"I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close."

- Pablo Neruda

*******************************************

Without another word, Axel grabs my arm and drags me out of the car.

"Let go of her." Clayton snapped, now opening his car door.

Axel shot him a confused look before smirking in a devilish way, I felt as his hand unwraps itself from my arm while he kept his sole attention on Clayton.

"Who exactly are you talking too? I know it isn't me." He said pointing to himself.

"Obviously I'm talkin-" Clayton started, but got cut off.

"Don't give me any more reasons to give you another black eye, I'm already holding back on your scrawny ass." Axel continued, walking slowly towards him, almost as if Axel was a cat and Clayton was an unsuspecting mouse.

"Let's get one thing straight here and I'm going to tell you this exactly one more time," Axel said through gritted teeth, holding up his index finger.

"If I see you causing bullshit trouble again, I'm not going to be as nice. If I see you around Mia again or even think you are up to some loony bin shit, you're over Jackson. I don't care who your father is and you out of all people should know that by now." Axel threatened.

So Axel does know about Dave, he knows my father. Axel knew who my father was and didn't tell me.

Clayton rolled his eyes at Axel before backing up a few steps with his hands up like he was surrendering.

"Doesn't matter," Clayton stated. "You've already lost her." Now was his turn to smirk at Axel. Both boys looked over at me with both very different expressions on their faces.

Clayton looked at me almost victoriously, like he had just somehow won a long waging war, while Axel looked at me with worry clear in his eyes and maybe a tad bit of regret. My head felt like it was being pulled into two, I wasn't sure who to believe or how to feel or even know how to make this situation better.

Axel shook his head to himself before walking from Clayton towards me. He immediately grabbed my hand and started to pull me towards his car.

"Wait!" I said, slipping my hand away from him.

"For the love of everything holy, what possibly do I need to wait for? Do you think I'm letting you stay? Here? With him? Absolutely not. You've caused enough trouble already, do you even think? Huh? What's the point of having a brain if you don't use it?" Axel snapped poking at my forehead.

"Is there anything in here? Hello? Anyone home?" He asked looking at my forehead, now knocking gently on it.

"I was just going to say that I needed to get my phone." I cleared my throat awkwardly while opening the backseat door and grabbing my phone.

"Got it, we can go now," I stated, shaking the phone in front of him.

Axel's eyes widen in realization "Oh." He said, seeming a little embarrassed for his outburst.

Axel grabbed my hand for the second time, trying to force me towards his car, but I again wiggled out of his grasp.

"And I can walk on my own," I said looking down at our now separated hands.

Clayton's words were still floating around in my head, could Axel be lying? Is his feeling genuine? Does he like me?

Why would Axel treat me so horribly when I first arrived here if he were told to make me fall for him? Is it reverse psychology? To make me feel special? That I changed a bad boy like every love-struck, hopeless romantic's fantasy?

It's pretty ironic that my emotions are impenetrable until I'm put into a situation that I actually have to feel for my own, not what I know I should feel or how others want me to feel. I just suddenly turn into an over-emotional mess, as if I've never felt a thing before in my life.

I noted the obvious hurt look on Axel's face after our hands disconnected, I'd be lying too if I said it didn't affect me either, but I had no time or reason for that matter to feel bad.

I walked past him, getting into his car that he parked behind Clayton's, as I sat down I noticed that Axel hadn't moved from his spot. His scrunched up eyebrows told me, he was deep in thought about something, probably my sudden distantness.

After a few seconds, Alex got into the car but he didn't start it or even say anything, he just sat there. Axel knew that I had discovered information, his body language gave it all away. I thought for a moment, wondering how to bring it up, how to question our whole relationship.

"Listen," I started off by sighing.

"Wait," Axel interrupted.

"No-" I began, I don't want to wait. I want him to explain.

"Please just hear me out." He looked over at with those damn brown eyes that make me weak.

I quickly looked away from him, not wanting to get trapped in his gaze.

Why? Why should I? Shouldn't I be the one telling him to listen to me? I had so much to say I felt like I was going to explode. I just looked out the window, noticing Clayton had already left before saying;

"Go ahead."

I was still looking out the window, waiting for him to start talking, to explain himself, to defend himself.

Please defend yourself, Axel.

I felt his hand creep under my chin, gently turning my head to look at him. I pulled my chin away from his hand, shooting a look over at him. Axel's hand stayed there for a moment before he dropped it back down to his side.

"Can I not touch you now?" He whispered.

"I'd prefer if you didn't," I told him honestly.

"Can you at least look at me like I didn't rip your heart out of your chest?" He asked.

"Kinda feels like you did," I spoke, my voice not fluttering at all.

Axel just looked down at his hands, not knowing what to say.

