Hey, Bully

Last Cry

I was sitting on one of the swings at the back of my house. My gaze was on the beautiful stars that twinkled in the night sky.

It was past midnight. I was still in the dress that I wore to Sophia's go-away party. It was chilly and I shivered more than once but I stayed, in the semi-darkness, trying to sober before I enter the house.

I was feeling a little melancholic. We were all going on our separate ways soon to go to college. Well, except for Skull and Rohan. They were going to be seniors this upcoming school year. But they too would be graduating next year and the thought of seldom meeting with everyone made my heart ache.

Something rustled behind me and I stiffened, grabbing my purse on my lap to use it as a weapon if I have to.

Then I let myself relax because it was probably Skull.

He'd often surprised me by coming unannounced and we sometimes stayed up all night on the back porch, just talking and gossiping about our friends. My parents thought I was dating him. We didn't bother to correct them because we both thought it was amusing. We were only friends. He was my closest male friend. I had never thought I'd get to have a male best friend because of the whole girl-and-boy-cannot-just-be-friends kind of thing. But we never really thought of each other more than friends.

At the corner of my eye, I saw someone sit on the other swing next to me. I sighed and turned my head.

"Why are you here, Skull...?" The words died on my throat.

Because it wasn't Skull.

It was Will.

Dumbstruck at the sight of him, I could only stare at his side profile. And he took the opportunity of my stunned silence to talk.

"Yes." He was staring at the swimming pool ahead as he spoke. "I missed you. Every day that we were apart, I missed you."

I couldn't help but tear up at the answer to the question that I had once asked him so long ago.

"When I went to Terry's birthday party last year, I had wanted to tell you that. And to set things right. But you didn't let me. And you didn't leave Christopher Lawrence's side all night. So I left, thinking I was too late because you looked so happy next to him."

"Then why are you here?" I asked, finding my voice.

Will took a deep breath. Then he turned his head and I gasped at the fresh bruise under his eye.

He smiled ruefully. Then he told me where he'd been.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Can we talk?"

Christopher looked completely pissed off as he shut the door to his car.

"Are you crazy, Carter?" he yelled as he stormed towards him. "You could have hit my car, you s**t driver."

"But I didn't," William pointed out, leaning behind his car. The car that was currently blocking the road leading into the Lawrence property. "And luckily, you stopped just in time."

Christopher glared at him. "You're a lunatic."

"Are you really going out with Hannah?"

And he started to laugh. "f**k, is this why you suddenly appeared out of nowhere at," he glanced at his wristwatch, "half past eleven in the evening, Jesus Christ!" he returned his gaze back to him. "How long did you wait for me here?"

William shrugged. "I couldn't exactly crash Sophia Gideon's party."

"So you decided to crash my car instead?" Christopher retorted in disbelief.

Almost.

But William didn't say that.

They would be just going in circles and he didn't have time to go into circles.

"You haven't answered my question." He straightened from his car and glared at Christopher. "Are you really going out with Hannah? Because I've heard some things and it led me to the conclusion that you aren't."

A muscle on Christopher's jaw twitched. "What things?"

"That you're looking for April Locke."

"f**k," he exploded. "Where the f**k did you hear that?"

William shrugged again. "My family doesn't just own restaurants. We also own several bars. People tend to talk a lot when they had a few drinks, you know."

That information made the anger fade from his face. "What else did you hear?" he asked in interest.

"I'll tell you. But first, answer my question."

Christopher stared at him for a long moment. And William stared back at him, trying not to show his desperation.

Yes. He was desperate. For years, he'd been desperate for Hannah.

But a lot of things happened. Things that made him keep away from her. Things that made him lose her.

This time, however, he wasn't giving up anymore. He was going to fight for her. But first, he had to find out if she really was in a relationship with Christopher Lawrence.

Only then was he going to give up.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Why now?" I asked when he paused to take a breath. "After all these years, why now?"

"Like I said, I was going to tell you everything at Terry's party," he told me and I shut my mouth.

Damn. I should have let him explain. But I was too shocked and too hurt.

"But the black-eye..."

I stopped talking when Will smiled at me.

- - - - - - - - - -

"I'll tell you everything I know," William told Christopher when the larger man still didn't speak. "And trust me when I say that I know a lot. Including the information on her family."

