Barefoot Through Stone

Pretty much the same LOL i dont expect you to read this all again but yea i just needed to add it.

Barefoot Through Stone

It was late afternoon when Hallie finally arrived back to her and David's condominium, and David wasn't home. The answering machine blinked with six messages, but Hallie just dropped her Fendi purse on the couch and made her way to the bedroom. The tall buildings of New York had replaced themselves with the wintertime grey waves of coastal California, and the man she came home to had also replaced himself, into David, the man that was in utter confusion when it came to loving her. Why shouldn't he have been confused? What type of girl goes off to New York for a few days without letting their boyfriend, or anyone else know where they were? Probably the kind who was out of her mind, and in love with somebody else. It was just too damn bad that the other person wasn't crazy enough to act on their feelings as she did.

Hallie sauntered into the bedroom, threw her coat to the ground, and flopped onto the bed. After a few minutes of closing her eyes, she turned over on her stomach and flipped the switch to the bedside lamp off. The whole plane ride home she had thought about everything, and she decided the best solution was to just finally dump David. It was probably a stupid move on her part, when Christian obviously didn't want her anyhow, but for once in this whole situation, she wanted to do something right. She knew she didn't love David, and somehow she had to let him know, it was only fair. She would plan how to do it later, for now all she wanted to do was get her mind of it, and as the sun started going down Hallie drifted back into sleep, hoping that since things hadn't turned out the way she wanted with Christian, she wouldn't drift into dreaming of him.


���.

Feeling like she barely dozed off, she was loudly woken up by David hollering at her, and she finally woke up enough to make out the words.

"Where have you been? I called your parents they said you took the plane to New York!"

"Um, then doesn't that answer you're question?" Hallie mumbled tiredly. She sat up to see David's "angry" look from across the room, which through her delirious-like exhaustion appeared absolutely hilarious. He was so ridiculously passive, it was almost like he was trying to be angry, which made him just look kind of constipated.

"Why were you in New York? What were you doing there?" he demanded.

She didn't know how to start explaining. She could start by relaying the long story how she went to Derek's grandmothers house and found out about Christian, but too tired she just decided to take the easy way out. At least for now.

"I just went there to clear my head, I should have let you know I'm sorry," Hallie covered up. If she was going to be on television she had to learn to be a good actress, and lying to David was becoming great practice. Plus David had no idea that Christian was in New York, at least not that she knew of.

"Well you really should have let me know," he scolded, his voice raising.

"I know I'm sorry," she repeated.

"I can't believe you did that, after everything that's happened. New York of all places?" he asked condescendingly. "I hope it's cleared your head, you seem better," he added softly.

Hallie nodded. All she wanted to do was tell him what he wanted to hear, and to go back to sleep.

"Good!" David exclaimed with his expression suddenly changing from constipated to relieved. "Because I told my mother the good news, both our parents planned a small engagement party at your house!"

"A what?"

"An engagement party!"

"I thought this was just a promise ring," Hallie said looking down at her finger.

"Well they got excited when I told her I got you the ring. Now come on, those clothes look kind of dirty," he said eyeing her post-nearly-raped outfit she'd been wearing for days. "Just change into something, and quick."

"You mean it's now?"

"Yeah, I thought they were going to have to cancel it since you weren't here, but here you are! Mom doesn't even know you were gone, so come on go get ready," he said dragging her off the bed and shoving her into the walk in closet. He quickly left the room to go get ready himself.

Hallie wrinkled her nose in disgust. An engagement party? Was she dreaming? Or having a nightmare? If anything involved David's mother Larissa Carrington it was definitely a nightmare. Well so much for dumping David. She could have just gone upstairs right now to break up with him, so she wouldn't have to go to some lame party, but he looked so excited, she decided she'd just push it back till later. She asked herself how long would she keep avoiding it? Till they were f*****g married?

Looking at her closet, she had even more indecision about what to wear. She could be a rebel and wear her sheer Jean Paul Gaultier keyhole back tunic dress, or she could be a good little future daughter-in-law and wear her silk iridescent teal Nicole Miller gown, that looked like something a soft spoken angel, who would never call her mother-in-law a b***h would wear. She decided to go with that, along with some Prada peep toe pumps. She flat-ironed her hair, still curly from last nights bubble bath, smothered herself in Mac cover-up to hide her welt that David luckily hadn't noticed, and made her way with David down to the parking garage, into his brand new forest green Mercedes. He tapped the steering wheel excitedly the whole way there, and Hallie wondered if he'd taken some type of uppers while she'd been gone.

