Justin

     It was second nature to take off running after Laila as soon as she left the kitchen, the front door slamming shut behind her.  I could hear Maggie calling after me, telling me not  to go after her, but I hardly paid her any attention at all. 

  There were so many thoughts rushing through my mind at that moment , I could only focus on Laila. She was the only thing that mattered to me. I honestly didn't even care if somebody came across me at that moment and I was crying. 

   I wasn't even sure if I was going to cry or not. I was fairly certain that I was going to explode.

I forced my legs to move faster as I leapt off the front porch and took off running across the gravel driveway. I could see Laila's small form in the distance, down by the bridge we'd taken to get to the Falls. 

  "Laila!" I shouted, my voice cracking. 

She kept walking, her back turned to me, not stopping.

  "LAILA!" 

I was gasping wildly for air when I finally managed to come to a shaky stop beside her, gripping at the bridge's railing so hard my knuckles were turning white. 

  Laila finally stopped walking, leaning against the bridge's railing, and I thought she might've been crying. 

  God.

Tension was thick in the air while I waited for her to say something  - just something - for her to break the heavy silence, for her to let me know that everything was going to be okay. That she wasn't going to leave.

  "Do I have bad luck, Justin?" 

My stomach plummeted when she said my name, my breath catching in my throat.

  "What?" I demanded incredulously.

Laila glanced over her shoulder at me, her lips pressed together in a firm line, an undefinable expression on her stricken face.

  "Do I have bad luck, Justin?" she repeated forcefully, her eyes narrowing.

 I thought about that question for a moment. 

   "No. No, you don't," I said, taking a tentative step forward. 

  I definitely knew that it wasn't luck that had started whatever the hell this was between us.

Laila glanced at me with a shocked expression before she barked out a laugh and started walking again, lengthening her strides. 

  "Wrong answer."

"Laila!"

  I took off after her, silently praying that she would just stop, for God's sake, so we could at least talk things out.

  "Would you please just listen to me, damn it!" 

My own eyes widened in shock as I spun Laila back around to face me, my hands gripping her arms loosely. 

  "What's there to talk about?" Laila asked, her voice oddly shrill, her sea-blue eyes bright and shining. "You don't need to explain anything to me. We weren't dating or together or anything, so you don't owe me anything."

  She made to move away again, but I held her steady, a frown etching deeper on my face.

"Just stop acting so childish and hear me out, all right?" I said forcefully, just the tiniest bit pleading.

  "Childish? Childish?"  She laughed sarcastically and crossed her arms firmly over her chest.  "I'm  the one who's acting childish here?" 

  "Yes!" I exclaimed, my emotions suddenly getting the better of me. "You're too damn proud to admit that you didn't mean a thing you said back in that kitchen!"

  "Oh? I didn't, did I?"

Her voice was dangerously calm, a clear warning sign, but I couldn't find it in myself to back off now. Not when everything was coming flying out of nowhere. I was just going to have to speak my mind and hoped that she stayed around to listen to what I had to say.

  "No," I said firmly. "You didn't."

"And who are you  to tell me  what I do or don't do?" she snapped, her eyes glinting.

   "Look me in the eye right now and tell me that you don't feel anything for me."

 That stumped her there, just as much as it did me.

   Where the hell had that  come from?

    "Just say the words, Laila, and I'll walk away and we can pretend like this summer never happened."

Now I was just downright lying through my teeth, but she didn't need to know that. 

    Her eyes immediately snapped back down to stare intently at a spot on the ground, her cheeks  already flushed with color, and I could've sworn I heard her grinding her teeth together in frustration. 

  When she didn't say anything or even look up at me, I gained just the slightest amount of courage to take a step closer to her.

  "See?" I said slowly, reaching out to brush back her hair and cradle her face in my hand. "You do care about me."

  She still didn't say anything, her eyes wide as she stared up at me. 

"And I think you know, sweetheart, that I sure as hell care about you," I finished, biting my lip. 

  "Do I?" Laila said breathlessly a moment later, her cheeks pink.

I sighed heavily, dropping my hand, slumping back against the bridge railing. 

  It was at times like these that I hated the fact that I wasn't too particularly verbose. There had to be someway  that I could explain just what exactly I was feeling. If I didn't manage to explain things to the amazing girl standing in front of me, then...then I didn't know what would happen.

   And I didn't want to think about that.

"You wanna know the real reason I didn't ask you out?" I blurted out of nowhere, giving Laila a look.

