❝...s c r e a m i n g , 
c r y i n g,
p e r f e c t  
s t o r m...❞

      a one shot for accidentally on purpose. credit goes to sheeraned for writing such an amazing book that drew me towards writing a one shot for it

• this is the winning one-shot •

HER BODY WAS turned so her back received the blunt force of the rain pellets. Her hand was cupped over her eyes, squinting in an attempt to pinpoint her car through the storm. She hugged her purse to her chest and sprinted to the car, her short, nearly platinum blonde hair sticking to her cheeks. She felt her eyes burn and she blinked rapidly, trying to lose the horrid feeling she had sinking in her heart.

Don't think about him, she criticized herself. Just because you were talking to Tony about weddings doesn't mean you have to think about how you thought you would get married to him one day.

She dove into her car, trembling from either the cold or from memories. Her white blouse molded to her form and she groaned. Just great. Her red bra was showing through the see-through shirt. She crossed her arms on the steering wheel and banged her head. Once. Twice.

She hung her head and rubbed a hand down her face. She had to stop thinking about him. It's been two years, he must be over her by now. But why wasn't she over him?

She saw a figure running in the rain. All she could distinguish was a tall, lanky man running through the storm, and she could have sworn... She shook her head. She was hallucinating about him now, just great.

She started the car and drove as far away as she could from the man sprinting in the rain.

The tapping of the rain and the humming of the car was too silent for her. At a red light, she plugged her phone into her car so her music played on shuffle throughout the vehicle. A familiar tune rang in her ears. A familiar melody that made her lose her breath.

"I love this place
But it's haunted without you,"

She used to play the song all the time with Jonah. All the time.

And when he left her, it became a healing song.

"My tired heart
Is beating so slow

Our hearts sing less than
We wanted, we wanted
Our hearts sing 'cause
We do not know, we do not know."

She slapped a hand over her mouth and choked down a sob. "Oh my God."

She didn't dare shut it off, however.

"To light the night, to help us grow
To help us grow
It is not said, I always know"

Her lip trembled as the song continued, and she drove to the soft hum of Amanda Seyfried. The music faded and combined with the sound of the pellets of rain hitting the roof of her car.

"You can catch me
Don't you run, don't you run
If you live another day
In this happy little house
The fire's here to stay"

She reached her apartment after the torturous drive and threw herself through the door and dove onto the couch, soaked head to foot with a line of dried tears running down her cheek.

Her roommate came into sight and blinked a couple times at her. "Whoa, girl, what happened to you?"

Hannah groaned and ran a hand through her drenched strands of short hair. "Life happened."

"Life happens to all of us, but it looks like it hit you real bad this time."

Hannah sat up and glanced at her friend. A romance writer, Bree constantly pestered her about her love life. Hannah would never talk about it, because he had scarred it for her.

He was all over her mind today.

"I told myself I would forget about him, Bree, and then he just had to show up in my memories once again."

"Dear, you've gotta explain more. I'm lost, who is this 'he'?"

"You know who he is, Bree. The guy I swore we would never talk about, and would you look at that, we're fucking talking about him. God, I'm going insane. It's been two years! I should have forgotten about him already!" Hannah cried out, tucking a loose blonde strand of hair behind her ear.

Her roommate curled up on the couch beside her. "This sounds like a good plot for a book. What happened with your relationship that made you so... This?"

"What do you mean, this?" Hannah scowled.

"Just... You seem very frazzled, Han. Explain the whole story to me. Who knows, I might be able to make money off of it."

Hannah rolled her eyes. "Where should I start?"

Bree sighed. "Hmm, I don't know... The beginning?"

"Okay... Well, I was in love with this boy, named Jonah Gibbs, and I had it bad. He was the school loner, a real grouch. And so me and Gina, you remember Gina, right?"

"Yeah her and the girl... Bey, was it? The ones with the little boy."

"Yeah, them." Hannah gulped. "So I got Jonah to notice me, by bumping into him, and I spilled soda all over him. And he got pissed, and then it just became a giant mess."

"Hold it right there, I'm getting my notebook, this is already good," Bree muttered, wandering off.

Hannah's emotions were in overdrive. All she could think about was the blue-gray eyed boy that had yanked her heart from her all those years ago.

Tony had been instructing her to get a date for the wedding, but she didn't have Jonah. She needed Jonah.

She remembered the day he left her.

It was sudden and horrible, like a nightmare. A living nightmare.

Nightmares start by peacefully drifting off to sleep. The calm before the storm.

Nightmares usually left her horribly confused and frightened.

And that's how she was now.

They were together, as per usual, at the cafe. He had seemed perfectly fine at the time.

"God, you're so beautiful." he stated, smiling at her.

She felt herself blush. "Why so cheesy?"

She should have noticed the mood shift. She should have received a warning before the nightmare arrived.

"Hannah, there's something I need to tell you."

Her hands fidgeted underneath the table. "W-What do you mean?"

Jonah gave her a sad smile, and she remembered, clear as day, how the tear slid down the curve of his nose. She should have realized how bad the situation was. She should have done something to stop it. "Hannah Taylors, I'm moving to New York.

Hannah remembered crying. She remembered begging. There was a lot of begging. Angry kisses. She was yelling at him, screaming. Why, she wanted to know. Why tell me this now, when you're leaving me in two days?

The argument eventually moved outside as well. She remembers shoving Jonah, remembers him stumbling back, and her standing there in pure shock that she did that, and Jonah was in shock as well, and then the insults flew. She didn't mean any of it. None of the I hate you's were from the heart. It was the nightmare speaking for her.

