Page 64 of The Boy I Once Loved

“Eat out. Why?”

He shrugs his shoulders and gestures to the outside. “It’s sunny and dry. Let’s go grab burgers from a van and eat in a park or something?”

I chuckle, and he tilts his head in question. “Something funny, Ella Umbrella?”

I roll my eyes again. “Are you ever going to lose the childish nicknames?”

He laughs as he places an arm around my shoulder and guides me towards the exit. "Where's the fun in that, El? Besides you love it when I call you that really?"

“You’re deluded,” I reply as I allow him to guide me outside and towards the car park. “You’re paying for lunch then captain big-bollocks.”

We drive to a local beauty spot with a lake and Dylan gets us burgers. We find a spot under a tree and sit on the grass together. We sit in silence for a few minutes, which in most circumstances should feel weird, but it never does with Dyl.

"How're things with your mum?" He asks me as he tucks into his food.

I frown. It was all going so well. "You really wanna go there?" I ask him as I chew on my burger.

He nods and waits for me to answer.

“She’s trying so hard it makes me nauseous. She’s trying to be this perfect mother, and it angers me big time.”

Dylan quietly observes me. “At least she’s trying, El. My Dad barely phones me anymore. He’s too wrapped up in his new girlfriend and their baby.”

“I’d rather she just left me alone. It’s all a little too late for me. You can’t turn back time and forget it ever happened.”

He shrugs. "No, you can't, but you can't hold on to things that happened in the past and hold it against people forever. There has to come a point where you move on and try to forgive."

I furrow my brows and look away across the water. “it’s not that easy, Dylan. Can you forgive your Dad for walking out on you guys?” His frown says it all. “Exactly. So, don’t lecture me on my mum and I won’t hassle you over your dad.”

We are silent again for a minute.

“What did you get up to for the last three years, Ella? I never hear you talk about friends from when you lived with your uncle.”

I finish off the last of my burger and as there’s no bin anywhere; I chuck the serviette into my bag. “That’s because I didn’t really have any close friends up there. I was happier in my own company or hanging with Uncle Matt and his biker buddies. We’re very different you and me, Dylan James. You crave the company of others and I shy away from it.”

Dylan leans back on his hands, studying me and making me nervous. “I know you’re scared, Ella.”

My eyes snap to his. "What is it you think i'm scared of? Nothing bothers me."

He half-smiles. “You’re so scared of letting anyone in and being let down again, so you put on this front. This I don’t care about nothing and no one. That way you won’t get hurt.”

We both look up as the sky rumbles and we’ve been so lost in our conversation I haven’t noticed how dark and grey it has suddenly become.

“We should head back before the heavens open.”

“Sure,” Dylan says gruffly, standing to his feet and he follows me over to the bike. Just as he climbs on behind me, the heavens open and torrential rain falls from the sky.

“Hold on tight,” I shout over my shoulder as I pull off the car park and I feel his arms tighten around my waist.

“I won’t let go, Ella,” he says in my ear, his mouth touching my skin, he’s so close. Why do I get the feeling he isn’t talking about the here and now? As we make our way back to college, the downpour doesn’t let up. I can barely see in front of me it is raining so hard.

“I’m going to pull over,” I shout out to him. I feel him squeeze my waist in response. I pull up at the side of the road and turn off the engine.

Dylan grabs my hand. “Come on, we can shelter in there.”

I don't look at where we are, I just let him pull me along behind him. The rain drops in my eyes, making my vision blurry. He opens a door and I look up and I realise we are at the old phone box that has been turned into a miniature library. I follow him inside and the door closes behind me. With the shelf of books inside, there isn't a lot of room for the two of us.

“Fuck,” Dylan exclaims laughing as he brushes his wet hair off his face. We are both drenched. Our clothes cling to us like a second skin. Dylan shakes his hair out causing water to spray everywhere and I yelp and cover my face.

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