  Her eyes went wide, her face blank, before she cleared her throat and answered. "Yes."

"Because I was afraid."

  "Afraid of what?" she asked, her voice pitching. "Afraid that I would reject you? Afraid that your pal Maggie wouldn't be too happy with you? Afraid that I'd find out you were just stringing me along this entire summer?"

  "Don't."

 Laila stared at me incredulously before she just burst out laughing again. "Don't what? Tell the truth?"

  "Don't say that," I repeated, standing straighter. "Because that had to have been the biggest lie that's ever come out of your mouth before."

  All she could do was go back to stare at me in amazement while I stepped closer to her again.

"At some point in time I may have had feelings for Maggie, but whatever was there in the first place is certainly gone now," I began in a leveled voice. "I couldn't care less about what Maggie thinks of me right now. But was I afraid you were going to reject me? Hell, yes I was."

  Laila stared blankly up at me in confusion. "But - but why?  I mean, l - "

"Sweetheart, you waltzed into my life like nobody's business and turned everything upside down for me. Don't think you can get away without me feeling something for you."

  "What?" she said again, sounding insanely confused. "I don't think I'm hearing you correctly."

"Do I have to spell it out for you?"

  "Spell what out?" 

"Damn it, Laila! I don't want you to say that this summer didn't mean anything, because it meant something to me. It meant everything  to me. I don't think I could ever  forget this summer, even if I tried. I don't want you to leave. I want you to stay. I want you to stay here with me."

  Laila looked as if she had no idea how to decipher what I just told her. Hell, I couldn't believe what I'd just told her, either.

  Did I have a death wish or something?

  "What are you saying?" she finally asked, her voice quiet while my heart pounded erratically against my chest.

   "This," I said, reaching out to tug her into my arms. "This right here is what I want."

I leaned closer to her, brushing my fingers across her cheek, trying to keep calm. 

"You, right here? Well, this...I need  this."

   I think it was safe to say that we both leapt in for the kiss at the same time, pressing our lips together hungrily. She was clutching at me like I was a lifeline, her fingers tangled in my hair,  her hands sliding down my chest. I held her against me as tightly as I could, trying to convey how much I didn't want her to go - how much I needed her to say - soaking in the feeling that came with the high of kissing her.

  We were kissing each other like it was the first and last time we were ever going kiss again.

And  I realized then that I was right in saying what I had earlier, that it was definitely true, and that I wasn't ashamed to admit it.

  I needed her.

  Laila Hayes made me feel like I didn't have to be so angry or so pissed off at the world all of the time, because things happened for a reason, and every reason served out a purpose, right?

   I definitely needed her.

   When breathing finally became a necessity, we broke away from each other with gasping breaths, eyes wide as we stared at one another, my forehead pressed against hers.

   "First my dad, then my little brother, and now you?" she gasped out, her chest heaving. "I've got the wrost luck with men in the world."

  "Laila, I - "

"We need to...to just - "

  Her voice broke off as she slowly untangled herself from my grasp, stepping back a step.

"We need to let things just stay were they are, okay? You can go back to being with Maggie and I'll go back to being my boring old self, and then...then things will go back to normal."

  I stared at her in disbelief, my breath catching in my throat.

"I can't do that," I told her honestly.

  "Look, you don't know how you feel about me," she said, taking a deep breath. "I'm sure after I leave, everything will be normal again and everything will be simple again, like back when we hated each other."

   "I never  hated you, Laila."

"Justin."

  "Laila."

"It's better this way, really. This had to end sometime, right? I mean, I live in Seattle. It'll be fine."

   She started taking steps back in the direction I'd just come running from, back to the vacation house. 

   "Trust me," she added, trying to sound hopefully, but it looked like she was seconds away from crying. 

  "Laila, please, don't do this."

"Really, Justin, it'll be fine."

  Just when I thought she was about to leave for good this time, she turned back around, taking my much larger hand in hers before kissing my palm, glancing up at me to give me one last small smile.

  And then she was gone.

  I stared after her, wanting to force myself to go after her, but for some reason I'll probably never know - I just stood there. I stood out on the bridge while it started raining and didn't head back until night had long since fallen.

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  Bloody hell, this was an insanely hard chapter to write! ;(   I hope it's worthwhile, 'cause I worked hard on this one! Thoughts, anybody? 

  Votes, comments, and reads are greatly appreciated!