William watched as Christopher's head jerked back.

"Let's not talk about that here," he said in a low voice, his eyes darting around. "Keep your f*****g mouth shut."

William wasn't stupid. He wasn't going to run his mouth knowing how dangerous that information was.

"So Hannah?" he prompted and with a sigh of frustration, Christopher finally answered him.

"We're not dating."

A wave of relief coursed through him so strong his legs nearly buckled. "You aren't?"

Christopher answered again, humor in his tone now, "We aren't."

"But two years ago, she said—."

"What did you expect her to do, Carter?" Christopher cut him off with a shrug of his shoulders. "She went there to see you. To talk to you about your stupid note. But then you suddenly had a girlfriend."

"She said that you were dating to get back at me?" Will had never heard of something so ludicrous.

Sighing again, Christopher said, "Man, how can you be so thick? Of course she did that to get back at you. And of course I helped because she's my friend."

- - - - - - - - - -

Will was staring at me like he was disappointed in me and I tried to look everywhere but him.

Then I hesitantly explained, "It was Skull, no, Christopher who started it. I merely played along with him because I was too embarrassed—."

"I was going to correct her, you know."

I closed my mouth again.

Sighing, Will ran a hand through his hair. "When Elaine said that she was my girlfriend, I was going to tell you that it wasn't true. That she was just one of Charles' exes who was trying to convince me to help her make him jealous to get him back. But Lawrence appeared. He had his arm possessively around you. And when you said that he was your boyfriend I..." he shook his head. "I thought I was the only one getting hurt. Not you."

Heck, I must have been a very good actress.

"And you bought it," I muttered.

"I did," he muttered back. "Because whenever I saw you with him, you looked like so content. And you seemed to have moved on."

- - - - - - - - - -

"So what are you going to do now that you know the truth?" Christopher asked when William was about to turn around to get inside his car.

"I'm going to tell her everything," he answered, pausing to look at him.

"Tonight?" Christopher gave him a bewildered look. "It's late."

"Yeah."

"And you don't know where she is."

William frowned. "Isn't she still at Sophia Gideon's house?"

He smirked. "No."

"Then she's probably at home."

"Do you even know where she lives?"

That gave him pause even more. He knew what part of the city she lived in but he didn't know her exact address. When they used to meet each other in the park, they had their own respective vehicles so he never had the chance to take her home.

"What's her address?" he asked.

Christopher started laughing.

"What's her address, Lawrence?"

"She hates your guts, you know," Christopher told him. "She never wants to see you again. And as a good friend, I'm thinking that I should be keeping you away from him."

"That wasn't our deal," William gritted out.

"Hey, our deal was that you give me information in exchange for answering your question about me and Hannah dating."

"Lawrence—."

"And I heard about your problems with your family, Carter. Have you fixed them already?"

"I wouldn't be chasing after her if I hadn't," he shot back angrily.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Problems?" I said with a start. "What problems?"

Will leaned forward on the swing, his elbows on his knees, and clasped his hands together.

Staring in front of him, he reluctantly began, "You probably heard that my family is old-fashioned, Hannah."

"I did, yes."

"And that they didn't want any more scandals in the family after my brothers' kept screwing up."

This time, I didn't answer. Because I knew. And it seemed he didn't need one.

"I had expressed interest in you to my older brother, Benedict, after you and I met several times in the park. Ben knew you because his girlfriend used to go to East Private when they were still in high school. And he told me he heard several things about you from her."

"What things?"

"He said that you had trouble with some girls. You were probably in middle school then."

I remembered. I was bullied and judged for supposedly seducing some of my classmates' boyfriends which I never did.

"My father heard our conversation. He said there was no way he was letting someone like you in the family. And he told me to stay away from you."

"Is that why you didn't appear at the park anymore?" I guessed.

He nodded.

"And why you gave me the cold shoulder at my mother's dinner party back when we saw each other again?"

He nodded again. "I saw the hurt in your eyes when I did that. And it nagged at me. I couldn't forget about you. So when we met again at Terry Evans' party the same year, I tried to talk to you. Do you remember?"

I did remember. "I also remember you disappearing."

"Because my father saw us dance," he replied darkly. "He was... very angry with me."

"And he probably got even angrier after the Camerons' fundraiser," I ended. "When he saw us talking. When he heard me say I liked you."

