The perfect storm in a quiet room

Chapter 34

HANNAH

"What are you doing here?" I ask again when she doesn't answer the first time.

She just stares at me, open-mouthed, her eyes glossy. Is she crying? Why is she crying?

"I... I was looking... for you," she slowly says, as if talking was hard.

"What for?" I ask, confused, because I really am. She was the one who told me to stay away from her, so why is she looking for me now? God, she's so fickle.

"I just wanted to talk," she says and just with the sound of her voice I can notice she's sad. Wait. Is she sad because of me? That doesn't make any sense. And why the hell does she want to talk to me? I thought we said everything we needed to say to each other.

"Okay..." I better just agree and listen to what she has to say.

"Hannah," now my mother interferes.

"What do you want?" I testily ask. I don't have time to deal with my mom.

"Are you staying?" She amiably asks and I doubt for a moment she's my real mother. She's never this... nice.

"No, we're going to the hotel. Thank you for calling me. See you" I quickly say, wanting to get the hell out of there as soon as possible. I don't want to talk with my mom right now.

I close the door behind me and Casy and I head for the hotel.

"A hotel?" She asks when we're far away from my house.

"Yeah"

"Are you living in a hotel?" she asks incredulously.

"Yes"

"Okay..." She shrugs. She must sense my coldness because she doesn't say anything else till we arrive at the hotel.

"This is it" I say, while opening the door to my room.

"Nice" she responds scanning the room and I can feel the dynamic between us is uncomfortable as hell.

"What did you want to talk about?" I ask, while sitting on the bed.

She sits next to me, a few feet away and says:

"I guess... I wanted to apologize to you. I was a jerk. I didn't mean what I said that day..." she trails off and I can hear her sniffing. She's definitely crying and it hurts seeing her this way.

Is she apologizing? I didn't expect it. I thought she was coming in here to yell at me and remind me to stay away from her, but this certainly is an unexpected twist.

"Hey," I move closer to her. "It's okay, don't worry"

"No, it's not okay" she says, looking closely at me in the eyes. "I really am sorry. You were right. Everything you've said is true and I'm so sorry for... well, everything. I dragged you into my own mess and I had no right to do that." Tears don't seem to stop falling from her eyes.

"Casy it's okay. Don't cry. I wasn't totally right. I had no right to say all those things to you either. We had just met and I wanted to know everything about you and that's impossible. I'm sorry for meddling in your life like that..." I apologetically say, resting one hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay, really. That shows you care about me. I'm the idiot that didn't appreciate it,"

"You're not an idiot," I give her a warm smile.

She smiles at me too and I can sense the dynamic changing between us.

"And about you... staying, you know, away from me... I didn't mean that. I want us to be friends, I really do. I don't want to be away from you," she slowly says, looking down.

I hear those words and, all of the sudden, I feel something in my whole body. It's like waves traveling up and down through my body, sending signals. It's like... I don't know what the hell that is or how to describe it, but I do know it is something I've never felt with anyone before. Just her. I always have this feeling whenever I'm with her, or thinking about her. Am I ready to know what that's about, though?

"I want us to be friends, too" I respond, grinning.

I believe now it's the moment I've been waiting my whole life. This is it. I'm getting there. All those nights crying myself to sleep, soaking my pillow with my tears, waking up in the morning with swollen-bloodshot eyes getting ready to face another miserable day at school. All those days wishing my life would just be different, wishing I was another person, someone with a happy life, someone... who wasn't as alone and broken as I was. All those years bearing my classmates making fun of me, smacking me, throwing me against the wall, taking my lunch and tossing it to the floor... all those things, all those terrible situations I've been through are finally in the past. I can finally forget about the person those stupid kids made me become and just be myself, my true self. I can start from scratch, as I've wanted for so long. I can start over... with her, with Casy by my side.

I don't care what I said two weeks ago when we fought because that wasn't true. I was mad, mad at her for everything that was happening. I was angry because I didn't understand anything around me and I still don't understand one bit, but now I will have to put that aside and see where this friendship takes me. I know I eventually will get to know her and we'll become tight. Yeah, what I didn't know is how tight...