Holding On And Letting Go

Still Loving Her

**Three years later**

Tyler added the final touches to his drawing and held it out.

"Perfect," he said to himself as he admired his piece of art, and then added it to his collection of drawings. Drawings of her.

**FLASHBACK**

"Who's that hottie?" he asked Luke, leaning against his locker.

Luke followed his gaze to see who his friend was talking about and smacked his head.

"That's my sister, you idiot!"

"Ouch!" he Tyler rubbed his head. "I didn't mean her. The one next to her."

"Oh, I don't know. She's probably new here." He shrugged and eyed the girl once before turning to his locker.

"Hmm." Tyler pushed himself off the locker and walked over to where the girl was standing with Luke's sister.

"Hello, Brianna." He smiled at the two girls, his eyes never leaving the new one.

"Hi Tyler," Brianna said, closing her locker.

"You didn't introduce your new friend to us." He raised his eyebrows and shifted his gaze to Brianna.

She rolled her eyes and looked at the girl. "This is Hailey."

"Hi Hailey." He smiled at her. "Nice to meet you."

"Uh, hi." She looked up at him and smiled shyly.

"So, you're new here?" He leaned against her locker this time, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his grey sweater.

"Yeah." She nodded. "My family and I recently moved in."

"And how do you like it here so far?"

"I think it's great." She smiled, taking a pile of books out of her locker.

The bell rang and Tyler cursed inwardly. He would have liked to spend some more time with her to get to know her. She was beautiful, even more than any of the girls he had been with, and seemed interesting.

"What class do you have now?"

She checked her schedule which was already taped to the door of her locker then looked at him, "I have Math."

"I can walk you to class if you want." He smiled, glad that he would get to spend extra minutes with her, and pushed himself off her locker.

"Su-"she didn't get to complete her word before Brianna interrupted her.

"Not so fast Wesley! I have Math too so I'll go with her." She smirked at him and linked her arm with Hailey's.

Hailey nodded and they walked past him. She looked back and gave him an apologetic smile, as though she actually wanted him to walk her to class. He smiled back and walked to his own class.

*End of flashback*

The sound of his phone ringing brought him out of his thoughts.

"Hello?" he answered without checking the caller's ID. He knew it would be either his mother or Luke. Who else would call him?

"Get your ass ready, we're going on a double date tomorrow." Luke, of course.

"I can't go." He sat back in his chair and rubbed his neck.

"You don't have another choice. You either go, or go," his best friend said, and Tyler could imagine the smirk on his face.

A few months after Hailey passed away, Luke started trying to set him up with girls to cheer him up, but Tyler always refused to go. He knew he was not ready to let go of her yet. There was a hole in his heart that no one could fill. The hole she had left.

"I have to work on my research." It wasn't exactly a lie. He really had a research paper but he still had a whole week to turn it in.

"Stop making excuses, jackass. We're going, and it's final." Luke hung up before Tyler had a change to say anything.

He put his phone on the table and sighed. Arguing with Luke was kind of pointless. He never listened to anyone's opinion anyway.

Maybe I should give it a shot. How bad can it be? It's only a date; I can just leave if I don't like it. He thought to himself.

He took his phone again and texted Luke.

Fine, I'm going.

He got a reply in less than a minute that made him wonder how he even managed to type it so fast.

Now that's the Tyler I know! We're meeting the girls at Mia's Coffee Shop. I'll stop by at 5 and we'll go together.

Alright, see you.

He texted him back then got up and walked to his room. He changed his clothes and slipped into bed. Laying there for a while, he thought this could be a new start. He was sure she would have wanted him to be happy.

He opened the drawer of his nightstand and took out the necklace. Her necklace.

"Night, baby," he whispered then drifted off to sleep slowly, holding the silver pendant tightly in his hand.

****

Hey! This chapter was short but the others will be longer. I hope you liked it. Let me know what you think.

-Mirna x