I stepped outside without a further word to my Farther and slid into my car. After sleeping it off for a couple hours and having a couple pills, I managed to feel a lot better. Slowly but surely. I drove the car out of the driveway and drove down to the beach.

I was going for a swim.

I parked my car in the parking lot and stuffed my phone into my pocket. I slid on my sunglasses and and wandered down the pathway onto the beach.

My only intention was just to swim and forget. I pulled off my sweater and top and dropped my phone and shoes down onto the sand. I combed a hand through my dark hair and started to walk down to the sea. But just as I did that, I heard sniffling. Like someone was crying.

I looked around and decided to go forward and find whoever it was. The sounds of sniffling got louder and louder and I took off my sunglasses and put them up onto my head to get a better look. To be honest I could see shit in these glasses.

Something was clearly wrong so I briskly walked closer until I could the one person I didn't expect to see on a random day like today. Willow's small frame was curled up in a ball as she sobbed into her lap. I could see her chest heaving up and down rapidly in short motions and it didn't look like she was breathing normally.

She was hid away underneath the bridge that had the pier on. All alone.

I looked around to see if any of her friends were around to help. But there was no one.

'Fuck.' I cursed to myself mentally and ran over to her. She jumped as she felt my hands securing her but as soon as she saw it was me, it was like she calmed down. Her eyes were rimmed red. She rested her forehead onto her knees and carried on to cry.

"Hey, hey.." I said quietly, enough for her to hear me. "It's okay." I told her. I had no idea what was going on in her life. Even though I was friends with her brother, he had never come across that there was something terribly wrong going on.

She continued to cry and I looked down at her. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know how to comfort her. I didn't know if she'd let me in.

Feelings and emotions, boundaries even, were an important and difficult thing to understand. I didn't want to overstep but I also didn't want to leave her like this.

I took a seat beside her on the sand and watched her. Her blonde hair was back behind her ears and some of the strands were wet from resting on her cheeks. I couldn't see her face, it was cradled by her hands as she sobbed into her lap again and again.

I sat there, frozen as I just stared at her. I had never taken care of someone else before. I didn't have a clue what to do.

I cleared my throat. "What's the matter?" I asked and she shook her head, crying even more. I didn't think it was possible to cry so much but she did. "Wait here." I said and instantly regretted it afterwards. It didn't look like she was going anywhere anytime soon. I ran out from under the bridge and grabbed my stuff, along with my favourite sweater. I had worn this way too many times.

I walked back over to her and dropped my stuff onto the sand. I kept the sweater in my hands and coughed. I was holding the sweater in my hands just looking down at her. Just ask. Or maybe tell her.

Okay.

I walked over to her, careful not to scare her, and bent down in front of her. She let out a small whine and moved her head up slightly from her knees. I could only see her eyes as she looked at me. There was something black on her face — which I was presuming was that thing called mascara — and it was smudged.

I coughed at the realisation that I was staring for too long — creep — and I gestured to the sweater in my hand. "Wear this. You'll get cold." I told her and I swear I could see the creases on either side of her eyes move up. She was smiling — I think.

"It's hot today, Theo." She said quietly. Her voice sounded shaky and frail and my heart almost felt like it was breaking for her. But oh shit. She was right.

"Still. Wear it for me." I said. She looked down at it for a couple of seconds before looking back up to me. She paused for a second and I swear that I was getting lost in her watery blue eyes. They looked like the ocean.

"Okay." She responded quietly. She picked her head up from her knees and her tear stained cheeks was smudged and coloured in black mascara. Her eye lashes were wet so I grabbed the sleeve of the sweater and wiped under her eyes and her cheeks. I didn't know why I did that.

She just looked like she needed that to happen to her. You know?

She gently took the sweater from my hands and smiled at me. It wasn't a proper big smile where it would show her teeth, just a tight-lipped one. But I knew she was still thankful.

She slipped into the sweater and I let out a chuckle. It was massive on her. It drenched her small frame and even hung over her feet. But of course she was sat down so it would be a lot shorter when she would stand up.

I think.

I was doing too much thinking and I hated it. Normally I was a guy who knew what he wanted and that was that. But with her, it was as if my brain turned to mush. I had no clue what to do.