"This is going to be so great, I mean our families finally coming together as one, and I'm almost done with law school. I feel like my whole life has come together! Now we just have to think of a place to get married," David gushed.

Hallie gritted her teeth in disbelief at his over enthusiasm. It was usually the girl who planned way ahead for these types of things, but it looked as though Hallie had become the reluctant guy, definitely not ready for marriage, and David had become the giddy girl already working out every detail.

"David, I just want to take things slow okay? This is all so fast, I mean I didn't even get to invite my friends to this�engagement party."

"I tried calling Abby, but she said something how you probably wouldn't want her there."

"She did?" Hallie asked, with a lump forming in her throat. She felt so guilty about how she treated her friends back at the nail shop on New Years Day, especially since Abby had been right all along about Christian. At the same time, she didn't want to admit to anyone what happened in New York, not even to herself.

"Yeah, well I figured we'd just have a family one first, then get together with our friends separately. Plus Abby and those girls are all single, an engagement party is not really for them."

"Wow you've really been thinking about this a lot haven't you?"

"Well of course," he replied resting his hand on top of hers. "And don't worry, it will just be a small family get together," he assured as they turned onto her street.

When they pulled up to the gate guarded Harris estate, there were a multitude of cars, some parked illegally with how crowded the street was.

Small family get together my a*s, Hallie thought to herself. Oh well, at least she dressed up for the occasion. Once the gates opened, David squeezed into a parking spot on the crowded driveway, and excitedly made his way to the front door without waiting up for Hallie. Walking up the pathway behind David, Hallie suddenly felt extremely nervous. She always had the jitters before seeing David's parents, but this time it wasn't like she could stand up to whoever pissed her off, like say, Larissa Carrington. She would just have to grin and bear it, because Larissa might soon be family, as well as David.

Standing at the entrance as David rang the doorbell over and over, Hallie suddenly felt claustrophobic, and looped her arm through his to remain stable. Through her empire waist dress she tried to take deep breaths, and had no idea how she was going to compose herself for the stupid party.

The door suddenly flung open, spilling an air conditioned breeze even though it was the middle of January. David was quickly pulled out of Hallie's grasp by Larissa Carrington, who practically humping her sons leg with how tightly she held him to her body. Apparently she had taken over Hallie's home and was greeting everyone. Hallie rolled her eyes at their creepy affection towards each other, as Mrs. Carrington gave her a cold look over David's shoulder.

"Oh my little baby, you are not my little boy anymore!" she began sobbing hugging her six foot two son.

"Mom, we're not getting married yet," he groaned while being smothered in orange-red colored lipstick. Hallie made a mental note to herself not to kiss him the rest of the evening, since he had basically become sloppy seconds to his own mother. Yuck.

When Hallie quietly stepped around them, she noticed that Mrs. Carrington had taken on a whole new level of the mourning mother-in-law, and had redecorated the Harris house. Not only was she dressed in the most dramatic black evening gown and black fur shawl, but the whole house was decorated in black. Black curtains had been put up, black tablecloths, even all the place settings were black. Hallie became somewhat alarmed when she noticed that everyone was dressed in black, even David's little niece Chloe in a black party dress, making her appear to be a creepy member of the Adams Family. The whole scene reminded her of a cult or something, and she was just waiting for someone to drag her by the hair out to the backyard, tie her down to a rock, and sacrifice her for tonight's meal.

"Why is everyone wearing black?" Hallie shrilly whispered once David's mother finally let go.

"Wow, they are huh? I have no idea," David replied looking down at his light blue button down shirt, and white summer time slacks. "I can't believe she did this, to remind you of a funeral," he said looking at his mother irritated.

"It's alright David really," Hallie rolled her eyes. What else was expected from the evil future mother-in-law?

"We wanted the couple to stand out from everyone else. Aren't they just enchanting?" Larissa theatrically announced, catching her sons dirty look.

Everyone crowded in the spacious mansion atomically clapped on cue while several flashes of cameras went off without her being remotely ready to pose. It was kind of nice being the center of attention. As if Hallie wasn't always the center of attention. With several guests applauding, perched on top of the stairway, Hallie felt like she was in a scene from Titanic, until Larissa Carrington leaned forward, and out of her collagen filled lips she hissed, "I put this all together and invited many important guests to this occasion, so you better not act like the little b***h you normally are. I have no idea why my son proposed but--oh! Well hello! So glad you could make it," she exclaimed interrupted by more people that had arrived.

