, looking at her. "What do you want it to mean?"

She shrugs, "I don't know."

"Me either," I sigh, though I know it's the complete truth.

I think I've always known what it meant.

But still, that doesn't mean Lila would want the same, and I would never trick her into dating me. That's beyond pathetic.

So I give her a small smile, "Why don't we just go with the flow. You did tell me you could be easygoing when you wanted to be."

She cringes, "I was probably lying."

I laugh, "Probably."

But she gives me a barely-there smile, and I suddenly remember something.

I reach into the paper bag of random things we've collected during the day and I hand her the book.

She raises a brow at me, "So now I get to see it?"

"Yup," I reply.

"You forgot about it didn't you?" she says knowingly.

I still grin, "Yup."

She sighs but turns her attention back to it, and opens the page to the dedication.

And I simply watch as she reads.

Matthews...