Chapter 17

Anna pov-

"Help! Help!" Sab shouts from across the room. I run over to her and shake her shoulder trying to wake her up. She sits up and starts to shake as tears run down her face.

I pull her into a hug and she rests her head on my shoulder. I snake my hands under the bottom of her sweatshirt near her waist and rub my hands up and down her bare back. Her breathing starts to slow back down as she lifts her head off my shoulder and wipes her tears. She puts her head back on my shoulder and takes deep breaths.

"It's okay, it's okay," I insist, as I start to rock back and forth from one foot to the other. Sab pulls out of the hug and looks me right in the eyes.

"Thank you Anna," she says with her arms still draped over my shoulders, "I'm really sorry that I woke you up. I just keep having nightmares and they won't go away."

"Sab, there is no need for you to apologize," another tear rolled down her face. "Hey, hey, hey. I promise it's alright," I move my hands to cup both sides of her face, "You can't control them and I know that. You know that too, so there is no reason to blame yourself." She smiles at me as another tear rolls down her face and I wipe it away with my thumb. After a few minutes, I move my arms back down to her waist and pull her into another hug.

I hear Sab yawn and I pull her out of the hug and pick her up. She doesn't say anything, she just holds her arms around my neck and smiles at me. I set her down on her bed and pull the covers over her body and tuck her in, making sure she is comfortable. "Goodnight Sab," I whisper as I lean down to kiss her forehead.

"Good night Anna."

I walk over to my bed and lay down pulling my covers over my body. I want to stay awake to make sure she doesn't have another nightmare, but my eyes soon start to feel heavy and I fall asleep.

Sab pov-

I wake up and feel someone scratching my head. I look up to see Anna staring at her phone. She must have felt my head move off of her chest, because she looked down to me and smiled, "Good morning Sab. Am I a comfy pillow?" she asks.

As I sit up I realize I am straddling her hips. I can feel my face start to heat up as the silence grows longer and longer. "I-I'm sorry Anna. I woke up again, but couldn't fall back asleep. I didn't want to wake you up, you looked so peaceful sleeping there. I should have asked. I'm sor-" I get cut off by Anna.

"Sab. You. Are. Fine. There is no need to worry, I was just joking. Also, you are always welcome to come sleep next to me if you are struggling to fall asleep." Anna is so sweet and kind. I let out a sigh of relief and let my hands fall from where they were floating in the air, clenching together in nervousness.

I look at Anna and her cheeks are a light shade of pink. I quickly realize that my hands are resting on her bare stomach since her shirt was shifted up on her torso. I think about moving my hands, but like how her soft skin feels under my hands.

I slide my hands to her hip bones and slowly trace along her sides up her body. My finger tips grazing across her smooth skin and finding their way under her shirt. I lean forward and lay back down on her, holding in a laugh. Her face was flushed due to my hands that were now cupped under her shoulder inside her shirt, pulling my body closer to hers. I nuzzled my head more into her chest and felt her hands slowly make their way around my body to my lower back.

After a few minutes of laying in silence I speak up. "Hey Anna?"

"Yeah?"

"As much as I like laying here with you," she giggled, "I was wondering if you wanted to maybe go get something to eat?" I hope she says yes, because I am really hungry and I don't want to have to go alone.

"Sure, I would love to, but we should probably shower first," she replies.

I slowly remove my hands from inside her shirt and start to sit up. I move off of Anna and walk over to my bed to plug in my phone, because I forgot to last night. "I'm gonna take my shower first if that is fine with you," I hear Anna say from across the room as she stands up.

"Yeah, I'll pick out some clothes while you are in there," I respond and she walks into the bathroom and I hear the shower start. I pick out a pair of jeans and a cropped sweatshirt for myself. I lay them out on my bed and sit down to wait for Anna. I realize that during Anna's still partially asleepness she didn't grab clothes for herself. I walk over to her clothes and grab some jeans and a hoodie.

A few minutes later I hear the shower turn off. "Damnit," I laugh at Anna because I could hear her from my bed. She slowly opens the door with a towel wrapped around herself. I stand up and walk towards the door. "I forgot to grab clo-."

I stick my hand out and hand her the clothes I grabbed for her, "Here." She giggles and turns back around, going back into the bathroom. She comes out a few minutes later and I get into the shower also. I quickly wash my hair and my body, eager to go eat. I get out of the shower and get dressed in the clothes that I brought in here with me. I brush my hair and my teeth.

As I open the door to the bathroom I see Anna with her back facing me. I creep up behind her and wrap my arms around her waist pulling her in for a hug. I rest my head on her shoulder and feel her hands move to where they are resting on top of mine. "Thank you Anna... for being so kind and gentle with me for the past few days. I also want to say that I am sorry for pushing you away and being distant. Thank you for understanding," I lift my head off of her shoulder and peck her neck with a kiss, resting it back on her shoulder after.

Anna pov-

"Anything for you Sab," I quickly realize the words that just came out of my mouth and start to blush in embarrassment. In the corner of my vision I can see Sab staring at me with a smile starting to creep up on her face. I lean my head on Sabs.

Damn I am so in love with this girl.

