Second Chance

“And it’s just a picture, right?” she asks rhetorically as I take in a long breath. My fingers itch to touch the edge of the picture. Hally’s eyes stare at my back in the photo, every emotion on her face visible. I scan the rest of the photo, but it wasn’t taken on set. That’s more than obvious and my blood freezes as the easiness of my posture hardens.

She’s terrified.

“Pictures say a thousand words, and this one says that he broke your heart … for a reason,” Nancy says.

“And that reason doesn’t matter,” Mark says and sits straighter in his seat. “Everyone loves a second chance.”

Nancy’s smile turns coy and then she looks at Hally, who’s focusing on the picture that’s sitting in front of me.

She’s been telling me she wants to talk. I know she has, and yet, I’ve put it off.

Why can’t she just forget? Why can’t she pretend it didn’t happen?

I nod my head at Mark’s suggestion, waiting for Hally’s reaction. She’s quiet and unresponsive.

I sit up in my seat as Mark and Nancy talk about how the two of us dating is the gossip that everyone will want. They go on about planning dates and discussing where exactly we should be seen. They’ll plan it all out and give us the script.

We can handle that much. But the longer I sit here, willing Hally to look at me, the worse and worse the sickness in my stomach gets.

“So, what happened in high school that made you break up?” Mark asks and the question rouses Hally, but she doesn’t answer. Instead, she looks back at him with something that shatters my heart. Guilt.

I’m a dick for doing it, but I give her an out. I hand it over to her, ready to let her be free of all of this shit. “Why don’t I let Hally tell you?”

Hally’s lips turn up into a small smile as she wipes tears from the corners of her eyes. Nancy pulls on the crook of her elbow and whispers in her ear, but Hally shakes her head. I watch it all like a bystander, as if I can’t help what’s about to happen.

“Did you know Nathan’s the only person to ever call me Hally?” she says softly as Nancy lets go of her. She looks at her fingers as she wipes a bit of black from them, I’m guessing from her mascara.

“I’ve noticed,” Nancy says, eyeing Hally and waiting for more.

“I made him,” she says and then lets out a sad laugh. “I didn’t want him to call me the same name everyone else did.” She forces her tears back and takes in a steadying breath. “I knew there was something between us instantly.”

“Love at first sight?” Nancy says as she jots something down on the back of one of the papers.

“Some would call it that,” Hally says.

“Would you?” Mark asks and Hally nods her head.

My heart hammers in my chest, too hot and too full of raw emotion to settle into place.

“But we were like oil and water; that’s the saying, right?” she asks and then looks up at me. “We picked fights for no reason, both of us hotheaded and unwilling to be wrong.”

“Young love,” Mark says beneath his breath and Nancy nods, jotting that down too.

“Young and stupid,” Hally says and I hate it. We may have been, but that night is what she’s thinking of. I can see it in her eyes.

“I was stupid,” I interrupt her and Hally finally looks up at me, shaking her head slightly.

She swallows and almost says something. She almost contradicts me, but then bites down on her words. She doesn’t want to fight me, and I hate it. My hand clenches into a fist on the table, feeling like I’m losing her.

“And you broke up, over the fighting, we’ll say,” Nancy says as the silence stretches for too long. “Now what was on your mind when you saw him, Hally?” Nancy asks and my body stills, my lungs refusing to fill.

How could I not have noticed? I glance back down at her picture. How was I so blind to her pain? I put my elbow on the table and my chin in my hand. Covering my mouth with my fingers I keep my emotions in check, waiting for Hally to answer.

“I was scared,” she says with a nod and then another, the second one more confident. I can see it in her eyes that she wants to tell them the truth.

She’s sweet and naïve, so it’s only a matter of time before she slips. In this industry, they never let up.

Before they can ask her why, she gives a small smile and says, “I thought he wouldn’t want me the way I wanted him.” Her voice is hopeful and filled with nostalgia.