He nodded again. "I chewed on it over the weekend. I didn't like how things ended between us. And then I made a decision to fight for you."

- - - - - - - - - -

"That probably didn't go well as planned," Christopher told William. The two had moved to Christopher's house where they were sharing a few can of beers.

"It didn't," William admitted. "When I told my father, he got so mad. He said that I was going to ruin our family's name just like my brothers."

"I hear Charles is working at one of your branches in Australia while getting a master's degree."

William didn't know how Christopher knew that. But he didn't ask.

"He is," he answered. "Benedict is also doing well in university. He's going to graduate in the fall. But it didn't matter to my father that my brothers were becoming responsible. He had it in his head that I was the golden child. That I was the only son that would never disrespect his authority. That I was going to be like him."

"That sucks," Christopher muttered as he popped another can open. He offered another one to William, seeing that he was about to finish his can, but William declined. He still needed to drive.

"I tried to convince him that the rumors about Hannah was wrong but then he hit me."

Christopher spurted out his beer in surprise. Luckily, he'd been facing away from Will.

"He did?" he sounded disbelieving and amused. "That skinny bas – I mean, your father did?"

William narrowed his eyes at him. "Yeah."

"What happened then?" Christopher said through his laughter.

"Are you laughing because I got hit or because you don't believe my skinny father can beat someone up?"

He aimed an unrepentant grin at him. "Both. Now tell me what happened next?"

William had the mind not to tell this i***t anything anymore. But he still needed Hannah's address. He had briefly considered asking Terry Evans but she would definitely not give it to him. He'd seen the angry looks the Evans heiress had sent his way when she thought no one would notice.

"He'd never lifted a hand on me before because like I said, I was the good son out of his three children," William began again. "And it surprised me. But not as surprised as my mother. We didn't know that she saw and heard everything. She had a heart attack that night."

- - - - - - - - - -

"Oh, my God, is she alright?" I asked with a gasp.

Will gave me a reassuring smile. "Yes, she is."

"But a heart attack..."

"I know," he murmured. "Still, we were lucky that she made it. But my father and brothers were angry at me and blamed me for what happened. And they made me promise not to talk about you or see you anymore."

- - - - - - - - - -

"So you stayed away from Hannah because you didn't want to upset her?" Christopher asked.

William emptied the can with one long swallow before answering. "Yeah. I thought that just like Dad, she was against Hannah. But after a few months, she took me aside and asked me if I still had feelings for Hannah because she heard that I kept driving back to see Hannah while she worked in our restaurants. I told my mother I did. Then she told me that it was alright to ask her out if I still wanted to. That she'd convince my father to give us his permission."

"But then you thought that we were dating," Christopher pointed out with a grin.

William glared at him. "I did. Which was why I didn't make a move. But then I started to hear things about you, that you slept with some of our part-timers while you were supposedly dating Hannah. And so I thought about stealing her from you."

Christopher was choking on his beer when he said, "Hell, you really do know everything that goes in your business, don't you?"

"I've been keeping tabs about you and Hannah," William shot back. "Of course, I'd know."

"So you went to Terry's birthday party thinking to steal her from me?"

"Yeah," he groaned. "But she was still mad at me. She didn't let me talk to her."

- - - - - - - - - -

Will turned quiet and I stared at the stars again, thinking how messed up things had become.

"Maybe we really aren't meant to be," I mused quietly. "The universe kept us apart all these years. Maybe it was telling us that we weren't destined for each other."

"Do you really believe that?" he muttered.

I shook my head. "I don't know what to believe in anymore," I admitted.

He stood up from the swing to kneel in front of me. Taking my hand, he said, "I was a hopeless coward, Hannah. I had also heard from my brother that you were the type to fall in love easily and then get bored. At first, I used your past as an excuse. I wanted to be considerate. So I ran away from you thinking it was the right thing to do. For us both."

I didn't know that. Damn it, I was definitely going to get the name of that girlfriend who talked crap about me from him later.

"And you had seemed to have moved on—."

"I had never really moved on," I cut him off fiercely. "Never."

He looked confused. "But those guys you went out with before Lawrence?"

Seriously, I needed that name!

"All distractions," I snapped at him. "To keep myself from thinking about you. I didn't even have s*x with them. I didn't even have s*x with anyone since I met you."

