cemetery ☞ n.m

xiv

they talked, and talked. talked until the sun had began to rise. nate had just met this girl, and he'd only gotten to know her for a couple of hours. but he feels oddly comfortable around her.

and in talking to her, and just her for hours, was the last thing he'd ever imagine himself doing with a girl. he never had the ability to keep any type of relationship beforehand, she made that different.

he couldn't help but remember her crooked smile, a smile that showed him that she was broken, also. and he didn't know if it was only because of samuel.

she hadn't told him anything about samuel, except for the fact that she had called him sammy. every time nate even brought it up she would just change the subject. he couldn't blame her, though. he knows the pain of talking about someone who you've loved for a long span of time, and how they just left.

"what's your name?" he asks her, remembering what she said the first time he asked her.

she breathes out, picking the grass next to her. "anna-marie."

"nate." he says, staring at her petite figure as she was fixated on picking the grass, her hair fallen over her face. he hated how broken she was, and he hated that he couldn't fix her. any time he tried, she'd just push him away.

"nate." she repeats. "i like that."

he chuckles, trying not to remember the night that johnson told them about his new girl. he wanted to tell him about anna-marie, but he couldn't. and he sure as hell didn't want to mention it to gilinsky and cameron. it would only bring back memories that we wanted to forget.

"i can tell you're broken, nate. you're torn apart," she says after a minute of silence. "i can see it. just by the way you look at the tombstones." she says as if she knew him the entire time. he stares at her in complete awe as she turns her head and looks back to him, flashing another smile, reassuring him that she understood. and that she was there.

"you're broken too, anna-marie. did you think i didn't notice?" he says, his voice cracking towards the end of his sentence. anna-marie tenses up, and nate gulps. "and i can see it, too anna-marie. in your eyes, and your smile."

she purses her lips together, staring back into the piercing eyes of his. and he stared back at her. he'd never felt so close to a person that was just so far apart. he never got the chance to reach out to her, not only because she was hard to read, but because she kept on pushing him away.