Hey, Bully

Third Cry

"He's here," I told Skull in near tears when we got to the balcony. "I don't know why but he's here."

Skull grabbed my shoulders. "Calm down, Hannah. Calm down."

A tear escaped my eye and I brushed it away. "Terry said he wouldn't be here. She said that his parents told her when they RSVP'd that he was busy with university to come."

"How many glasses of wine did you have, Hannah?"

A laugh bubbled out of my throat. "I don't know? A bottle maybe? I sneaked one from the table because I... I needed liquid courage, Skull. He caught me so off-guard that I didn't know what to do."

Another tear fell down my cheek and Skull's arms went around me, pulling me close to him. I sniffled and buried my face into his chest.

"I'm going to ruin your suit," I mumbled wetly.

"It's alright," he mumbled back. "I'll hold you until you get yourself together, Hannah. And I'll stay by your side. All night. I won't let you out of my sight and I won't let him near you again."

"You know something about him, don't you?"

He didn't answer. I had a feeling that he knew more than he let on. But I didn't ask further. Because I was in so much pain that it was all I could think of. It made the tears keep falling down my face and my body went slack on Skull.

I lost time, not knowing how much time had slid by, not caring as I cried. Until I started to care. Because this was Terry's birthday party. I couldn't ruin my bestfriend's special day by freaking out like this.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to compose myself.

"You never really forgot him, did you?" I heard Skull say.

Fresh pain sliced through me. My body jerked with it and Skull's arms gave me a squeeze.

I lifted my head to look at him.

"How can I?" I cried out. "When he's everywhere I go?"

- - - - - - - - - -

I didn't pine over Asshole Will.

I refused to pine over people who hurt me.

In front of everyone, I was still the same cheerful Hannah that they all knew. Even alone, I forced myself to cheer up, that a lot of people had it worse than me. I only had a broken heart. Leon, Terry and Skull had it worse. Hell, even eternally pissed Rohan had it worse than me.

So I wasn't going to dwell on my pain. I was going to move on. I was definitely going to forget about him. Especially since I was getting busy with college applications and actually studying so I could graduate senior year. I even already made plans with Sophia since our first university choices were the same. So yes, I was going to forget about him just like he asked me too.

But as much as I wanted to, I couldn't.

How could I when I kept meeting and seeing him?

My mother had partnered with one of the Carters' restaurant chains during the summer to cater for her company and promote our jewelry brand. It was a year long special event where people would share photos of the company's event space inside the restaurants on social media to enjoy complimentary drinks and food. And my mother had forced me to oversee the creative installations, saying it was practice for when I would be working for our company and because I was good at art.

I had wanted to do it at first. But when she told me whose restaurant chain it was going to be, I balked at the idea. Still, she pretty much nagged at me to do it until I relented.