William shook his head. "I hated myself. I still do. But I was afraid that you'd get tired of waiting for me and throw me away. Even so, I just want to be with you."

Tears started to cascade down my face. Because it was surreal. I had already thought that it was too late for William and me.

"You've made me cry a lot, Will."

He squeezed my hand and stared at me beseechingly. "I'll understand if you'll never forgive me—."

I put a finger on his lips. "But even though I want to play hard to get, I think it's better if we heal this breach. Lord knows you have a lot of sucking up to do."

Tears hit his eyes. "So you'll give me a chance?"

"Who knows?" I shrugged lightly. "Maybe after getting to know each other, we'll find out that we're really not compatible."

"That will never happen," he promised fervently. "This might sound crazy but from the moment I first set eyes on you I haven't been able to stop thinking about you."

- - - - - - - - - -

"Why her?"

William turned his head to look at Christopher. "Excuse me?"

Christopher lifted his gaze from the can of beer in his hands. "Why Hannah? Why did you fall in love with her?"

Why?

It wasn't because she was beautiful.

It wasn't because of that flaming red hair and crystal green eyes.

It was her fiery character, unlike his, that piqued his interest at first. All the things she said as she spoke insult after insult about that Mark guy had him hanging on to every word. He had stayed with her at first because he felt bad about judging her and hurting her. But he ended up enjoying their short conversation, even felt disappointed when she had to leave, and enjoyed meeting her again at the park.

She left a deep impression on him. Her beauty, her voice, her worldview and her personality. All these things left a deep impression on him. She was a genuine person. She didn't hide her thoughts and was confident in her own skin. He didn't even realize he was attracted to her until he had spoken to his brother about her.

"Well?" Christopher prompted.

"Do I need to have a reason?" he said with a sigh.

"Yeah."

"Because... because she's... she's Hannah."

"What?" Christopher lifted his brows.

William leaned back on the chair and smiled. "Because she's Hannah."

"I don't understand," Christopher muttered in confusion.

- - - - - - - - - -

"I don't understand either," I told him.

Will smiled and reached to touch my face. "Because you're you," he said to me, his gaze never leaving mine. "Everything about you, everything you've exposed me to made me fall in love with you. Your smile, your laughter and your eyes. Eyes that spoke volume of your feelings for me. It was inevitable. You made me fall for you."

I stared at him, completely speechless.

"I know I hurt you so much. And more than once. But I plan to spend a lifetime to make it up to you. I love you, Hannah—."

I pulled him up and kissed him. And he kissed me back. We kissed for so long my mouth started to hurt as much as my heart. But this time, my heart wasn't hurting from pain. It hurt because it had never felt this full.

"But you haven't told me what happened to your eye," I said when we came up for air.

He laughed. "Christopher still didn't want to hand me your address after telling him everything. It took a lot of convincing that I wasn't going to run away this time."

- - - - - - - - - -

"Thanks for the address," William told Christopher as he made his way to his car.

Christopher didn't say a word as he followed.

Then suddenly, he grabbed William by the shoulder and punched him in the eye.

"What the hell?" he shouted, stumbling back and grabbing at his face.

Pulling his fist up to his chest and rubbing it with his other hand, Christopher told him, "That's only a taste of what you'll have if you break her heart again."

"Damn it!" William glared at him through one eye. "How am I supposed to see her like this?"

He shrugged. "Your problem. I still don't think she'll talk to you."

And saying that, he laughed and went into his house.

- - - - - - - - - -

"So will you?" William said after I was done cussing Skull out with every expletive I know.

"Will I what?" I asked him irritably.

"Will you give me another chance? And be my girlfriend?"

"Heck, yes," I sighed. "Do you really need to ask that?"

His relief came out in a joyful laugh and then a kiss that seared me to my toes and more. After everything he'd put me through, it was no wonder he held his breath after asking. But I was done holding on to my grudge. I was done being done with him.

He loved me. And tried to fight for me. That was enough to forgive him.

My cell phone rang inside my purse. I pulled away from Will and glanced down on the grass where it had fallen. Will bent down to pick it up for me and with his permission, I took my phone out of my purse.

Then I answered the call and said, "You didn't have to hit him, asshole."

Skull's answer was a laugh.