Hanna Marin knows what Hanna Marin means (numbtothedanger) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-12-18 19:55:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, caleb rivers, hanna marin |
Who: Caleb Rivers and Hanna Marin plus Tom Marin, Kate Randall and creeper intern
What: Caleb defends Hanna’s honour because Tom Marin is a dick
When: 18 December 2015, evening
Where: Office party type place
Warnings: Sexual harassment, punching
Status: Log | Complete
It wasn’t just because Hanna enjoyed spending time with her boyfriend that she had invited Caleb to the holiday party her dad’s work threw annually. It was a major part, no doubt, but there was more to it even if she didn’t really talk about it. Mostly in the form of her dad’s coworker or intern (Hanna didn’t know the details, she didn’t want to know them or him) gave off way creepy vibes. Like, completely way worse than Mister Fitz. Lingering touches, things that could be brushed off as an accident but continued to make her skin crawl.
Hanna just didn’t like to think about it, so she usually didn’t. But since she didn’t have a choice in coming, she was of course bringing Caleb along because an added buffer from creepo man. And spending time with her boyfriend obviously. That, and it was the first time she’d even brought a boyfriend with her to one of these things. Usually it was one of the girls if she brought anyone.
As it were, Hanna was waiting for Caleb to get back from the bathroom. So far, nothing had gone on, and it was just a normal party with food and drinks and socialising. Which meant that while she tended to be aware of creeper’s eyes on her at times, she was enjoying herself. So of course that had to halt. Feeling a hand on the small of her back, Hanna turned to find, not her boyfriend, but creepo himself so she tried to step away only for him to kiss her.
Momentarily stunned because what, the sliding hand snapped her back into reality and she pulled away, slapping him.
“What the hell!? I have a boyfriend! You can’t just kiss someone like that!”
“Mistletoe.”
Shaking, Hanna scanned the area. Still so sign of Caleb. But she this was too much. Between him giving her rides home and touching her leg, and just a piling up of things… She needed to talk to her dad. So she went in search of him, finally finding him and going to a back room to tell him what had happened.
Caleb had dressed up for Hanna’s father’s work party. It sounded fancy (probably not as fancy as the Stark party but he was comfortable there) and he wanted to make a good impression on her family. Even if he knew her father was kind of an asshole. He wasn’t in a suit or anything, just in a nice pair of pants and collared shirt, but hey that was nice for Caleb. The guy used to not own anything beyond jeans and t-shirts after all.
He was looking for Hanna when Kate approached him. He hadn’t met her yet, but he knew who she was and Hanna had pointed her out when they had arrived at the party. “Hey,” he said giving her a polite smile. “Have you seen Hanna?”
“No,” Kate replied stepping closer to him. “But I have seen you,” she placed her hand on his chest, fingers toying with the fabric of his collar. “Has anyone told you how handsome you look?”
She was even more of a bitch then Hanna described. Seriously. What the fuck was going on? “Yeah. Hanna. My girlfriend,” he replied removing her hand from his shirt. “Has anyone told you how fat you look?” He didn’t bother to wait for a reply though, instead just brushing past her continuing on his search for Hanna.
Well. If Hanna had thought that her dad would at least believe her with this? She had clearly been mistaken. Then again unbeknownst to her, mister Creepo had apparently told her dad that she had been the one who put the moves on her, as if he knew that at some point she would go to Tom.
All she could do was stare at her dad in shock though, not really processing yet what had happened.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“I asked if it wasn’t the other way around. He’s come to me with...concerns… about your behaviour before.”
“I can’t believe I’m hearing this…” Stunned, all she could do was shake her head. “I’m coming to you as your daughter because someone you employ is a complete creep who has no problem harassing a teenage girl and acting entitled and you…”
Maybe she should have stopped when she noticed bridge pinch and eyes closing. It was his tell for when he was going to say something he wouldn’t be able to take back, or when she was in trouble but this wasn’t her fault so she couldn’t see why that would be his reaction unless he was finally listening to her.
“He’s not the problem, Hanna. You are. You’ve always been the problem. Flirting with the wrong person or getting in trouble just to get my attention. It’s childish and selfish. And now you’re trying to ruin someone’s career--”
“Wow.” Hanna didn’t even care that there were tears. Usually she tried to keep her emotions in check until she was alone. But this…. “I’ve grown used to you not caring about my accomplishments, but I…” Shaking her head, she wiped at her eyes. “God, forget it. Believe what you want. You always do.” With that, she turned and left the office managing to stop the tears by the time she got to where the people were.
Good. There was Caleb. Grabbing his hand, she just headed towards the door.
“I suddenly don’t feel good. Let’s go.”
Caleb could immediately tell something was wrong. He wasn’t buying her ‘I don’t feel good’ excuse. His brows knitted together a frown forming on his face. He had been planning on telling her what happened with her psycho step sister but clearly that could wait.
