Don't Give Up On Me

"Don't tempt me!"

"To what, leave? You're going to anyway!"

"How can you even think that?!"

Hattie knew it. This was the end. The end of three years of perfection. She should have known it was all too good to last. It always was. Dan seemed to know it too.

"Because you're giving me no reason to think otherwise!" he yelled. She distantly thought of their neighbors and winced. They were being far too loud far too late. No doubt the pair living on their right would be filing a complaint later that day.

Tears filled her eyes but she blinked them away, furious. "I have never given you any reason to doubt me, and you never have before. What changed, Dan?"

"You did! You went to that stupid dig and came back…different!"

"Different how exactly?" she demanded. "More tan? A little more confident? With a slightly different taste in shoes? What exactly?!"

"It's because you're always e-mailing him!"

Hattie blinked in shock. So this was it? The heart of the argument? It had taken almost a whole hour of shouting to find it…

"Well would you rather I call him? It's too expensive, so we e-mail. What's the problem?"

"My problem…is that he's better than me." Dan spat. Hattie – about to shout her reply – froze.

"What?" she asked, voice faint. Dan sighed and sank onto the couch, head in his hands.

"He's just so…perfect."

Hattie didn't move, almost afraid to. "What do you mean?"

"He's good looking, he's smart, he's got an awesome job, he could support you…and you two just have so much in common."

She didn't know what to say. Of all the things she'd suspected might be wrong, this certainly wasn't it.

"Dan…" she took a careful step forwards. "It's not like that."

"But it should be, and you know it." He told her, looking up. Despair was written in his eyes and her breath hitched at the intensity of it. "Hattie, he can give you everything I can't…I'm just waiting for you to run away back to be with him."

The urge to laugh bubbled in her chest, but she shoved it away. This…this was something she could fix.

"Yes, we do have a lot in common." She told him. "We're both fascinated by the Mayans, we're both working on our Masters degrees in Archaeology. And I've never met anyone who can debate a moral issue like he can. But do you really think that's what I want in a guy?"

"Isn't it?" the boy sounded miserable. Hattie chewed on her lip and went to front closet, grabbing a battered old shoebox and bringing it out. She sat beside him, careful not to bump his knee with her own, and opened it.

"This is my memory box." She told him, voice soft. "There's something I want to show you." She flipped through the stacks of photos and old notes she'd passed with her friends in class…and finally found what she was looking for. A single piece of lined paper folded into a triangle. It was stained and torn she had read it so many times.

She handed it to Dan, who took it with hesitant fingers. He opened the little paper football and a slight grin appeared on his face. It was only one line…but it meant more than anything ever had.

"Read it." She ordered, smiling softly.

"It says…'Do you want to get a coffee after class?'" he whispered. "You still have this?"

She grinned when he looked up at her. "Yes. Yes I do. Because Dan…that one little piece of paper was the best thing that ever happened to us."

"But-"

Hattie stopped him, shaking her head. "Dan…you may not appreciate history like I do…and you may not like debating about the moral issues of digging up bodies from hundreds of years ago. But you have other things I appreciate more."

"Oh really?"

"Really. Who else could I watch a full marathon of Star Wars movies with? Who else would go and sit in line with me for the midnight showing of every single comic hero movie release? Who else knows how I like my coffee, and what flavor of cereal I like most? Who else would ever be willing to stay up late just to walk me home after an exam? Or to put up with my crazy parents? Dan, you have so much more than Billy does."

"Like what?"

Her smile warmed and she set the shoebox in his lap. "You have me."

Dan spent five whole minutes flipping through the box's contents and only got through a little of it. It was full of things from him. Notes, pictures, dried flowers she'd saved… Sure there was stuff from other friends too…but he made up most of it.

Finally he looked up at her with a slightly guilty and incredibly grateful and love filled smile. "I guess I can live with that."

She chuckled a bit and leaned forward to kiss his cheek. "You're going to have to, because I don't plan on leaving." she teased. He caught her fingers and pulled them to his lips, eyes not leaving hers.

"Good."