Third Person

Considering that Hannah hadn't even wanted to come to the party tonight, she actually found herself having quite a fun time. It was
hard not to have a good time whenever Jimmy was around, he just had that effect on, well, everybody.

Hannah and Jimmy spent over an hour in the backyard, caught up in their own little world after Erin had left. They were completely oblivious to the time that was flying by as they swapped random stories from their lives, cracked jokes, laughed a whle lot and talked about everything and nothing all at the same time.

Jimmy wasn't about to admit it out loud and scare Hannah off, but he'd always noticed her and just admired her from a ditance over the years. She wasn't exactly a social person, so he found out what he could about her through Erin and picked up on the kinds of things that she liked by watching her in the classes that they had together. He wasn't trying to be creepy, but he knew quite a bit about her considering that this week was the first time they'd really talked since they were little kids.

Jimmy and his friends had a bit of a reputation around school and pretty much the whole of Huntington. So, Hannah had some knowledge on Jimmy despite always keeping herself to herself. Now, she realised, that the more time she spent talking to Jimmy the more she actually wanted to get to know him for herself. She thought, that maybe spending time with him and learning things about him - maybe even letting him learn some things about her - might not be so bad. She didn't want the 'reputation', she wanted James Sullivan.

As the two of them laughed together about a story Jimmy had just finished telling from his childhood, a faint memory popped into Hannah's head.

"I'm not sure if you remember," She started between her subsiding laughs "But, we were in kindergarten together."

"I remember," He assured her with a small smile on his face "We haven't exactly talked since then, but I do remember... I remember what you did for me, too."

"I used to eat lunch with you every day, and sometimes I'd even share my own lunch with you," She mused, a fond smile on her face as she looked down at her feet in the grass "I don't really remember why, but I just remember sitting in the corner with you and eating from my lunch box."

"The first time, you shared with me because I'd forgotten my packed lunch at home and you didn’t want me to cry, so you split everything you had with me and even gave me the bigger halves." He chuckled "Then, we sort of fell into a routine of eating together every day, an any day that I forgot mine at home you would quite happily give me some of yours," Jimmy looked at Hannah and fought to stop himself from pushing back the strands of hair that were falling into her face "I used to inist that you didn't have to, but you would insist that your mom had made too much for you to eat yourself."

Hannah fell quiet for a moment, briefly remembering the days in her childhood when her mother was still around.

"You remember a whole lot more detail than I do," She laughed softly, nervous all of a sudden.

"It was something that I looked forward to every day," Jimmy shrugged.

A few silent moments passed between the two of them, and they could both feel the tension building in the air, so Hannah checked her watch and noticed the time, quickly jumping to her feet.

"Shit, it's gone midnight," She looked at Jimmy, panicked "I should get home, I've got to be up early in the morning for my Dad getting home."

"Right, yeah." Jimmy stood, wipin the palms of his hands on his jeans "I'll take you home."
_________________________________________________________

Jimmy

Hannah and I made our way back into the house for her purse and my car keys, and I quickly explained to a heavily intoxicated Matt that I was going to give her a ride home and that I wouldn't be gone too long. Hannah wound up blushing bright red as a explicit comment passed through Matt's lips, but I just smacked him upside the head and lead Hannah out the front door, grabbing my jacket as we went.

"Sorry about Matt," I groaned as we walked down the front path and I fished in my pocket for my keys.

"He's drunk," She laughed "You don't have to apologize for him,"

"He's too drunk to do it himself," I pointed out "Plus, that's twice tonight that he's acted pretty.. inappropriate towards you, so, I'm sorry for Matt."

Hannah just shook her head at me with a smile, her blush dying down now as the embarrassment passed. I noticed her shiver a little as we reached my car, so I quickly held my jacket out to her.

"Here," I said, getting her to notice the leather jacket being handed to her "You're cold, you can borrow my jacket."

For a moment she looked like she might reject my offer and insist that she wasn't cold, but she must've decided against it and gently took it from me, gracefully draping it over her shoulders. Leather suited her.

"Thanks," She smiled, making her way to the passenger side of the car.
_________________________________________________________

The drive was quiet, except for the music playing faintly through the radio. Luckily, the silence between the two of us wasn't awkward in the slightest, it was comfortable... pleasant, almost.

Just under ten minutes later I was pulling up outside of Hannah's house, on the curb side at the end of her garden path and turning off the engine. Hannah and I turned slightly to face one another at the same secon, both of us letting out breathy laughs when we noticed. All of a sudden I felt more nervous than I had all night, because I'd been in this position with girls before but this time it was different, this time it was Hannah and I knew that if I treated her the way I've treated the other girls then I would ruin everything and scare her off.

"So," I exhaled quickly, running a hand through my hair "We're having a band practice and..."

"And..." Hannah encouraged as I trailed off, a small smile tugging at her lips and a knowing, yet hesitant look in her eyes.

"I was wondering, if you're not too busy with anything, that maybe you'd come along and hear us?" My voice was much less stable than I'd hoped it would be as I spoke, but Hannah's smile widened slightly so I didn't let myself feel too bad about it, but I started to ramble anyway. "I mean, you totally don't have to come if you don't want to, I just thought I'd ask because you're fun to hang out with and I know you've got a good taste in music, but you don't have to-"

"I'd love to," She said softly, cutting me off mid ramble.

"W-What?" I stammered.

"I-I'd love to come and hear you play," She blushed lightly "Erin's told me about the music you guys play, and apparently you're really good." She tucked some hair behind her ear "I'll be there."

I couldn't stop my eyes from flickering down to her lips and back up to her eyes again. Man, she was gorgeous and I wanted nothing more than to show her just how gorgeous she was but I knew that it was a horrible idea, although, maybe... maybe just a small goodnight kiss before she gets out of the car wouldn't be so bad.

I started to lean in towards her ever so slowly, and I'm pretty sure that she was leaning in to me, too, but just before I could get close enough, she turned her head to the side slightly and my lips gently brushed against her cheek in a chaste, slightly awkward goodnight kiss. Hannah pulled away after a second, a bush bright on her cheeks and shrugged my jacket off of her shoulders, handing it back over to me and grabbed her clutch bag from the floor.

"Thank you, Jimmy." She smiled tightly at me "I had a lot of fun tonight, and y'know, thanks for the ride home."

My words were caught in my throat as it clamped around them in shame, and fear of making anything worse. So, I just smiled and nodded at her before she turned away from me and slipped out of the car, into her front yard and walked up her front path. I watched her until she reached the door, unlocked it and opened it to let herself inside. I started the car back up again just as she turned around and waved at me, I waved back at her quickly and sped off throgh the neighbourhood.
_________________________________________________________

Hannah

He was going to kiss me, and I almost let him! God, how stupid can I get? I'm new to this wholething, tonight was my first real party and there I was about to make out with Jimmy Sullivan in his car right outside my house. I really should get a hold of myself before I wind up getting myself a new reputation as 'easy' instead of just 'weird'.

Once Jimmy sped off in his car, I slipped into the house, closed the door behind me and leaned against it to let out a long sigh. After a few moments I managed to pull myself together enough to get away from the front door. I quickly locked the door and set the alarm for the night, knowing that nobody was coming in or going out until the morning. I walked through the house, kicking off my shoes and picking them up to carry them up the stairs instead of trying to climb the staircase in heels that I'd barely managed to walk in all night. I made my way into my bedroom, tossing my shoes in the general direction of my closet and fished my phone out of my bag to see that I had a new text message from Erin. I quickly read the message and instantly called her.

“Hey, E.” I spoke when she answered the phone “I just got back! So, he didn’t even hear you out?” I asked, tossing my bag on the bed and removing my jewellery.

“He still assumes it was me,” She groaned “He is using that time when I was seven against me when I threw my fit and things flew off the shelf! But, like, this place was trashed and… ya know… I would never, EVER do this! HE NEEDS TO CHILL!” I could tell that Erin had moved the phone away from her mouth to yell at my uncle.

“GO TO BED!” I heard him shout back from another room and I tried my hardest not to laugh.

“Okay, that incident was brought on when we were little, and he’s just mad and being unreasonable…” I trailed off “By morning he’ll listen, who would do that, though? I asked. There was silence on the other end of the phone for a few moments “Yo, E. You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, you’re right,” She finally answered “He’s just being dramatic and we both need to sleep it off, hope you and Jimmy had a great time. I know that he really likes you.” I could hear the smile in her voice.

“He’s a really good guy and I really like him,” I admitted “We’ll talk tomorrow if your Dad doesn’t kill you!” I joked “Sweet dreams, E!

Ending the phone call, I rolled back off of my bed and made my way into the bathroom to wash myself back to normal, destroying any evidence of all of Erin's hard work.
_________________________________________________________

Third Person

Hannah awoke rather suddenly, sitting upright in her bed, drenched in sweat with her covers pooled around her hips. All she could hear was the pounding of her own heart and her own ragged breaths.

A nightmare. That had to be it, but she couldn't remember what it was about or why it had woken her so violently. She clutched her shirt, right over her heart as though to stop it from beating out of her chest and looked to her right, a faint feeling that maybe someone had been there just moments ago. Before she had the chance to dwell on the strange thought any more, Jack started barking loudly from downstairs making Hannah jump at least three feet off of her bed and squeal slighly.

"Hannah?!" Her father called out from downstairs as he front door closed behind him "Hannah, are you awake?!"

She looked at the clock that sat on her bedside table and realised that she'd slept much later than she had planned to, so she quickly jumped out of bed, pulled on a pair of sweatpants and bolted out of her bedroom, running quickly down the stairs to greet her father in the foyer.

"Daddy!" She greeted him happily, tackling him with a hug.