“What happened?” he asked but continued with her towards the door. If she wanted to go he certainly wasn’t going to make her stay. He didn’t particularly want to stick around the party either. But he did want to know what the hell had happened to upset his girlfriend.
“It doesn’t matter.” Well, she wasn’t denying that something had happened. She just didn’t think it did. Because her dad’s words were going around in her head and maybe she had brought it on herself. If she hadn’t, he would have believed her. Just because she’d been able to (mostly) talk big and say he was wrong didn’t mean she believed it. Not really.
“Can we just go? Please?” By then they were at the door and she was anxious to leave. She didn’t want to be here longer than necessary and then she noticed Creeper himself and tensed before trying to forcibly drag Caleb out the door.
Of course it mattered. Anything that upset Hanna mattered. But again he wouldn’t make her stay if she didn’t want to. He did notice that she seemed to tense up as they reached the door. He glanced around trying to figure out what the hell was going on. This was not like Hanna at all.
“Yeah, we can go. But you are going to tell me what happened,” he said and walking out the door with her. “No secrets remember?” he felt a little bad bringing that up and forcing her to talk. But really he just wanted to make whatever was going on better.
And suddenly Hanna was wishing they hadn’t agreed on the no secrets thing. Mostly in that instant but they had agreed to be honest with one another and apparently she wasn’t going to be able to leave until she told Caleb.
“Yeah…”
Shifting some, Hanna absently tugged on the skirt of her dress as if worried it was too short before shrugging.
“This guy got too friendly. He works for my dad, it’s not the first time. It’s not a big deal. Now can we go?”
What. The. Fuck. Now Caleb was just mad. Not at Hanna. At whatever asshole got friendly with her. “Who?” he asked looking back at the party. He was completely ignoring her question about leaving. Not on purpose, he just hadn’t heard much after her explanation.
“What do you mean too friendly?” He had a pretty good idea but he needed to know more. He didn’t like this. Not one bit. Eyes narrowed at all the guests he dragged Hanna back into the party not caring if he was making a scene.
This was exactly the opposite of what she wanted.
“Caleb stop. It doesn’t matter. There was mistletoe. My dad’s right, it’s probably my fault anyway. He got the wrong idea.” Which wasn’t answering the question but she also didn’t want to relive it.
Then again, it also was enough to put together. And not hard to figure out who it was given she started to tug at his hand more to leave as they passed him and her dad. “Caleb, let’s just leave.”
And cue mister creeper coming up to the two.
“Hanna, is this guy giving you a hard time?”
Oh god. Could she just…. not be here? And her dad was watching and yeah. Hole swallowing her up would be great right about now.
Mistletoe? What? “He kissed you?” his voice rose slightly, clearly angry. “Who?” he asked again. His question was answered when Hanna tried to pull him away as they passed some douchey looking guy and her father. And then the guy had the nerve to approach Hanna and ask if Caleb was giving her a hard time. That just made him even more angry. Who the hell did this guy think he was? He was the one who had upset Hanna. Not Caleb. Caleb would never do anything to hurt her. He would just protect her, always.
“I think you have us mixed up,” Caleb replied. Before he really knew what he dropped Hanna’s hand balling it into a fist, he raised it and swung making contact with the guy’s jaw. “That’s for hitting on my girlfriend,” he swung again getting another punch in. “And that’s for kissing her.”
Of course he figured it out. Then again, it wasn’t that hard to with the things she had said and her reactions to certain people. But honestly Hanna was just wanting to get out of there and for there not to be--
A scene.
Which there was because suddenly Caleb said, out loud, what had happened and was punching him and Hanna’s eyes went wide.
“Caleb!”
“Hanna, what is the meaning of this?”
Because to Tom, this was just her trying to get back at him for...whatever it was she was blaming him for this time.
As for Creepo, he just wiped the blood from his lip and shook his head.
“I don’t know what she told you, but she left this for me.” And so pulled out a note from ‘Hanna’, but really it was Kate.
“What!? No I didn’t!” But there was that fear in the back of her mind that it was A after all. That somehow the new one had shown up in Orange County because she had definitely not left any sort of note for the jerk.
Caleb didn’t even bother to look at the note. No way would he believe that Hanna had passed a note to some random guy that worked for her father. Or a random guy in general. He trusted Hanna. She would never do that to him. Plus he had seen how upset she was by the whole ordeal. No way would she be upset if she had wanted to be kissed by the creep. Logic was a thing and Caleb had it.
“Great story,” Caleb replied his voice dripping with sarcasm as he flexed his hand. He was going to need to put some ice on it later. “Tell it to someone who will buy your bull shit. Hanna wouldn’t write you some note,” with that he took the letter and scanned it over. “That’s not even her writing.” This was really pathetic. Either this guy was trying to save face in front of his boss and blame the whole thing on Hanna or someone was framing Hanna. Either way Caleb knew his girlfriend, even if she was probably a little upset with him right now for the scene he had just caused.