She went quiet and pulled the sweater sleeves over her hands as she curled up into a ball again. She sniffled and her breathing sounded a lot calmer to which I was relieved.

"I've got mascara on your sweater." I heard her say.

"I can always clean it."

She sniffled again and I wanted to ask her how she was. What happened and why she was down here alone again. But I knew these were personal questions.

Ten minutes or so passed and I just allowed her to cry and calm down. She looked like she needed to get something off her chest.

"Why're you here, Theo?" I looked down at her and saw that she was already looking at me. I didn't know. There was something about her eyes on me. It felt different to the stares I had gotten from anyone else.

"I came down here for a swim." I watched her glossy eyes scan down my body. Fuck.

"Are you surfing too? You know you should be wearing your wetsuit." She told me and I smiled at her obvious worry regarding my beach attire.

"Not surfing today." I said. "Just swimming."

"Cool. That's, really cool." I looked down at her and she looked up at me.

"You don't seem the type to say 'cool.'" I told her and she smirked.

"There's a type?" She asked and I nodded. I could see her eyes clear up from any tears but they were still puffy — which meant she had been sat down here crying for a while. I wish I could've gotten here sooner. "What's the type to say cool then?"

"You're looking at it right now." I gestured to myself and the same melody flew to my ears. She laughed.

Why was I getting so caught up over her laughing?

I was really insane.

"Why can't I be the type to say that word then?" She crossed her arms over her chest and I scoffed.

"Because you look like the type to say splendid or amazing. Not cool. You'd only say cool if you were cool." She gasped dramatically.

"Are you insinuating that I'm not cool?" She glared playfully and I smirked. From the stream of sun that came through the cracks of the bridge up above, it casted an orange glow on her skin every so often until the sun would move.

"You are cool. Just not as cool as I am." I stated and she giggled, shaking her head and looking out towards the sea. "So why are you here?" I asked and I saw her face drop from any emotion she had a second ago.

What a way to go Theo!

Stupid ass.

She swallowed but remained quiet.

"Sorry, I shouldn't of-"

"My Dad." She said. I stopped at looked at her. She didn't say anything more than that and I scooted partially closer to her. Just for her to know that I was listening. If she wanted to carry on, of course.

"Promise you won't say anything." She turned to me and I stuck out my pinky. She slowly wrapped hers around mine and her nail — which was painted and long — grazed against my skin.

"I promise." I said.

She took a deep breath in and wiped under her eyes with her fingers. The wind blew gently against her hair and I could see her squint.

I took off my sunglasses and passed them to her but she denied them. "If I wear them you won't take me seriously." She said, humour lacing her tone.

"Bet."

She took one last look at me before sliding them on her face. Don't laugh, don't laugh-

"You're laughing."

"Am not." I said and I looked away.

"Yes you are. I can see your lip quivering." She pointed out and I looked back at her, a massive grin on my face.

"I was about to cry." I said and she cocked a brow up. The glasses were massive on her.

"Don't steal my thunder." She started to take the glasses off but I stopped her. She took away her hand and watched me through the lenses of the glasses.

"They stay on." I told her softly and pressed them back onto the bridge of her nose. "Proceed."

Her cheeks suddenly went pink but she looked away rapidly. Was she okay?

Then she cleared her throat. "Are you ready?"

I nodded. "One hundred percent."

She looked at me then back out towards the sea. This time she wasn't squinting. "My Dad messaged me." She said I stared at her.

"I can tell you're dying to ask questions, Theo." She paused. "Go ahead."

"I'm just wondering is there a boundary to what I should stop at?"

She looked surprised at my words but shrugged. "Nope. Ask anything."

"Okay. What's so bad about your Dad messaging you? Do you not have a good relationship with him?" I asked. I knew these were super personal questions and I was testing it a bit.

She gulped and fiddled with the end of the sweater. "My Dad has...not been around me and Cal. I'll just put it that way." She went quiet for a few minutes, probably scared of what I was going to say.

"I'm sorry about that." I said, unsure of how I should reply. I knew me and my Father's relationship wasn't built up on love. So I could guess that was how it was with her Father.

