Never Make A Promise

Never Make A Promise 24

I just realized how bad with time I'm getting. I didn't even realize that this was a day late. I'm sorry to keep you all waiting a day too long. I'm not going to be late this week for sure, so yeah. Love you lots, hope you're not too annoyed with me. Thanks for being so patient!

<3 Nikky~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hayley?" he asked, sounding just as shocked as me.

"Seth, what are you doing here?" I asked him.

"Passing through," he said. "What about you? I thought you were in Chicago with Joyce."

"I......was. But she told me to go ahead and go home and....yeah...." I trailed off, looking at the ground.

"You're a horrible liar, Hayls," he teased.

"I'm not.....yeah I know," I gave up.

"So, what are you really doing here?" he asked. As badly as I wanted to tell him the truth, I couldn't. I didn't want to drag him into this and make him feel like he had to protect me. That's the kind of person Seth was. He felt that he could protect anyone and everyone he cared about against anything and everything. Maybe he should be a lawyer when he gets older. Ha ha! This kid was barely passing social studies as it was!

"I uh....." I trailed off again, trying to find something to tell him.

"Hey Hayley? You coming back in? Oh......hey Seth," Damon said from behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw him sticking his head out the door. Savior! He's saving me here.......but oh...............I would...have to explain to him why I was here with Damon, wouldn't I? Seth raised his eyebrows and looked from me to Damon with surprise.

"Hey.....Damon," Seth greeted, giving me a sly look. I shut my eyes and pressed my lips together. As soon as Damon went back in the room, Seth was going to say something smart.

"I'll um.....I'll just be getting back in the room then," Damon said. He quickly pulled his head back in and then shut the door. I looked back at Seth who was still giving me that sly smile.

"Go ahead, say it," I said.

"I thought you didn't like him," he grinned. I rolled my eyes.

"I was a little mistaken, okay?" I said.

"I see," he said, keeping his grin. "So what are you two doing?" I got an idea then.

"The same thing Joyce is."

"Really? And that would be...."

"She went to Florida with Chris."

"Chris as in that guy who came and stayed at your place instead of your dad?"

"That's the guy."

"So they're all-" he paused to do that whistle everyone does when they talk about that certain topic. I laughed and nodded.

"Yes, they are. I'm not supposed to know, but she doesn't know that I heard him talking in the background when she called me back home."

"So you and Damon decided to take a little vacation together?" he asked. I thought about it and then nodded slowly again.

"Yeah......we did," I replied.

"Why didn't you just tell me?"

"I didn't want you guys to rub it in my face and everything. You guys always were teasing me about really liking him when I said I practically hated him and said that we would get together eventually and-"

"Too proud to admit we were right?" he nudged me. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, that's it," I admitted. It was somewhat true. I didn't want them to rub it in my face and have them all 'we told you so' and everything. It's not that I was too proud to admit that I was wrong, I just didn't want it rubbed in my face.

"Ah, I'm just happy to know that you finally found a guy you like," he said, putting an arm around me. I smiled and shook my head. Wow, he was such a dor.........Jordan! I completely forgot to tell Jordan! He was my best friend and I didn't tell him that Damon and I were together yet!

"Ah, Seth! I gotta go and call Jordan!" I said, opening the door to mine and Damon's room. He laughed.

"Yeah, you should probably do that. Anyway, see you later Hayley!" he said, walking down the hall. I went into the room and saw Damon lying down on the bed with his hands behind his head.

"Did he leave?" he asked me.

"He went downstairs," I said, digging for my phone in my bag.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for my phone."

"You mean this thing?" he asked, holding up my phone. I reached to the other side of the bed to get it, but he held it further away.

"Hey!" I asked, falling on his chest. I kept reaching for it and he just held it further and further away. He eventually lifted his arm up above his head and I turned on top of him to reach for it. I finally got it and stuck my tongue out at him.

"You know, I like this position," he said, wagging his eyebrows like a villian.

"Hm, maybe later," I said, getting off of him. I quickly dialed Jordan's number and pushed the 'talk' button. It went to voice mail unfortunately. "Hey, Jordan. It's me, I wanted to tell you something and I really don't want to leave it as a voice mail. So call me back when you get this, okay? Bye."

"Were you going to tell him?" Damon asked. I let out a little scream, jumped, and whirled around to come face to face with him.

"You nearly gave me a heart attack!" I exclaimed. He smirked at me and put his hands on my waist.

"I'm sorry about that," he said, putting his forehead on mine.

"And yes, I was going to tell him. But he didn't answer his phone, so yeah."

"Well he sucks."

"Eh, a little," I smiled. He kissed me suddenly and pulled away before I could respond. "Hey!" I protested after he pulled away.

"Hey what?"

"What did you do that for?"

"Did you want me to ask to kiss you?"