He turned his attention to Mr. Marin. “Here,” he said handing over the note practically shoving it in his face. “If you believe your daughter wrote this then you clearly don’t know her. I love your daughter Mr. Marin,” yeah Hanna hadn’t said it back to him yet but Caleb wasn’t scared to admit it to her father. “She wouldn’t lie.” Shoplift maybe, but not lie. Not about this. And never to him. “If you want to believe some asshole that works for you over the most honest person I have ever met then I suggest you rethink your life. And your priorities.”
Hanna didn’t know what she was feeling at the moment. Beyond overwhelmed. Extremely overwhelmed. The second a note had been produced, she’d been terrified Caleb would believe it just because that was her luck. That somehow her not saying she loved him back would diminish his feelings as she sorted through her own…
That and people seemed willing to believe she was the type to lead someone on so why wouldn’t Caleb as well once a note was produced?
Or.. he could tell her dad that he loved her. So instead of backing down from what he’d said, he just… solidified it. And the walls and insecurities were chipping away even as she still could feel her skin crawling from where her father’s employee had touched her. So she just took his hand and tugged on it to get his attention.
“Let’s just go…”
She wasn’t as desperate to leave though she still wanted to. Too many eyes on her and not for something she wanted (Like if it were fashion show or whatever). It was suddenly very suffocating in there.
Caleb just nodded his head. He probably shouldn’t have dragged Hanna back inside and caused that scene, but he didn’t regret it. As far as he was concerned the guy deserved to be punched. Twice. Hell he deserved a third punch but that Caleb wasn’t about to go back. And her father deserved to be told off as well.
Taking her hand he walked out of the party with her for the second time. He held his head high as he exited though. He was not ashamed of what he had done. And he didn’t particularly care that all eyes were on them as they walked out. He had a feeling Hanna might though. “Sorry,” he muttered once they were outside. “I just couldn’t let him get away with that.”
Once they were outside, Hanna was able to breathe a bit easier. She still just wanted to go curl up and ignore the world. Well no. She wanted to shower and put on something super comfortable and then curl up and ignore the world. But at least she wasn’t feeling like all eyes were on her now that they were outside.
“It’s fine… That’s the first time anyone’s defended my honour like that…”
It wasn’t something Hanna spoke about a lot, or ever really. The crap boyfriends and how they made her feel. But she was pretty stunned even if she shouldn’t be.
Caleb dropped her hand instead choosing to wrap his arm around her pulling her close. “You’re pretty good at defending yourself,” he said kissing the top of her head. And it was true. Hanna had no problem speaking her mind. Her bluntness was one of the many things he loved about her. But what just happened, it seemed as if everyone was ganging up on her. Not listening to her. Even her own father. So yeah of course Caleb was going to say something. Do something.
“I just had to do something,” he said again. “Your dad should have,” he added maybe a little bitterly. He already knew her father was a jerk from the whole scene he had witnessed when he first met Hanna. “He’s probably going to hate me now,” so much for making a good impression. Oh well.
Hanna was good with this and just rested against Caleb as he spoke. She felt… not happy because of everything that happened, but comfortable and at ease. Enough that she wasn’t ready to bolt and lock herself in a room.
“No you didn’t. But thank you.” Because really, he could have just left it alone. There was no making him do that, but she appreciated it. As for the comment about her dad? Well, “I’ve always been a problem to him. I don’t know why I thought he’d believe me.” She was doing her best to brush it off now that they were no longer inside the party but it still hurt.
“You’re far from a problem,” he assured Hanna. “You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me,” and it was true. He always felt alone until her but she already knew all that. “Your stepsister is a piece of work too. I think she tried to hit on me,” okay so he knew she did but whatever. “I told her she was fat,” hopefully that would make Hanna smile. And yeah might not be the best time to bring up Kate, but he didn’t want to keep anything from her either.
“Come on,” he said starting to lead her back towards his car, arm still wrapped around her. “You can stay at my place tonight. Unless you want to go home and explain all this to your mom?” Caleb knew Ashley well enough to know she would be able to tell Hanna was upset the second she walked through the door.
Hanna gave a slight smile at the comment of Caleb telling Kate she was fat, even if she didn’t really feel much mirth about it. She had enough insecurities in regards to her stepsister and she honestly wasn’t surprised that she had tried to hit on Caleb as well. It was just like her, really. As if she hadn’t stolen enough from Hanna.
“Your place sounds good.” She didn’t want her mom to see her like this because it would be a lot more explaining than she wanted. She could only hope her dad wouldn’t call Ashley about this later in order to save face. It was hard to know sometimes.
If Tom did call Ashley, Caleb was pretty sure she would believe Hanna over Tom anyway. And Caleb would always be there to back up Hanna’s story. But for now he just wanted to distract his girlfriend and help her forget this night ever happened. Or at least cheer her up. “My place it is then,” he said giving her a smile. “We’ll make this night a good one.”