As Larissa floated away, leaving a trail of perfume behind, both David and Hallie became dragged in opposite directions to come talk of the engagement. Several girls, including Hallie's gangly cousin Jessica, bombarded Hallie to enviously admire the yellow diamond ring.

"Oh my god, it's just like the one J. Lo has!" a random pre-teen girl belonging to David's family said clutching onto her hand tightly as if she was about to snatch the ring for herself.

"No, it looks bigger!" someone else argued.

"I think yellow is ugly personally," Jessica sneered. For once, Hallie agreed with her cousin, but she wasn't about to admit that.

Hallie's parents finally came out from the dining room, along with fifteen other strangers. Hallie was relieved to see that her mother hadn't followed Larissa Carrington's stupid rule of wearing black, and was instead wearing a fuchsia duchess Valentino dress, that went well with her dark brown hair.

"Hi sweetheart! Congratulations! Larissa insisted on decorating the whole place black, not my idea," she muttered.

Hallie giggled in reply, her mother could be cool every now and then.

"Let's take a look at the ring." Rita Harris said taking hold of her daughters hand, while gaily looking around to see who was watching. "Oh Edward look at it!"

"Hi dad," Hallie mumbled, her shoulders immediately slumping. Edward Harris was always a cold, unfriendly man, but ever since her father violently beat Christian, she'd been somewhat fearful of her own father. Plus she hadn't seen him since the incident, and she could still sense the anger within him.

"How have you been sweetheart?" he questioned sternly.

Startled by the unfamiliar affectionate reference, Hallie looked down at the white marbled floor.

"Why did you fly to New York honey?" Rita questioned, her blue eyes full of worry.

"You know the East Coast always gets new handbags before us!" Hallie lied. She knew that anything having to do with shopping would ease her mothers mind.

"Well at least now you are with the right man, not being a harlot anymore," her father voiced decidedly.

"Edward! She's been through enough," Rita whispered.

Hurt by the words, Hallie looked up at him in disbelief that even he could say such a thing, but she knew he was right. She had acted like a s**t, and maybe being talked to disrespectfully was just what she needed to remind of it. At least she knew she could count on her dad to do that for her.

"Excuse me," Hallie said shoving past everyone crowded in the entryway, and made her way upstairs to the bathroom. When she locked the door behind her she sat on the edge of the bathtub and wearily propped her hands underneath her chin. She gazed at her reflection, noticing that she her face was pale as ever, with the black and blue mark from the thugs in Central Park standing out more than ever. She couldn't believe no one had asked what happened. She fetched cover up out of her bag and applied nearly the whole case across her face.

Hallie jumped as someone loudly knocked on the door.

"Just a minute!" Hallie yelled back, sounding bitchier than she intended. The mark still wasn't covered up.

Again whoever it was outside knocked on the door again.

"Hold on a second!" Why the hell couldn't they go to another one of the six bathrooms?

The best thing Hallie could think to do was quickly style her hair in front of her face to cover up the bruise. She felt like some poor girl trying to hide the work of her abusive boyfriend. When she finally rearranged her hair the best she could to cover the welt, she opened the door to see none other than Jessica tapping her big foot impatiently.

"So I guess you can't cheat with that guy anymore," Jessica remarked as offensively as possible, patting Hallie's shoulder condescendingly.

"Get off me!" Hallie snapped, pushing her hand away.


"I'm really going to miss you sneaking off and making those loud phone calls that everyone in the house could hear about you cheating on David" Jessica laughed at the memory of Christmas.

"Go f**k yourself lard a*s!" Hallie said storming off before she tackled her cousin to the ground. She stood back up and rushed downstairs to quickly tried to make her escape to the front door, but with little success.

"Where do you think your going?" Hallie's father snarled grabbing her by the shoulders.

"We are about to start dinner! The other guest of honor can't just be absent!" Larissa boisterously laughed.

Hallie's mother, looked across the room to her daughter concerned, while David joked with his buddies completely oblivious to what was going on.

"I never wanted to have this stupid party in the first place! I'm done with this s**t!" she said shaking her fathers grasp off her, and scurrying out the front door.

"Hallie come back here!" her dad yelled after her.

Hallie threw off her heels onto the driveway, and ran barefoot through the moist grass towards the acres of open land. Her anger increased her speed greatly, and before she knew it she was digging for the keys hidden in the planter, and unlocking the door to the horse stables about a half a mile away from the mansion.