"Was it all a lie?" I asked.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, confused.

"Your feelings towards me, are they genuine? Do you feel anything for me or is it a lie?" I snapped.

"Are you really asking me that? What did that son of a bitch tell you?" Axel's tone started getting vicious.

"Just answer the damn question." I basically pleaded.

"I love you, Mia." Axel's rough tone was now long gone and was replaced with a soft, hushed one.

I was taken back for a second, my eyes widen in surprise. He loves me? Is that the truth? Or is he spiraling to get me back into arms to obey Dave? I shook my head at all my thoughts.

"You don't believe me?" Axel asked, sounding hurt.

"I don't know what to believe anymore." I huffed out, aggressively running my fingers through my hair.

"Mia, look at me," He commanded softly.

My eyes made their way over to him, but I quickly looked away again because the look on his face sent my stomach feeling seasick.

"Please." He begged.

I forced myself to look at him, ignoring the feeling of the car shrinking around on me. My heart felt heavy looking at him, I never wished for a normal life more then I do now. A normal life where Axel was just a boy and I was just a girl, that we could love each other freely and without doubt.

"I love you, let me prove it." He said, hopefully.

"I need answers, a lot of them, Axel. Not just about our relationship, I'm tired of waiting and making up a thousand scenarios." I demanded.

"Okay, okay." He nodded his head agreeing.

"I'll tell you everything I know okay? Just please, let me have the rest of the day to prove to you that everything between us is real." Axel spoke, searching my eyes for understanding.

I gave him a conflicted look, still not convinced.

"Just give me the rest of the day, if you feel like I'm lying about how I feel for you then I'll tell you what you want to know and leave you alone, I promise." He said picking up my hand and placing it over his heart like he's done once before.

At that moment I wanted to disagree and scream, I really did. I wanted to tell him to answer my questions now because I didn't think I could go another minute without knowing. But somehow my body betrays itself and says;

"Okay."

"I'll give you the chance." I finished.

Goddamnit, Mia.

Axel gave me a smile of relief and I had to stop myself from wanting to smile back at him. I think somehow, without me fully noticing, Axel really did creep into my heart and had a tight hold on it. With that realization, I knew it was going to be that much harder to walk away if I couldn't believe him after the night.

I think I agreed to have this date because maybe I just wanted one more day with him before things were different, even if I knew that I may have to say goodbye to him.

I just wanted one more day, one more laugh with him. I told myself that after the night I'll make my decision If I couldn't bring myself to believe Axel, I'd walk away from empty gold.

The engine coming to life snapped me out of my thoughts, I had almost forgotten that we were still parked at a random street. Axel pulled away from the curb, his hands gripped tightly against the stirring wheel. I noticed we were going the opposite way back to the school so I asked him where exactly we were going.

"Home," Axel told me, his voice a little stiff.

"We're not going back to school?" I asked, confused.

"You already skipped, mise well just take the rest of the day off, besides you got to get ready anyway." Axel had a small smirk on his face as he spoke.

"Ready? Ready for what?" I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I'm going to give you the time of your life tonight," He wiggled his eyebrows.

After seeing the not amused look on my fight he coughed awkwardly, clearing his throat and readjusted his grip on the wheel.

"I was just joking, Angel." He said not looking at me.

"But I do have big plans for us tonight, but if you really want to go back to school I'll take you." Axel finished.

My eyes widen in surprise, he was really giving me a choice? That's not a very common occurrence for Axel.

"Can we go home? Would Rose be upset that we skipped?"

I remember every time I would skip school my foster parents would never take it lightly and neither were the punishments.

Rose isn't a normal foster parent.

Being with Axel had almost made me forget about that.

"Rose is already at work." He informed me.

"Ohh." Was all I said.

"Can I ask you something?" Axel asked after a few moments.

"I guess so." I shrugged.

"Why did you to Clayton? Did really not believe anything I told you?" He continued.

"To be fair Axel, you never really gave me answers to anything, in fact, you always leave me with more questions," I said a little more sharply than I intended too.

"If you really want to know why, you told me we couldn't be together until I understood why I was here," I told him honestly.

"So I wanted to understand and Clayton was the only one who knew anything I was willing to talk to me." I finished.

I looked over at Axel and I was surprised to see him looking at me instead of the road, he looked sadden by words but I felt like he knew where I was coming from.

When we finally arrived back at the house Axel parked the car in the driveway and we both just sat there a couple of minutes, neither of us breaking the silence that has been over for a while now. I was about to just get out but he spoke up, stopping me.

"You should wear something warm and comfortable tonight," He said, shutting off the car.

"Where are we going?" I asked, fully expecting him to dismiss my curiosity.

"Amusement park." He grinned devilishly.

Oh boy.