I tucked the strand of hair that was blowing in the breeze behind my ear, licking the ice cream cone in my hands.

"Mmm, sugar." I smiled.

Drake nodded, licking the strawberry dessert. "It's so-o-o-o-o good."

My eyes went to Corey; he was sitting on the bench beside me, his forearms resting on the wooden table with the untouched ice cream come in front of him and his eyes stationed down.

I glanced over at Drake who shrugged lightly.

Drake's eyes scanned the premises. "Oh, hey, it's Christian, I haven't seen him in ages!"

I glanced over to see a blonde-haired guy sitting at a table by himself with a laptop in front of him.

"Neither have I." I noted.

"Hmm, I'm gonna go talk to him." Drake claimed, getting up and heading towards his direction.

It was no surprise Christian was here by himself; he'd always been kind of a loner and tended to spend his time on computers.

I hadn't talked to him in awhile but we use to be together, he was my boyfriend after I had broken it off with Nick. I couldn't quite remember why he and I had broken up, but I do remember I was the one who broke up with him.

"You know him?" Corey asked quietly.

I turned my attention to Corey, realizing I'd been looking at Christian for the past minute or so. "Um, yeah, yeah, I do."

He nodded, looking back down.

"Are you okay?" I questioned with concern.

He glanced over at me, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah...I'm fine." He breathed, smiling cynically and speaking with what seemed like sarcasm.

"Well, okay, I know you're not fine but...is there anything I can do? God, that sounds stupid."

He inhaled deeply, straightening up. "No, it doesn't and truth be told there is something you can do but you already did it."

I pursed my lips, trying to think of what he was referring to.

"What did I do?" I finally asked.

"You cared." He stated.

I stared at him for a long moment then breathed a laugh. "Well, uh, of course I care, I mean..."

"Yes, of course you did. You cared enough that you cried when I told you. You cared enough to say something to Nick, and hurt him." He breathed a laugh. "You cared that I was hurt." He smiled tightly, glancing up at the sky.

"Well you know I care about you."

"Yeah, but it also means a lot when you show it.-And don't get me wrong, you show it all the time, I mean every single day we've been together you've showed it in some way, I didn't notice at first though but now I notice and...it feels good, to know that someone cares about me. Like one of the main things you feel as a slave is that no one cares about you and you're absolutely worthless. So, when that happened with Nick it kind of knocked me back down to reality because I was use to having you, you cared about me and you didn't treat me badly. I didn't forget what it felt like; I jus didn't feel like that as much until..." He glanced down, putting an elbow on the table, his knee shaking anxiously. "I wish I didn't tell you that it happened."

"Why?" I questioned, swallowing back the rising feeling of guilt and grief.

"Because I-I just hate knowing that you're upset about it. I know, Arabelle, trust me I know how much it must have hurt you to..." He put his face in his hands, rubbing his eyes. "I can only imagine if I was in your situation, and you had been hurt," He inhaled deeply. "-I would've handled it so much worse than you did. I-I just- I can't even imagine what it must've been like for you and it just kills me to have to think about that."

I looked down, squeezing my eyes shut against tears.

"But I'll get it over it, I mean eventually. You shouldn't be worried about me, nothing happened to me." I said, glancing back over at him.

"Yeah but, it affects you just as much as it does me."

I bit my lip. I knew I shouldn't have showed how much it did take a toll on me. Though...I didn't show just how much it completely tore me apart.

"I've been thinking alot the past few days." He mused, looking down at the table.

"About what?" I inquired; slightly worried this subject would turn to one I didn't like.

"You, us...everything."

I started biting my nails, my nerves getting the best of me.

God only knows what he's going to say next.

"I have a question I've been wondering just out of curiosity." He looked over at me. "Do you still love me as much as you did before we broke up? Answer honestly, I can tell when you're lying."

"Is now a good time to ask this?" I shifted uneasily, glancing over at my ice cream sitting on the table.

"Well, yeah, why isn't? Would you prefer to talk about it somewhere else?"

"Just, is this like going to lead into a conversation...?" I asked.

"This...is a conversation." He said slowly.

"Well, I mean do you want to have a conversation about our relationship?"

"Um, that's kind of what I was getting at so yeah, I think so."

"Uh, well, could we talk about it another time? I mean just not here?"

"Where would you like to talk about it?" He questioned.