She remembers crying in his lap the rest of the day.

He held her in his arms, his tears streaming onto her cheeks, as hers dripped to the floor. His kisses on the top of her head only made it worse.

They fell asleep like that.

She remembered when they arrived at the airport.

The drive was silent. The walk to the boarding area was silent. It was only when his plane was called when it sunk in to her.

She pounded on his chest and cried into his t-shirt. Her fingers were curled in the fabric and his hands ran through her hair, hushing her through murmurs of 'I love you'. It only made it worse.

But then he boarded the plane. And then the nightmare ended.

But she never woke up.

They had tried long distance. They had.

She couldn't deal with it. Not being able to touch him or feel his warmth every day killed her. So she ended it.

Bree came back, and Hannah was drained. Mentally, emotionally, drained.

"Proceed."

"Bree, I can't-"

"Hannah, come on. If you just let it out, It'll help you, I swear."

And so Hannah explained everything. How they were paired up in Mr. Herberg's class and proceeded to act like they were in a relationship for a project. How they struggled through the baby project together. How their fake relationship eventually became something more. How their feeling of euphoria eventually came to an end.

By the time she finished telling her story, Bree's notebook was filled with scribbles and scrawls about Jonah and Hannah and emotions Hannah had felt at the time. Hannah was in tears by the end.

"Hmm... Accidentally on Purpose," she heard Bree mutter.

Bree stood up and walked off. When she came back from the kitchen, she held a box of kleenex, a carton of ice cream, and two spoons. Sitting down, she handed it to Hannah.

She sniffled and took it graciously, blowing her nose in a tissue. Bree looked at her, concerned, and pulled out her cell phone. "You should call him."

"No, there's no way I could do that."

"Why not?" Bree asked, waving the phone in her face.

"Because, I'd freeze up and say something stupid. If you want me to call him so bad, you call him."

"Okay," Bree replied with a smirk. "I will. What's his number?"

"Oh my God, I was kidding."

"Nope, I'm going to call him. If I call on my phone, he won't know you're friends with me. Give me his number, I'll put it on speaker phone."

Hannah fumbled around, reaching her phone from her right pocket. Handing it to Bree, she slapped a hand to her forehead.

"Why am I letting you do this," she moaned out, grabbing another tissue.

Typing in Jonah's digits, Bree put the phone on speaker. Ringing a couple times, he finally picked up the phone.

"Hello, is this Jonah Gibbs?"

"Who is this?" It was his voice. Deeper, but it was him. She could almost feel his arms around her and smell his musky scent. She held her hand to her mouth to stop herself from crying out.

Bree gave Hannah a side glance "Hello sir, I'd like to ask you a couple questions."

"What the fuck is this?" His voice made her blink back tears. It was him.

"Sir, what are your thoughts on Hannah Taylors?"

It was silent. Absolutely silent.

"Hannah... Hannah Taylors?" He said her name. Her name. It still affected her the same way, a fluttering erupting in her stomach. "How do you know her? Is this Gina? Or Bey? Leann, this isn't funny."

Hannah couldn't help it when she whispered, "Jonah."

"Hannah? God, is that y-" His voice was urgent and distraught, and it this her apart.

Bree hung up.

"Hannah, what was that?"

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help it!" She exclaimed, taking a spoonful of ice cream.

Bree sighed, shaking her head. "You're going to have to face him at some point."

🍎🍎🍎

A couple weeks passed since the 'Jonah Incident' and Hannah was doing fairly okay. Her and Bree were talking with a couple of friends outside of a coffee shop.

They were laughing at something Bree said when her friend Sophie interrupted. "Hey, Han, there's a guy staring at you."

Hannah rolled her eyes and replied to Sophie, "Give him a look that says I'm not interested."

Sophie cocked her head. "Are you sure? He's pretty cute."

Hannah's other friend, Grace, giggled. "He's really cute. Quick, he's not looking, check him out."

Hannah heaved a sigh and quickly turned around, and froze.

"Hannah?" Sophie's voice sounded. "Are you okay?"

Bree's voice entered the conversation worriedly. "It's him, isn't it?"

Hannah nodded. Oh my God oh my God oh my God it's Jonah. Her eyes widened when he got it off his chair. "I need to go," she waved goodbye anxiously, speed walking as nonchalontely as possible. She was so close to her car.

She heard footsteps behind her and, thinking it was Bree, turned around.

Hannah bumped into a man and knocked the water bottle out of his hands and onto his shirt, the water spraying everywhere. Gasping, she laid a hand onto his damp chest. Dang, was that a nice chest. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to- I'm sorry..."

Her eyes were closed at the horror of the accident, and the silence deepened her embarrasment.

"It's alright- it's just water."

She slowly opened her eyes at his voice, her mouth gaping as she uttered, "Jonah Gibbs."

She saw his Adam's apple bob up and down as he whispered, "Hannah Taylors."

Her mind went blank at the sound of her name coming from his mouth, and she couldn't breathe. Silence passed between them for a while, until she couldn't hold it back any longer. Making a choking noise, she gave a hushed shriek of, "oh my God" before throwing her arms around him. She proceeded to squeeze the life out of him as he wrapped his arms around her torso and buried his nose into her hair.

As they hugged, she coudn't help but feel like she was finally nearing the end of her nightmare.

a/n

So this was my entry for the Accidentally on Purpose contest! What do you think of it?

Accidentally on Purpose, if you're wondering, is this incredible book that gives me heart attacks on every other page. I recommend. A+++++ Thank you to Bree for also commenting on my book, that completely made my life!

*will edit later, I just really wanted to post it*