"Don't be. He's asked to have dinner with us but I don't think I can do it. He hurt us a lot." She rested her chin on top of her knees.

"I don't have a good relationship with my Father either...I would do anything to fix it between us but I think it's too far gone now. But you, you both have a chance to make this right." I sighed and she looked up at me. She looked sad. "Try your best to salvage your relationship with him if you can."

We both went silent and I looked down at my hands, playing with the rings on my fingers.

"But my Dad...he-" She stopped and suddenly covered her face with her hands. With the brash decision, I decided to pull her into my chest.

"I'm sorry, Willow. I shouldn't of pushed you to speak about this." I told her and she shook her head. I could feel her hot breath fanning my arm, and I could feel her wet tears drop onto my shirt.

"You didn't push me to talk about it. I did." She said through hiccups. She wiped the tears from her eyes and cheeks and sat up, she squeezed her eyes together like she was trying to drain out the last of her tears.

Then she opened them again, immediately meeting my eyes. She swallowed hard and looked down at our proximity. I would've smirked at her flustered self if this wasn't supposed to be sad.

"Sorry." She quickly said and leant back.

I helped her move by resting my hand on her back. "You're fine."

She froze and stared down at my hand that was on her.

She stared for a couple seconds. Her brows narrowing downwards.

"How did you get that?" She asked, pointing down to my hand. Fuck. I completely forgot I had that. I removed my hand from her back and clasped my hands together between my legs.

"Nothin' important." I replied and clenched my jaw. I didn't want to speak about that sick bastard.

I could feel her hot gaze on the side of my face, almost pleading me for the truth. I looked down at her. "Promise you won't say anything." I said, recalling her words.

I watched as she stuck out her pinky finger. I slowly wrapped it around here and she looked up at me. "Promise."

"I punched someone. Multiple times." It was as if all the colour drained from her face. "You promised you wouldn't say anything. You can't go back on a promise."

She stuttered before the actual words could come out of her mouth. "What? Oh- no I was- you punched someone? Who?"

I chuckled at her shocked self. "I did, and I can't say."

"Oh. But why did you punch them?"

I shrugged. "Because I felt like it."

Her eyes widened. "Because you felt like it?"

"No. Let me reiterating that sentence. Because they annoyed me and said some things they shouldn't have." I said and she shut her mouth, nodding.

"So, you punch people..." She started. "Doesn't that hurt?"

I scoffed at her question. "Not when you've done it more than a couple times."

She fell silent and I looked over at her. My eyes scanned her face. She didn't look scared. Or afraid. Or upset. "So you're like the definition of a bad boy, then." She said to herself under her breath.

"I guess I am." I replied and she looked up at me in shock. "You tend to say stuff out loud rather than in your head." I told her and she sighed. She fiddled with a strand of her golden hair.

"I tend to do that a lot." She muttered.

"It's not a bad thing, though." I told her and she looked up at me with a facial expression telling she didn't believe me.

"It's not?" She asked and I shook my head.

"No. It gets what you really want to say, off your mind. It's better to say it than keep it in, right?" I cocked a brow up and she stared at me before nodding softly.

"I guess so." Then she stared again. I watched as her eyes traveled down to my lip and I felt the need to swipe my tongue across. Her eyes stayed fixed on my lip and I wondered if she knew she was doing that. "Did that hurt?" Her soft voice asked.

"Did what hurt?" I tilted my head to the side. She looked up at me; eyes meeting mine.

"Your lip ring." She responded and I clenched my jaw together.

"No." I said truthfully. To be honest, I barely even felt it.

"I want one." She said in a daze.

"No you don't." I said far too quickly. Fuck.

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Why not? I think I'd look quite cool with one." I smirked at the use of the word cool but none the less felt like she'd look too cool if she got one. You know?

"It hurts." It hurts? I looked away and rolled my eyes. Dick.

"I thought you said it didn't hurt?" She asked and I looked back at her. She looked confused. Her brows were narrowed and her head was tilted to the side.

I shrugged. "I wa- I lied." I said. That was what came to mind.

"Oh." Was all she said before looking back out to the sea. "On a scale of one to ten how bad was the pain?"

"Ten." I said. "A solid ten."

What was she doing to me?

A/N: