Dark Eyed Dreamers

"Yeah," I replied hesitantly, shifting on my feet.

"How come you're here?" He asked quietly. I bit my lip and looked straight into his eyes.

"Alex kinda dragged me along. I didn't know I'd end up here," I answered honestly with a shrug at the end.

"Oh," he replied dropping his eyes from mine with a disappointed look on his face. Another pang of guilt.

"So, Zack says you can't focus," I began trailing off towards the end.

"Yeah," was his simple answer as he gently kicked a few stones surrounding him in an attempt to look preoccupied. I could feel my face drop even more and took a couple of steps further towards him.

"You know the guys want to pull out tonight?" I asked him knowing full well that he didn't. He looked back up at me then with pain in his eyes. I could tell he felt like he'd let everyone down. It was apparent he'd been trying to play but just couldn't. He quickly averted his eyes, looking ashamed of himself.

"Um, no I didn't," he mumbled. I let out a low sigh only loud enough for me to hear and reached out, touching his arm carefully. His eyes zeroed in on the contact we were sharing and after a brief moment he lifted his hand, grazing his fingers over my own.

"Jack, you shouldn't let me hold you back," I muttered. His eyes met mine once again.

"You holding me back?" He asked almost in disbelief. "Brianna..." he began pushing himself off the wall. "You could do so much better than me." I almost laughed to myself at the irony. "I took advantage of you and I'm sorry for that." I frowned heavily as if he were making fun of me.

"Jack. You have never taken advantage of me. Ever. You haven't done anything to or with me without making sure I was okay with it first. How could you even think you were taking advantage?" I asked out of pure confusion. He dropped the hand that had touched mine and began to rub circles on the back of his neck as if he were trying to soothe himself in this awkward situation.

"I dunno. I just feel how I was acting ruined everything. I'm sorry," he muttered not allowing himself to look me in the eye.

"Jack, it wasn't as if you were causing me any harm. I feel like I was the one taking advantage of how good you were being to me. I'm sorry," I apologised, wincing as though he wouldn't believe me. He half smiled and took a step towards me, cautiously placing both hands on my sides.

"You have no good reason to be sorry," he whispered to me. He bit his lip and slowly leaned towards me. I could see he was being careful and decided to close the distance between us. The feeling I'd been craving for visited me once again. It seemed as though it had been longer than just a day. Much longer. I could feel him smiling and guessed that he had felt the same way. I pulled away quickly after a moment, I desperately needed to tell him something.

"Jack, I love you," I breathed. The grin that spread across his lips after the words left my mouth made me smile to myself. At least I still made him happy.

"I messed up, but I promise I won't. Not again," he paused to kiss my forehead. "I love you too." Jack played the best he ever had that night.