(Untitled)

[hannah_salix]

Hannah had lied to her boyfriend. Twice. She'd lied. At the time she felt it was inconsequential, but it wasn't. Hannah knew that now. At dinner tonight, Stephen told her that he wanted her back, that he knew that she wanted to get back together with him. Which was the complete opposite of the truth

Comments

[derek_bly]

"Hmm?" Derek didn't look up right away, finishing the end of his paragraph before turning his head toward Hannah. It was nice having her here. They'd gotten to a nice place. Well, everything had been nice since they'd started dating. They were often staying over at one or the other of their flats and there was a comfort level there. The making out had been great. The sex was even better. But mostly it was just having her around all the time. Being domestic. Derek had never appreciated that as much with his other girlfriends as he did with Hannah. Maybe it was the being friends for so long, or maybe it was just her.

[hannah_salix]

"I need to tell you something," Hannah said. She was slightly nervous now, but kept talking. "I was at dinner with Stephen tonight. He said he had to see me again for something, so I went to dinner with him." She glanced down at him, hoping that he would react favorably.

[derek_bly]

Derek felt everything slow down. Stephen. Dinner with Stephen. He sat up straight and turned to face Hannah, setting his book on the coffee table. "What do you mean, you went to dinner with him? I thought there wasn't anything you needed to talk about."

He eyed her carefully, not sure where this was going.

[hannah_salix]

"He told me that he needed to see me, so I went out to dinner with him tonight," Hannah said as she looked down at her hands. She didn't dare look up at him. If she could just explain this, then he would be fine, everything would be fine. Right?

[derek_bly]

"That was the something you had to do? See Stephen?" Derek didn't want to be making more of this than there was but he didn't understand why she wouldn't have said. He'd known she wasn't going to be free until later tonight. He'd kind of thought seeing her frequent on and off ex would be something she would have shared.

He realized he was repeating himself. Or at least his thoughts were. It was hard to get past the jumble of concerns he had associated with Stephen's name. "Why didn't you tell me?"

[hannah_salix]

"Well it wasn't a big deal," she explained. "We'd just seen each other a few times, and then didn't mean anything. I just... I didn't think it was a big enough deal to mention. Because it wasn't," she continued. Derek didn't seem to be happy about this, Hannah worried that he wasn't going to be as understanding as she'd thought. Which was fine, as she'd lied. But if she could just make him understand...

[derek_bly]

"Wait, what- A few times?" Derek scooted full around on the couch now, giving Hannah a serious look. "How long has this been going on?" Last he'd heard it was only coffee. Now it was dinner and Merlin knew how many times in between. Had coffee even been the first?

[hannah_salix]

"No, we went for coffee, then met for drinks one afternoon, then went for dinner today. That was it, it meant nothing." Hannah tried to explain to him, how little it meant, how stupid it was. "It's not something that has been going on, Derek."

[derek_bly]

"If it meant nothing why didn't you tell me?"

Derek realized his voice was rising and tried to reign it back in. He didn't mean to be yelling. Not at Hannah. But his heart rate had picked up now and there was a sick feeling settling in the pit of his stomach. Why wouldn't she have said? What was going on that she couldn't say?

[hannah_salix]

"I should have, I know. But none of it mattered, Derek. I didn't want to upset you! So I didn't say anything," she replied with a hopeful look. He saw it her way, didn't he?

[derek_bly]

"Well you should have! Why didn't you tell me then? If there wasn't anything to hide..." Derek didn't know why he was so stressed. It shouldn't have mattered but it DID. It really did and he couldn't get the wheels in his head to stop turning with all kinds of horrible possibilities. It was Stephen. He'd never understood what she saw in the bloke. And it always ended badly. But they always started again. It had been bad enough to watch when they'd been mates but now... What if that was what she wanted? What if he was back and now Hannah wanted to turn around and give him another go? Was she going to leave him?

"Do you want to be with him again? That's what he wants, isn't it?" Derek felt like he couldn't breathe.

[hannah_salix]

"There's nothing to hide!" Hannah insisted, standing up now because Derek was upset. Once Derek asked what Stephen wanted, Hannah shook her head. "It doesn't matter what he wants from me, it's irrelevant!" Hannah said as she looked at him.

"Derek, just... calm down. It's not a big deal. At all..."

[derek_bly]

"It's not irrelevant!" Derek insisted. "What did you tell him?"

How could she think this wasn't a big deal? Did she want to leave him or didn't she? Derek couldn't think past the threat of that. He'd never been so worried about the possibility of someone leaving him. It was never fun but this was...different. It was Hannah. He wasn't expecting this threat. He'd forgotten all about Stephen when they'd gotten together. Now he felt stupid for overlooking it.

[hannah_salix]

Hannah was surprised at Derek's reaction, though she shouldn't have been. "I... didn't know what to tell him, it was... I don't know. He surprised me so I just left!" It didn't matter, why didn't he see that?

[derek_bly]

"What do you mean you don't know?" The words repeated over and over in his head. If Derek had bothered to stand before he'd have sunk back to the couch. As it was he remained fixed in place. No, forget that. He was standing now.

She didn't know what to tell Stephen. That meant she didn't know that she wanted to be with Derek.

"Do you want to be with him?"

[hannah_salix]

Whoa, what? Be with him? Hannah frowned and stared at him. "What? No, of course not! I want to be with you, Derek." She moved towards him, trying to snog him, or reassure him some way.