"Hey, Baby." George greeted her back with an enormous smile on his face as he hugged her back for a couple of moments before he pulled away, holding her at arms length and taking a good look at her "Are you alright?" He asked "You look a little pale, are you
sick?"

"No, Dad." She groaned with a smile, rolling her eyes "I'm not sick, I just woke up." She tried to stifle a yawn "I went to bed pretty late last night and I slept in."

"It's Sunday," George pointed out "Sundays are meant for sleeping in."

"Most Sundays, yes." She agreed, taking one of his bags and leading him into the kitchen "But I'd wanted to have breakfast served and waiting for you getting home, I'm sorry, Daddy."

"That's alright, Banana." George teased "We can make breakfast together."

One of the things Hannah loved the most about her father coming home from his business trips was that they always spent
George's first day at home together. They would either lounge around the house, or they would go to the peir for ice creams, shop around a little and sit on the beach until the sun started to set and they were hungry for dinner.

What Hannah didn't know about this homecoming, was that her father was going to change things up and drop a bit of a bomb on her.

"So, what's the plan for today?" Hannah asked as she opened the fridge to rummage for ingredients.

"Well, I thought we would spend the morning together and maybe go into town for a bit of shopping before we meet Julia for lunch."

Hannah froze. Julia. She'd been hearing the name for about a year and she'd met the woman enough times to know that she certainly didn't like her, and it was very clear that George was absolutely besotted with the woman. Poor guy.

"I think I'll pass." She grumbled, handing the eggs out to her father "You can just spend your homecoming day with /her/ instead."

"Hannah," George groaned "Please... It's been long enough, surely you can spend one lunch with Julia and I."

Both Hannah and George knew that Hannah wasn't good with change, not even the slightest. She'd been a danger to herself and to others around her when her mother had passed, but now that George was moving on with another woman there was absolutely no way that Hannah could ever be okay with that. In her mind, parents were supposed to be together forever even if one of them was dead - so why would she be accepting of the new woman in her father’s life?

George was still talking, trying to convince Hannah, but to her he sounded far away and under water, she was struggling to register a single word that he was saying - but the fact that he was still talking and trying to convince her was only making her angry and upset with him.

"STOP!" She yelled at him, slamming the fridge door closed, hard.

They both noticed the spark of fire against the door from Hannah's hand but neither of them said anything about it.

"Hannah-"

"Don't." She growled "You know how I feel about Julia, you know how I feel about /you/ and Julia, together. You can't force me to like her, Dad. You can't force me to get along with her and you sure as hell can't force me to waste my time with her. So just... Stop."

She hadn't noticed that the whole time she was speaking, her hands had been clenched into fists and her pyrokeinesis had taken over, burning her hands. George had noticed when he'd glanced down, feeling a little guilty.

"Hannah-" He started again, ready to warn her, talk to her and calm her down before she could do herself any real damage but it was too late.

With a loud, agonizing cry of pain, Hannah unclenched her fist and doubled over slightly, looking down at her hands. The skin of her palms was read and angry, burned and beginning to blister slightly.

“Fuck,” She cursed, hurrying out of the kitchen and back up the stairs into her bathroom, grabbing her phone as she went, wincing at the pain caused by holding her phone.

Once she was in the bathroom she called Erin, putting the phone on speaker and started running the cold tap, sticking her injured hands underneath the cool stream, wincing but forcing herself to keep her hands where they were.

“Hello?” Came Erin’s sleepy voice through the phone.

“Erin?” Hannah whimpered through clenched teeth “E, please, I need your help.”

“Hannah, what happened?” Erin asked worriedly, and Hannah could hear her getting out of bed.

“I-I lost my cool, just a little, and I’ve… fuck, I’ve hurt myself. I need – I need to make it stop.” Her voice was trembling as she kept her right hand under the water and rummaged through her cabinet with her left hand, looking for cream and bandages.

“Can you fix yourself up until I get over there?” She asked.

Hannah nodded for a moment before remembering to speak.

“Y-Yeah, I can manage that. I’m just more scared than anything else.”

“I know, I know.” Hannah sighed, relieved that Erin understood “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Erin ended the call before Hannah could, and she let out a groan of pain as she put her left hand back under the water.

“Hannah?” George spoke, coming through Hannah’s room and stopping outside of her bathroom “Hannah, come here, let me fix you up.”

“I can do it,” She insisted as she tried to unscrew the cap of the cream bottle and failed miserably, dropping the tube into the sink
“Dammit.”

George sighed and moved into the bathroom, sitting his daughter down on the lid of the toilet.

“I’ll bandage your hands up, and then I’ll leave you alone to cool down.”

Hannah stayed silent, refusing to look at her father but nodded slightly, grateful for the help – not that she would admit that out loud.

Notes

Here's another update! Not too bad, eh? Two updates within a couple of days, we're really getting back on track with our writing.

Stay tuned for another amazing chapter to come from my love, elovebakervengeance!<3

~LMV