Her pure white Andalusian horse Winnie, gazed at her with it's kind brown eyes as if she'd been expecting Hallie to come.

"Hi girl, I've missed you so much," Hallie said leaning her head against the horses nose, with Winnie nuzzling her in return. She noticed that Winnie's pure white color had faded into a light grey, and that she looked somewhat sad, as if no one had taken her out of the stables for years.

Hallie's father had bought Winnie when she was ten years old, and horseback riding became so natural to Hallie. She'd won several equestrian competitions with Winnie, and although it had been a couple of years since she got on a horse, she knew that she wanted nothing more right now than to feel the rush of racing through her estates vast land that nobody ever took advantage of.

Hallie quickly saddled up Winnie, in hopes that the horses spirit had remained as strong as hers. Forgetting that she was wearing a dress, and no shoes for that matter, she opened the stable door, leading Winnie outside, and swiftly climbed aboard the gentle beast who now seemed anxious to finally frolic again with it's long absent rider.

Hallie yelped as Winnie unexpectedly took off without command, soon enjoying the ride she'd been missing out on. She became filled with childhood memories of carefree times just riding her horse, but she knew the problems with her fianc� would be waiting for her when she got back. With that she ordered Winnie go faster, and soon the full moon in the sky became a white flash of light as they sped through land that seemed untouched. Hallie leaned forward with the speed, enjoying the January chill billowing her long pale blue dress.

From the corner of her eye Hallie could see her house far in the distance, and she realized she was thankfully miles away from it. A stream that Hallie had totally forgotten about gleamed reflective with moonlight beside the galloping pair , and Hallie ordered Winnie to slow down in order to take in the scenery. Obediently Winnie's galloping subsided to a graceful trot, and Hallie closed her eyes, savoring her time away from reality.

She couldn't believe she had ditched her own engagement party, but being around Larissa Carrington, being around her own family, and even being around David was suffocating her. She always felt the need to escape into fresh air, away from her life, and she knew that's not how an engagement was supposed to be. You were supposed to be happy, not pretend to be happy. And you were supposed to be excited to announce yourself as a couple to family and friends, and instead here she was, miles away, looking to disappear forever with Winnie.

Hallie was startled out of her thoughts when she heard heavy galloping in the distance, but she could hardly see through the long willow trees or the evening fog that had started to build up.

Hallie got off the horse and led her through the brush they had ridden into. Feeling lost, she aimlessly pulled Winnie along until they were back into the clear field. Sure enough, the galloping she heard had been real, and from far away she could see the small dot of her dark brown horse Chester coming towards her, with a long way to go. In the mist she couldn't make out who was riding him.

Hallie froze in wonderment at the possibility of what she hadn't allowed herself to dream about yet. Could it be Christian? Did he come back from New York to go after her, tell her that he changed his mind, and save her from her fate?

Hallie could feel the ground starting to shake as whoever it was approached, and she closed her eyes leaning her head back against the breeze of his arrival.

"Hallie where were you?" the voice demanded with his feet thudding to the ground.

Hallie blocked out the familiarity of the voice, and without opening her eyes, she inched forward letting go of Winnie's reins and blindly reached out for the man's face, pressing it to hers. She could feel whoever it was taken aback by the powerful kiss, and she embraced him tighter, resolute on never letting him go again.

She finally had to open her eyes to the truth, and looked upon the man that had so desperately tried to make her happy, but just could not succeed. She was so deeply in love with someone else, that he followed her around, haunting her, even if he was a continent away. She thought she could hide how screwed up she was behind the picture perfect fianc�, but it just wasn't so.

"I'm not going to do this to you anymore David."

"But it's our engagement party, and-"

"I know," she said grasping his hand. "But I can't do this anymore, I can't be with you, I'm so sorry," she said sliding off her yellow diamond ring and placing it into his hand. She closed his fingers around it, and looked up at David's stunned and wounded expression.

"Is this because of Christian?" he called after her.

Before he could say anything else, she hopped atop Winnie, and promptly rode off, David watching her as she disappeared into the fog. Hallie could sense his torment from behind her, and guilt sank in faster than Winnie galloping, but she knew she had done the right thing. When Hallie arrived, and unsaddled Winnie, she quickly kissed the horse goodbye. She approached her house unsure where she was headed to now, and prepared herself to step off of the soft grass onto stony ground. It felt good to finally stand on her own, even if she was barefoot and walking along a gravel driveway.