Gone

We got to mine exactly twenty minutes after we had left. As he parked on the side of the road and turned to face me, grabbing both my hands and staring deep into my eyes. Then, he said the three words every girl my age wants to hear at least once in their life; the three words I really had never expected to hear from anyone too decent.
"Kaia, baby, I love you," he whispered.

My heart literally stopped as what he'd just said to me slowly sunk in, what this meant for us. He wasn't the type to just say something like that which meant that he was being serious, he really did love me. I had almost forgotten that relationships involved saying that kind of thing at some point down the track. I'd kinda hoped for it to be a lot later, not a few months in.

What was I supposed to say back? That I love him too? Saying it was one thing but meaning it was another. Did I love him? And if I did, what then? It wouldn't make any difference if I said it back. Either way, he'd still break up with me; I'd still cheated; and Josh was still blackmailing me. There really was nothing that could be done about it.

My eyes widened with panic as I frantically forced myself to respond. I opened and shut my mouth repeatedly like a goldfish or something. He rubbed his thumb against the outside of my hand softly.
"I-I-I-I can't do this...I'm sorry," I finally replied, almost in tears.
My whole body shook violently as I struggled to hop out of the car. He held onto my arm, refusing to let go.

"Wait baby, talk to me. What's going on?" I shook my head and turned away but he was persistent, "You don't have to say it back if it isn't true. I just wanted to put my feelings out there, let you know I feel about you. I like it when we're honest with each other,"
As you can probably imagine, it made me feel even worse.
"How can you love someone like me?"

He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me towards him even further, our chests touching.
"I don't know what you mean," he murmured, "but it doesn't matter. All that matters is that we have each other,"
I burst into tears as I realised what had to be done. It was the right thing to do; it was time to come clean.

Notes

Doneeee!!!