Hold On Tight

[Seventeen] Am I not supposed to?

She tried to keep the tears at bay as she allowed her body to deflate against the wall of the elevator as it made its way up to her apartment floor. It had been a long night, one she spent squished between Brayden and the back of his couch trying not to constant just break out in tears. She couldn't believe that she had allowed herself to fall for it all again. The charm she had thought she steeled herself from all those years ago. Yet, even though the pain she felt as she practically ran from that Boston bar almost crippled her, somehow the pain she felt as she mad her way back to her apartment was so much worse.


She felt stupid. Everyone knows not to give an asshole another chance - that once an asshole, always an asshole.


No matter how excited he seemed to be.


That was what she kept going back too. The fact that he was so excited. It didn't make any sense to her. The dance in the park, the meeting his family, the fact that he fought so hard - why would he do all of it just to... not show up.


Haley shook her head as the elevator doors signed open. She was so focused on finding her keys in the mess that was her purse, she didn't notice that body laying in front of her apartment door until she almost tripped over.


"What in the..."

"Haley?"


Her stomach clenched as she met the tired brown eyes of the man she spent the whole night crying over. "What are you doing here, Tyler?"

"I-" She watched as he tripped over his own feet as he used to stand up, rubbing at his bloodshot eyes. His hair was sticking up all over. His head and his clothes were rumpled as if he had slept in them all night. "Is it morning?"

Haley rolled her eyes and pushed past him to her door. "Yeah, Tyler. It's fucking morning."

"Haley, wait, let me explain-"

She yanked herself away from him as his hand landed on her wrist. "Explain what, Tyler? Explain why I waited for you to show up for over an hour last night? Explain why I cried myself to sleep over you, again, for you just being you?" She let out a dry laugh. "Or! How about you explain why I, even for a fucking second, thought you that had changed?"

She turned away from him and forced her apartment door open. "Just leave me the fuck alone.

"No!" Tyler pushed her door open before she could slam it in his face. "No, I'm not going to leave you alone. And I'm sorry that you did all of that - I promise, it's not what you're thinking - Haley, please."

Haley gripped her hair in frustration and looked at him like he was stupid. "Are you kidding me? And what am I thinking, Tyler?"

He looked at her with pleading eyes as he took a couple of steps in her direction. "Your thinking that I just fucked you over. That I took the easy way out and just didn't show up. You think that I'm the same asshole I was in Boston and you're pissed at me." He chanced reaching for her hand. "but you also want to know why I didn't show up, because I have spent fucking weeks just trying to get you to say yes."

Haley rolled her eyes and walked away from him, ignoring his outstretched hand and trying not to let him see how on point he was.

Tyler followed her to her living room, taking a seat on the coffee table in front of her after she sits on the couch. "I went to a bar before-"

"Are you fucking-"

"I know!" Tyler held his hands up in front of his body, a sheepish look on his face. "I know, Haley, just... listen. Okay?"

He waited from her hesitant head nod before rushing to continue.

"I went to a bar before I had to pick you up. But I only had one shot. I promise - I wasn't going to fuck this up again. But Jamie - he was the one who called me to the bar - he was plastered. I mean, I have never seen him as drunk as he was last night." He shook his head and ran a hand over his face. "He got in a fight with his girlfriend. A potential relationship-ending fight and he was a fucking mess. So I took this shot, knowing that I shouldn't and knowing that Jamie was out of it, but I still did it. And then he ordered more and he took more and I couldn't leave him there like that."