"No, that's not what I meant."

"What did you mean?"

"I meant why did you pull away before I even kissed you back?" I asked. He frowned and thought about it. I smiled and put my hand on the back of his head and brought his lips back down to mine. I kissed him and pulled away before he got to respond.

"What was that?!" he asked. I clicked my tongue.

"Payback," I said simply. He rolled his eyes at me and kissed me, this time letting me kiss him back. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he backed me up to the bed. I sat down on the bed and we kept moving until I was on my back. I didn't even realize how far we were getting until his cell phone started ringing. He groaned against my lips and got off me. I sat up and saw that his shirt and jacket were off and my own shirt was pretty close to coming off after my jacket. I pulled my shirt back down and watched Damon.

"Hello?" he answered. Whoever was on the other end said something he didn't like. Naturally, I assumed it was Jake or Larry. Probably Larry. He seems to be the messenger of the gang. "Come and get me then," Damon challenged. Was he crazy? I got up and grabbed his arm. He looked away from me, but not before I saw that crazy look in his eye.

"Damon," I whispered.

"I told you what happened with that, it wasn't my fault," he snarled into the phone. He started tensing up. I turned him around to face me and that crazy look that he still had started to fade away when he looked at me.

"Hang up," I mouthed to him.

"Whatever," he mumbled to the person and then he hung up.

"Who was that?" I asked instantly.

"Jake," he said.

"Does he know where we are?"

"He claims to know exactly where we are. I don't believe him and that's why I told him to come and get me."

"You're sure that he doesn't know where we are?"

"I"m not sure, but it's highly unlikely. Unless he's got a tracking device on us."

"Doesn't he have other people on the gang trailing us?"

"I......" he stopped, like the thought had never crossed his mind. "That guy."

"What guy?"

"That guy in the pharmacy, what's his name?" he asked me, snapping his fingers as he tried to think of it. It popped in my head.

"Brad?"

"Yeah, yeah. I knew I recognized him from somewhere!" he said, pacing around the room like a mad man.

"Where?" I asked him.

"He's part of the gang!"

"Wait, how does he live here and have connections to a gang that's from California and now Aspen?"

"Jake said something about a small group member moving away, but he wouldn't tell me where. He said that he was still technically part of the gang and we would only use him when we needed him."

"Now Jake needs him," I realized. "Damon, when we left the pharmacy, I saw him talking on the phone to someone. He saw that I saw him and he gave me a weird look."

"What kind of look?"

"One that someone would give off if they accomplished something they're extremely proud of," I said. Damon swore under his breath.

"He was probably calling Jake," he said.

"Should we get out of here, then?" I asked. Damon walked over to the window and placed a hand against the wall as he looked outside. "Damon." I said. He still didn't say anything.

"No," he said after a while.

"No?" I repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"No," he said, turning around. "I'm not going to keep running. I'm going to let them come get me to protect you."

"How is that going to-"

"They want ME Hayley. Not you. They only want you because they know it's going to lure me to them. If I just go, then they don't have to keep coming after you," he said, walking back over to me.

"What are they going to do to you?"

"Beat me. Probably kill me. Most likely kill me," he said thoughtfully. I shook my head.

"Then I'm not going to let you do it."

"Hayley, I said that they probably would. I didn't say that they were going to."

"You don't know if they will or not. I'm not going to let you take that chance and end up getting yourself killed," I protested.

"Hayley-"

"No! I don't want you to do it, Damon."

"It's to protect you."

"I don't care!" I cried out, wrapping my arms around his waist and laying my head against his chest. He wrapped his arms around me.

"I have to do this Hayley," he said gently. God why did my life have to become such a......such a........a freaking movie?! Why did this stupid gang have to keep coming after.......why WERE they coming after us? Damon never told me the other reason and I really wanted to know.

"Why are they coming after you?"

"I told you."

"You never told me the whole reason. You keep dodging the subject."

"It's not something that I'm proud of."

"You're not proud of joining the gang, but you still told me about that."

"This is worse than joining the gang," he said.

"You know I'll be able to handle it," I said looking up at him. He sighed.

"Not right now," he said. An idea came to mind.

"Fine. I'll drop the subject if you promise not to give yourself up to them," I said. He thought about it for a minute.

"Fine. Drop the subject and I won't go."

"Deal."

"Deal," he said, kissing my forehead. "Wanna get back to where we were before douche called?" I laughed.

"You wish," I teased.

"Aw, come on," he said.

"It's time for dinner anyway," I said, nodding toward the clock hanging on the wall. He looked over his shoulder and groaned.

"I want some dessert tonight," he mumbled, kissing me again.

"I'll think about it," I said. He took my hand and led us downstairs, most likely to a somewhat awkward dinner with Seth and his parents. Oh, this should be fun, I thought.