Worse Than Nicotine

Holly sighed as Alex drove down near City Point. She didn’t understand why he was going this way, he was taking her home after all. Their date had been immediately ruined when Brendon and Jasey “But Minus the Rae part” Bennett walked into Meriadoc’s. But Alex seemed to be going a totally different route on their drive as he turned on a road that lead to another part of the borderlines of Balitmore, leaving Holly to beg the question, “Where are we going?”

“A place that will make up for what happened,” he smiled, taking her hand in his.

Holly bit her lip as to prevent her huge ass smile, and looked back out the window. There weren’t many people in sight, seeing as they weren’t in the middle of the city anymore. She looked closer in the front window, her eyes spotting that they were approaching a sand covered climate, and then she saw the water. He was taking her to Rocky Point Beach.

“Rocky Point?” She asked as he parked the car and walked over to open her door.

“What else could be better?” He beamed and grabbed her hand before he started taking her towards the sand.

They had to hop over a couple of grass patches full of bugs, but they finally got to the beach, and Holly grinned at him. She took her boots off and nudged him, “I’ll race ya.”

“You can try.” He smirked, taking off his shoes as they made a running position. “Run in five … four … three … two …”

But Holly was already off. She could just hear Alex’s screams in the background saying, “CHEATER!” She didn’t care, even as she was giggling the whole way. She dropped her boots instantly as she approached the water, and she sunk her feet in the icy ocean. She threw her hands up in the air to support her victory, and she spun around. “Ha! I wo―”

She didn’t get to finish as Alex flung her over his shoulder and started running through the water. Holly pounded on his back to put her down, but the brunette male didn’t listen, he was having too much fun. After a while of running to and fro, getting splashes all over themselves, he put her down and let her feet reach the shallow water once again. She hit his chest as he chuckled, “Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater.”

“I still won!” She defended.

“By cheating!”

“Whatever, this water is making me cold,” she muttered and dragged him back to shore.

They sat down in the sand, right next to where they threw their shoes. They didn’t talk for a few minutes, just enjoyed their view of the cascading ocean in front of them. They noticed, in that moment, they didn’t need much to keep them both happy. They could be doing anything and still enjoy it, as long as they were in each other’s company. They were that simple.

Holly decided to do the most middle school thing ever and put her hand out beside them, seeing if he would take it. She was about to pull away after a moment, but Alex then went and put his hand over hers while murmuring, “I’m still really sorry about the whole restaurant fiasco.”

“It’s not your fault.” She sighed, rubbing her temple. “You couldn’t have known my ex and newfound enemy were going to be there anyways.”

Alex laughed. “Newfound enemy, wow.” His brow then furrowed as he questioned, “Ex?” Healmost didn’t believe it. He knew Holly was brave, but he thought she’d never really break up with Brendon. He thought the restaurant incident might’ve been a fluke where Holly had caught him in the act of cheating, but he was wrong. “So you …”

“Yeah, I broke up with him.” Her eyes remained on the water flowing and sinking back down against itself. “Everything has … changed. I don’t sit in the same place at lunch anymore, Hayley is usually busy with her boyfriend, not to also mention I’ve hit my limit on doing illegal things without getting caught.” She glanced at Alex, who laughed softly at the last part. “It’s all just … stressing me out. It’s been stressing me out so much that I haven’t had the urges to smoke as often because that even stresses me out.”

Alex hesitantly laced his fingers with her own. “Everything will get better.”

“No, it won’t,” she sighed. “Not with Brendon moving on that fast and dating that skank, Jasey.”

“I thought she was Jasey Rae?”

“Yes, but she always complains that she ‘doesn’t like the Rae part.’” Holly added, using her fingers as quotation marks. “Do you even know what he said to me the day I broke up with him? He gave this whole fuckin’ speech how things couldn’t end like this, and then what do I see today? Him already moving on with the girl who has always been intent on taking what is mine since freshmen year.” She rolled her eyes with a scoff.

“Holly,” Alex called after a minute, and she finally looked at him, “are you sure you’re okay with all of this?”

Holly’s eyes darted everywhere in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“With us, I mean.” He clarified. “Would it be better if we … ended this and you went back with Brendon?” He almost felt his bones shake at her wide eyes. “I mean, Brendon seems like the guy to instantly go back to you at a moment’s notice if you asked, and if he’s better for―”

“Please, stop talking.” She put a hand up. “Yes, this whole thing with Brendon has affected me in more ways that I thought, but I don’t regret what I did. Regretting is for those who are upset with their lives. I admit, I’ve never been too happy with mine, but I will never regret anything that has happened these past few weeks.”

“Really?” His voice almost sounded like a child’s, and that made Holly smile.

“Really,” she nodded. “I want to be with you, Alexander Gaskarth. And the police, nor my family and friends, can stop me.”

Notes

Chapter title comes from: The Beach - All Time Low
IMPORTANT! - Because Hoodiegirl was the first to guess correctly on the last chapter about the book/movie reference I used, she will have an appearance in the next chapter!
Also, has anyone else seen P!ATD's new video for Nicotine?! Gaaaaah it's so good<3
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