"Not to interrupt this, but we should probably leave," Sab says and I lift up my head and she moves away from me letting go. She grabs a backpack off of her bed and we head out. We are going to the same restaurant we went to when we first met. We talk about how boring classes were last week because they all talked about the same thing. I look up and realize we are only a block away from the restaurant.

In the window I see Maria sitting at a table. I try to ignore her as we walk in, soon following a waitress to a table outside. The waitress hands us our menus and walks back inside. My eyes meet Maria again and I can feel anger growing inside of me. "Anna? Anna?"

"I'm sorry. What?" I respond as I turn to Sab who was clearly talking to me while I was zoned out.

"I brought you something," she slowly reaches into her bag, "Surprise!" She sets a Red Bull on the table in front of me. I laugh as I reach my hand over to grab in and pull the tab hearing it pop. I look into Sab's eyes as I pull the can up to my mouth and take a sip.

"Ahh," I let out after I swallow and the cold drink goes down my throat. She giggles at me and turns her head as she sees the waitress walking back over towards our table.

"What can I get for you two today?" she asks and as Sab is about to respond I butt in.

"She will have a steak with a coke and I will have the spaghetti," Sab clears her throat and pulls out another Red Bull for herself, "Actually could you scratch that coke?"

The waitress nods her head and walks away. "I am going to go to the bathroom really quick," Sab says as she stands up. I watch as she walks away and my eyes fall right onto Maria. I notice that she whispers something to the boy she is sitting with and she quickly stands up. I pull out my phone as I realize that she is coming to talk to me.

She sits in Sab's seat and I continue looking at my phone, ignoring her. "Anna? ... Anna?" she lets out a sigh. "Okay I know that you don't want to talk to me and probably never want to see me again, but I need to talk to you," I continue to ignore her. "I just want to say that I am sorry. I know that what I did sophomore year was wrong. When you told me that you liked me I got scared, because... the feelings were mutual, but I wasn't ready to come out yet. I'm sorry that I wasn't mature enough to deal with the situation better." She pauses as I slowly set my phone down.

"I was bullied... for the rest of that year, because of you. I asked one thing of you. I asked for you not to tell anyone, because I wasn't ready either. But you told..." I take a deep breath trying to hold back from yelling at her, "everyone. Not a single person in the school didn't know."

"Anna like I said, I'm sorry. I-I don't know what else to say," I cut her off.

"I think it would be best if you just leave," I finally look up into her eyes.

"Again, I am sorry Anna. I hope that sometime sooner or later, we can be friends again," she stands up and walks back to her table looking back at me. I set my head in my hands and I close my eyes. I can't believe she outed me because she was scared of her feelings.

Sab pov-

I watch as Maria gets up, leaving my chair, and I quietly make my way over to behind Anna's chair. She has her head resting in her hands. I set my hands on her shoulders and her head shoots up and I quickly snake my arms around her, still from behind, hugging her. "Hi Sab," she says smiling, she already seems happier.

I pull out of the hug and walk around the table and sit down in my chair and Anna smiles at me and I feel the butterflies in my stomach go crazy. I see Anna glance back over in the direction of Maria and her smile fades. A waiter walks past our table and I signal for her to stop for a second. "Um, I was wondering if we could actually get our food to-go?" I ask her, hoping to get Anna out of here.

"Of course miss, it will be out in a few minutes," she responds smiling and she walks away.

A few minutes later she walks over to us with two to-go boxes and two sets of plastic silverware. I grab the food from her and Anna insists on paying. We pay and leave, starting to walk back to our dorms. I pull Anna's arm signalling for her to continue straight instead of turning on the road back to our dorm. She looks at me and then she realizes where we are going, "Oh... okay, I see," she laughs.

Not long after we turn onto a familiar path to a cliff in the forest. I hand Anna the food and pull off my backpack and pull out a blanket. I wasn't planning on bringing the food here, but I was hoping that we might be able to catch the sunset. I lay it on the ground, "Aww, Sab. This is so cute."

I love Anna. I can't hide it anymore. If I want to commit to being with Anna then I have to tell her about him.

We sit down to eat and I stare at Anna who is leaning against a tree, just enjoying her food. She turns to look at me and I can feel myself start to blush. I quickly turn my head down to my food trying to hide my face. "No need to turn your head. I know you were staring at me, Miss Tomato," she giggles and my face only turns to a darker shade of red.

After we eat I can hear a voice inside my head, telling me to tell her. I stand up and Anna looks at me confused. "I am ready."

"For?"

"To tell you about him," I respond walking away from her towards the edge of the cliff. I sit down dangling my legs over the edge, "But I need you to stay over there. I can't look at you while I say this or I might break down... sooner than I plan on." I take a deep breath and I can feel Anna's eyes on me.

"His name was Mark."

I want to apologize for taking so long to put this out. As I said in the last chapter's comments, I had this chapter all ready and was trying to copy paste it into Wattpad and accidentally deleted all of it. Then I just didn't really have the motivation to write it.

I also want to let you all know that if I ever plan to discontinue a story, then I will let you all know.

! Does anyone have an idea of what I could name this. I just did Sab and Anna at the beginning, because I didn't know what it was going to be about, but know it sounds boring !

! If you have any ideas, please let me know ! And remember, no idea is a dumb idea (usually)