Too Late | m.c [completed]

Chapter 7-The Opening

"Come with me" I whisper into her ear as we exit the doors to get to her bus. She jumps at my sudden whisper and hits me a second later. "Not cool, Clifford. But sure" I grab her hand and jog over to my car with her.

I open the car door for her and she does a curtsey. "Thank you, Mr. Clifford" she says. "You are very welcome, Ms. Monteiro" then I jog over to my seat and I immediately hear her music fill the car already. "I have to say, you have such a great taste in music" she smirks and says a thanks to me. I continue to drive and it's not even 3 minutes into the drive that she already asks where we are headed to. "It's a surprise, Hanna" I chuckle.

"But Michael. You see, I have this condition that I need to know what the surprise is before we get there because I don't know. Maybe you're luring me into a trap. You could be a murderer for all I know" she shrugs and slouches back into her seat. "I think you know me better than that" I say with a playfully eye roll. "Are you sure I do?" she eyes me and I can see from the corner of my eye.

I glance over at her every so often but I mainly keep my eyes on the road. "I think you do, Hanna. I took you on two dates, I've hung out with you for a bit and I even let you meet my psychotic friend" I say with a shake of my head. Maybe a bad choice to let her meet him. She'll probably leave once she realizes how weird he truly is. "I even kissed you a few times" I say with a wink. I saw her blush before I turned back to the road.

"Not enough" she mumbles with a small giggle. "I heard that" I comment with a smile spread across my face. "You were meant to"

Maybe 10 minutes later of talking about whether or not Luke is attractive, we arrive to the bridge. Hanna won, by the way.

"Where are we?" she asks as she looks around at the old worn out bridge. "This is where I go when I have problems" I raise my arms for the whole bridge.

"I thought that's what the lake was for" she says with a curious grin and an eyebrow raised. "Yeah but I like this place better" I shrug and hop on the edge of a railing and sit down. Hanna copies my actions and tries to regain her balance so she doesn't fall off. "Don't worry. I'll catch you if you fall"

Hanna blushes and sits up straight. "This is where I go to confess my sins and complain about my problems" I chuckle. "Then do it" she suggests.

"Wait, what?" I ask, confused. "Don't let me being here stop you from 'confessing your sins'" she uses her fingers for quotes. "Um....okay" I clear my throat and start to speak. "My parents fight twenty four seven and they could care less about me" I say in one breath. I look at her for some kind of support. "Go on" she nods at me and places a hand on my knee cap. I instantly feel relief, like I'm safe. I never felt this way before.

All I can think is about her lips, how much I crave them. But I decide not to do anything about it so I continue on my rambling. "I was once left in a store overnight because my mom wasn't paying attention. She was too caught up with fighting with my dad" I let a tear drop. "How old were you?" she asks, moving closer. "6. I walked myself home the next morning and she didn't even notice. The next day she acted like nothing had happened. Like she hadn't just left me in a store for a night" I answer. She gasps slightly and shakes her head. "That's not right" she says but I just shrug it off. "Everybody makes mistakes. So do I sometimes" I put on a fake smile but I know she doesn't buy it. "My mom died when I was younger. I don't remember her like I don't remember when she died or how she died. All I know is that she had some type of cancer I guess" she wipes her own tears but I decide to help when she ends up giving up.

I wipe away her tears with my sweater sleeve and brush my hand against her cheek. She closes her eyes a smiles as she cuddles up to my hand. I smile at the adorable person in front of me. She ends up stopping and stares at me for what seems like forever.

"You didn't look like you had secrets, Michael. When I first met you I thought you were just this very adorable and funny person that I wanted to fall for. I guess you have other sides of you too" she smirks and tilts her head to the side.

"Everybody has their secrets. You might not think it by looking at them. But, they do" I say quietly, not looking up at her.

"Michael?" she calls, causing me to look up at her. "Ye-" but before I could answer completely, she plants her lips on top of mine. Our lips mold perfectly like before and this is exactly what I craved. Her. I missed her. I didn't realize it before, but this is what I want. I want her to be mine.

***

When we left the bridge while holding hands (I know, cheesy. But I still loved it) we went to my house. We planned on ordering chinese or pizza and watching a scary movie because of it being October. The time to get scared and leaves to fall off of trees.

Before I could even open the door, I could hear yelling from inside and things breaking. So I decide against to go inside. This is a very bad time for my parents to meet Hanna. If they even want to anyways. "We can go to my house" she suggests. "Okay" I nod and look at the door for a second longer.

She wanted to drive so I let her. I didn't know where she lived anyways. We pull up into her driveway and she gets out along as I. "My dad's not home" she noted.

When we get inside, she asks if it's a pizza or chinese night and I answer with a chinese night. She calls an order in, asking me what I want every so often. "My dad knows the person who owns the restaurant so there's a great chance we can get a discount" she says with a perky voice. I put on a fake smile and she notices but doesn't say anything about it.

She turns on Netflix from her tv and scroll through movies. "How about we watch The Walking Dead?" she suggests and I just shrug. She puts it on and turns to me. "Michael. Everything is going to be alright. I promise, okay?" she places a hand on my thigh in a comforting way. I smile slightly up at her and nod. "Okay"

I lean in and kiss her like it's nothing.

While watching the movie and eating the chinese, I can't help but think about how much she means to me how much I'm grateful for having her in my life. She's a person in my life that helps me and I like that. I like that she cares. I like that I like her.