Promises You Can't Keep

Chapter Thirteen; It's Too Cold To Be Here

I spotted William by his truck, wrapping his jacket around his body the best he could. He looked at me with happy eyes and opened the truck door for me as I approached. I nodded to him, thankful that the inside of his truck was warm. He soon got in after me and turned the heater all the way up.

"It's so cold..." He seemed lost in thought. He looked at me and smirked. He just shook his head, as if he was clearing a thought. He reversed his truck and started heading out of the school.

We rode in silence for a bit. I just didn't feel like talking to anyone. I glared out of my window hoping to avoid conversation.

"I think you're gonna like where I'm taking you," William mentioned. I could feel his eyes on me. "Mer?"

I slowly turned my head towards him. "Yes?"

He put his hand on my leg. "Everything will be okay. Stop overthinking, okay?"

I nodded once. He stopped the truck in a small parking lot. I read a sign that said 'Holmes Beach'. I looked at William as he got out of his truck. He smiled at me. "Come on... It's not that bad," he told me as he slammed his door shut.

I didn't want to get out. It was too cold, especially by a beach. Why the hell would he take me here? I haven't been here since I was a child. The only time I have ever been here was with Zac. This place was usually empty because everyone decided to go to Florida or some foreign country for vacation.

I walked down the sandy & rocky pathway that led to the beach. I could hear the waves of the ocean crash on the rocks. As we got closer to the beach, William picked up a few seashells and put them in his pocket. I looked around at our so called beach.

The water wasn't the clearest but at this time of the year it just looked dark and gloomy. There didn't seem to be any sign of life here. The beach had broken beer bottles and cigarette buds lodged in the sand. It was really sad because I feel like this beach would be a lot better if people took care of it. It was better back in the day. William grabbed my hand and dragged me to where the ocean crashed on the sand. I was scared he would push me in. I couldn't imagine how cold it must be.

"William, what are we doing here?" I asked, looking up at him.

He had his eyes closed, inhaling the cold ocean air. He then looked at me. "I like to come here to get things off of my mind. I figured you'd appreciate that since you're going through a lot," he shrugged, looking back out at the ocean.

"Oh," I whispered, kicking at the wet sand. I shivered. It was super cold and I didn't have a heavy layer on. William didn't seem too phased by it. "I used to come here when I was a kid... I didn't think anybody else knew about it,"

William looked over the ocean. "Did you come here by yourself?" He asked that in a tone like he already knew the answer.

I shook my head. "Zac took me here when we were kids. We used to actually go in the water when it wasn't all gross. It's sad to see how it is now... People just don't care for it,"

"We should come out here once a week and help get it back to the way it used to be," he looked at me and smiled.

My eyes became wide, thinking about the memories this place held and how it used to be. I nodded in agreement. William seemed excited and decided we should go back home.

"Where would you like to go?"

I looked up from my phone, "Anywhere is fine," I glanced back down at it, hoping and praying that Zac would text me and tell me he dumped Marie. William snatched my phone from my hand.

"You're not getting this back for the rest of the night,"

"What if my dad or Katie calls me?"

"Do you have a specific ringtone for them?"

I blinked. "Yeah..."

"Text them and tell them you're going to be hanging at my place," he looked at me through his thick eyelashes and slowly handed me back my phone.

I pulled up my dads number and slowly started typing in the message but before I hit send I said, "What if I don't want to hang out with you?"

He scoffed. "Of course you'd want to hang out with me. I'm William. I'm a fun person.... Plus you told me that we could hang out anywhere,"

"You're full of yourself," I hit the send button.

We were in Williams driveway before I knew it. The drive back was a lot quicker than I expected. Williams house was huge. It was so much bigger and better than mine. It looked like nobody was home though. William got out of his truck and came to open the door for me. I hopped out, admiring at what I didn't have.

He opened the front door and I was welcomed with the scent of banana nut muffins. I inhaled the scent, not realizing how hungry I was.

"My dad must've made them before he went to work," he mumbled, putting his jacket in his coat closet.

I looked around at the big, empty house. "Are we alone?"

"My brother is home but he won't bother us. He's only visiting for the week. Would you like something to eat?" He took my coat off and hung it up for me.

"Can I have one of those muffins?"

"You smelt those too, huh?" He chuckled and nodded. "Of course. I'll make us some hot chocolate too. Please, go sit down and make yourself at home. We have tons of movies, Netflix, and cable," he drifted off to the kitchen, leaving me alone.

I made my way through the living room, looking at all the pictures of Williams family and Williams little baseball league pictures. He was such a cute and cheesy kid. I wonder why Alice never wanted to give up her long distance boyfriend for William. He was sweet. I glanced at the 80inch flat screen and the PS4 that was on the entertainment center below it. He only had a few games which were of course shooting games. William came out with two hot muffins and some hot chocolate.

I smiled at him as he handed me my drink and muffin. "Thank you,"

"It's not a problem," he plopped down on the sectional couch. He started to devoured his muffin like he has never eaten before in his life. "Would you like to sit down?"

I didn't realize I was still standing. I sat down, sipping at my hot chocolate. It felt so warm and I noticed his put tiny marshmallows in it that were shaped like snowmen. "This is so good,"

"The muffin? Yeah, I know," he was licking his fingers.

"You didn't even taste your muffin. I'm talking about the hot chocolate. Nice touch by the way,"

He smirked. "Girls like cute things, right? I figured cute snowmen marshmallows were the way to go. What would you like to do?"

"You have Halo, right?"

He made a funny face. "Of course I do,"

"We can play that,"

"For real? Okay!" He scurried to the PS4 like a kid on Christmas. He threw a controller at me and put Halo in. He was so excited.

"I'm gonna kick your butt, by the way," I say, finishing my drink.

He rolled his eyes. "If you say so,"

All night we were playing his PS4 and it was such a blissful night. I have forgotten all about Zachury and Marie just for that one night.