It seemed now the tables were turned, he was the one looking at me while I looked away.

"I don't know, just, not...here...or now." I replied.

"Do you just not want to talk about it at all?"

"No, that's not it."

"Okay...we'll talk about it later, then." He looked away.

After a few moments of silence at our table Drake came back over, grinning as usual.

"I forgot how nice that guy was." He said, pulling out his cell phone from his jean pocket and glancing at it.

"We best get goin'. You guys ready?"

I nodded, standing up from the table.

"Cool," Drake played with his phone, most likely texting someone. "We have to finish packing, then we're going to meet Mom and Dad at the airport, they went out to do a few things before we left."

The car ride back was the same as the one there; Drake smoking, the radio playing, but instead of sitting in the back with Corey I sat up front next to Drake.

Just incase things might be uncomfortable, until we talk about whatever he brought up before.

Drake enjoyed the company though, singing along animatedly to the radio and chatting with random subjects that came to his mind.

Corey and I didn't talk until we were at the airport; Drake had misread the time my parents said to meet them there and we had a half hour until they got here.

Drake went to go wonder around the huge expanse of the airport and Corey came with while I got a coffee.

"So," Corey spoke for the first time since we were at the ice cream stand.

I brought my eyes up from the plastic to-go coffee cup, bringing my attention to him as we sat across from each other at a small table.

"Since we have some time to kill anyway, can we talk about it now?" He inquired, glancing at me for a moment.

"Um, yeah, I guess." I exhaled slowly, feeling nervous. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Well first I'd like you to answer my question from before."

"What was it again?" I asked, even though I remembered it clearly.

"Do you still love me as much as you did before we broke up?"

I kept my eyes down, my shaky fingers trailing along the coffee cup.

I swallowed, feeling nauseas.

"Um, why were you wondering this?" I picked up the coffee but my hands were shaking too much and it almost slipped out of my hands but I managed to catch it and set it back down on the table.

I steadied the cup, raking my fingers through my hair.

"Are you okay?" He questioned, looking at me apprehensively. "You're hands are shaking...do you not want to talk about this?"

"No, I'm fine. I'm just...nervous." I admitted.

"Why?" He asked, his voice was calm but had a bit of surprise in it.

"Um, I'm just afraid of what you might say, why you want to talk about this."

"Are you afraid it's something bad?"

I nodded.

"Arabelle...answer the question."

"Oh god, it is something bad."

He sighed, smiling a bit. "No, just answer the question. I don't want to run out of time."

I bit my lip uneasily. "Fine. Um...no, I don't."

He looked down. "Okay, that's all I needed to know."

He stood up from the table.

"That's it?" I asked, skeptical.

"Yeah," He replied simply.

That can not be all.

"You didn't let me finish." I said as he turned to walk away.

He stopped, looking back at me.

"Corey, I love you more than I did before we broke up."

He stared at me blankly for a minute.

He blinked. "What...?"

I breathed a laugh. "Now what about you? You answer the question."

He sat back down slowly, seeming to process things over in his mind. "Um, of course I still love you as much as I did. You shouldn't even have to ask that."

"Well you shouldn't have to ask it either." I countered.

"I...still didn't expect that answer. Seriously? You love me more than you did?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"Why?" He breathed, a smile coming onto his face.

I shrugged. "It's kind of hard to put into words. Now is this seriously all you wanted to talk about?"

"Uh, no. Like I said before, I've been thinking a lot and...I want to get back together."

I glanced around. "Now?"

"Right now."

"What brought this on?" I asked, managing to not seem so surprised.

"Because I love you and I miss being with you. I don't think I can take it much longer. I have to be with you. There's no other option."

"No other option? So if I said no then what would the option be?" I questioned, trying to figure out his train of thought.

"Like I said there is no other option."

"I just realized you didn't ask...are you even giving me a choice?" I smiled somewhat, despite myself.

He looked down and I saw him smirk.

"Well, I mean of course you have a choice but I was just confident that you would agree." He said, looking back at me.

"You didn't even think that possibly I would say no?"

He shook his head. "Didn't even occur to me."

"You're more arrogant than I thought you were." I said, biting back a smile.

He grinned. "I am."

"Now I want to say no just to spite you." I joked.

"I'd still have the satisfaction of knowing you would've said yes if it wasn't for that. So...what do you say? Are we back together?"

I bit my lip. "I feel like you already know my answer but..."