Evergreen Mountain

Fifteen | Talk

I was laying with my head resting on Hal's chest, my hair still damp from the shower. I traced circles on his bare stomach while he absentmindedly carded through my hair, making my eyes start to droop.

"Andy?" Hal quietly asked.

"Hmm?" I hummed in response.

"Is this real?" he asked. I chuckled and stopped tracing circles on his stomach, electing to tightly wrap my arm around his waist and hug him close to me instead.

"Yes." I firmly responded.

"How can I be sure?" he asked, joking but with a hint of sincerity in his tone. I tilted my head to look up at him, seeing his eyebrows knitted together. I sat up on my elbow and cupped his cheek in my hand, gently tilting his head so his eyes met mine.

"Can you feel this?" I asked softly. He nodded in response. I placed a light kiss on his forehead. "This?" I murmured against his skin, another nod. "What about these?" I whispered, pressing a soft kiss to each cheek. He nodded again. I traced my thumb along his cheek and looked down at him, his eyes gazing into mine. I leaned forward. "And this?" I murmured against his lips, pressing the lightest kiss I could against his soft lips.

"Definitely." he breathed. I smiled.

"I think it's safe to say it's real." I concluded, my thumb still tracing along his cheek.

"Good." he whispered, looking at me with a soft smile on his face.

"Good." I whispered back, pressing my lips to his cheek before lying back down on his chest, wrapping my arm around his waist and pulling him even closer to me. I felt him press a gentle kiss to the crown of my head before running his fingers through my hair, making me let out a content sigh before I let my eyes drift closed for the night.

I woke up before Hal the next morning, finding him behind me with his arm wrapped around my waist like the previous morning. I turned around in his arms, facing him and gently brushing a piece of hair out of his face. I wrapped an arm around his waist, pressing my forehead to his lightly and closing my eyes.

"Morning." he rasped, his voice heavy with sleep.

"Morning." I responded, smiling as he slowly opened his eyes. "I have an idea." I blurted. Hal looked at me with an eyebrow raised, confused.

"Oh yeah? What's that?" he asked, tightening his hold around my waist.

"I think we should spend the day together. Just you and me."

"Really?" he asked, surprised. I nodded.

"Yeah." I paused. Hal narrowed his eyes as he looked at me.

"I can tell you're thinking about something. What's your ulterior motive?" he questioned.

"I-it's just, we haven't really spoken in what, six years? I feel like I barely know you." I admitted. Hal nodded, understanding in his expression. "I just want to talk. Learn about this Hal." I continued.

"I like that idea." he said.

"Really?" I asked, my eyes wide.

"Yeah, really." he responded, pressing his lips to my forehead before sitting up. "Can we get something to eat first?" I chuckled and nodded. "Good, I'm starving." he groaned.

"I bet you are." I said, smirking at him and giving him a wink as I got out of bed. Hal smirked and shook his head at me, watching me grab some clothes and head into the bathroom.

The person I saw in that mirror couldn't be me. Sure, he had the same blond, slightly curly at the ends hair and green eyes, but this Anders looked happy. Like really, truly happy. I tilted my neck to see a littering of purple, blue and pink marks running up and down my neck and collarbone. I felt my lips quirk up at the sight of them, knowing Hal had similar ones too. I quickly got dressed before exiting, seeing Hal had already changed.

I strided over to him and gently pulled back the neck of his sweatshirt, seeing him smirk out of the corner of my eye as I did. Surely enough, there was a spattering of marks that looked remarkably similar to mine on his neck and collarbone.

"I take it I did a good job last night." Hal smirked, his eye catching on a dark purple mark peeking out of the top of my sweatshirt.

"Can't say I did too bad of a job either." I smirked back, making Hal chuckle.

"Come on, let's go eat." he said, shaking his head and absentmindedly grabbing my hand with his. I felt a smile grow on my face as he kept our hands connected as we walked towards the main hall. It was still early and no one was out besides us, so I drew up the courage to intertwine my fingers with his. I saw him look over at me, a smile on his face. I looked over at him and smiled back, running my thumb along his as we walked.

We dropped hands when the main hall came into view, seeing a few early risers milling around. We sat across from one another as we ate mostly in silence, sneaking glances that elicited smiles from both of us every time we caught the other's eye. Before I knew it, we were already back at the cabin. I sat down on my bed and patted the spot in front of me, prompting Hal to sit down with his legs tucked in a crisscross in front of me.

"Where should we start?" he asked. I hesitated, unsure how to answer.

"Favorite subject in school and why. Go."

Hours had gone by and I was laughing hysterically at a story Hal was telling me about Layla dropping his birthday cake and her trying to scoop it up from the floor and feed it to him. I clutched my stomach, laughing harder than I had in a long time.

"I even took a bite to try and get her to calm down!" Hal exclaimed, sending me into another laughing fit.

"You're lying." I wheezed, to which Hal shook his head, smiling at me.

"I'm not!" he insisted. I kept laughing, trying to calm my breathing. I saw Hal looking at me, chuckling with a wide smile on his face.

"What?" I asked when I saw the look on his face. He shook his head lightly.

"I just really like hearing you laugh." he admitted. I felt the smile on my face grow. "I haven't heard it in six years. I missed it, I missed you." he confessed, making my chest flutter. I reached over and laced my fingers with his.

"I missed you too." I responded, meeting his gaze.

Hal was a completely different person from what I'd heard these past years. He likes math because solving problems was satisfying. His mom hates his motorcycle, but he bought it with money he earned from working at the repair shop the summer before so she reluctantly let him keep it. He loves working on his motorcycle with his uncle, who owns a repair shop a little ways out of town. He taught Layla how to ride a bike when she was six years old. His favorite season is Fall because he can take long rides along scenic highways to see the changing colors of the leaves.

The divorce wasn't as bitter and messy as the rumors made it sound. Hal said it was relatively tame, on account of his dad being a serial cheater. Hal, Layla and his mother were a united front against his dad. Him and Layla go out to visit him once a year for a week. Hal hates it. Layla tolerates it. Mostly because he has a golden retriever named Greg that loves her.

Every other weekend Hal and Layla volunteer at the local animal shelter because their mom told Layla she couldn't get a dog and she cried for a week straight until Hal came up with the idea of volunteering at the shelter. She dragged her feet the first day, but immediately perked up when she got inside and got to see all the animals.

And his favorite color is green.

And all of a sudden, I realize that I think my favorite color is brown.