The Resolution of Callie & Kayden(59)

Okay, now I’m really worried. ‘Kayden, I—’

He cuts me off by leaning forward and brushing his lips across mine. When he pulls away, he seems content. ‘I’m fine, Callie. I promise.’ As if to prove this point, he sets his food down and takes my hand in his. ‘I got to tell her a lot of stuff I never had the balls to and then I realized that I was done.’

‘Done?’

‘With all of it. With her. With hating both of them. With letting them still affect my life even when they’re not here.’ He takes my food from my hand, sets it down on the coffee table, and scoots toward me until our knees touch. ‘I’m going to let it go.’ Determination pours from his eyes and overpowers me to the point I feel like I’m drowning in it – the pain he’s releasing himself from. ‘I’m going to focus on the future. Keep going to school and play my f*cking heart out and hope I get drafted. And if I don’t, I’ll have my degree to fall back on.’ He reaches for me, tucking strands of hair behind my ear, before placing his warm palm on my cheek. ‘And I’m going to take care of you and make you so happy.’ Emotion radiates through his eyes as his gaze steadily holds mine. ‘I want to keep going down this path with you. I want us to have a future – you and me.’

Maybe Jackson was right. Maybe we are headed in the direction of marriage. God, what if we are? Do I want it?

I nod eagerly. ‘I want that, too, more than anything else.’ I pause, ‘But …’

His brows knit, his confidence faltering a bit. ‘But what?’

‘But …’ I hesitate again, nervous to bring it up. ‘But what about the funeral? Are you …? Are you going to go to it?’

‘I’m not sure yet.’ He’s not angry or sad, just confused.

‘Well, either way, I support you.’ I turn my head and delicately kiss his palm. ‘I’m here for you if you want to go and say goodbye. Get some closure, maybe.’

His eyes are soft, his expression full of nothing but love. ‘I know you are.’ It’s within that moment I think I realize that we’re going to be okay. Sure, they’ll probably be bumps down the road for us – there always will be when it comes to life – but he’s finally letting me love him like he deserves and that’s a huge, epic step for us.

Life-changing even.

The rest of the night is relaxing, falling into our routine. We eat. We talk. Then after Kayden falls asleep in bed, I write.

I’m starting to love our routine.

As soon as my fingers hit the keys, they come alive, eager to write and be free.

After the girl saved the boy, they didn’t see each other for many sunrises and sunsets. Not because they chose to, but because they’d gone their separate ways and done their separate things, which is the case most of the time in life.

The girl had moved out of her palace and found a new place to live – a new life for herself where she wasn’t constantly haunted by the memories of the monster. She actually felt happier than she had in a long time, partly because she’s been able to leave her past behind, but also because the night she saved the boy, something changed inside her. She’d stood up to a monster and even though it wasn’t her own, it made her feel braver and less fearful in a world that seemed so scary all the time.

And the boy … well, she didn’t know what had become of the boy, if he’d escaped the monster or not, but she hoped so. Hoped he was moving on like her.

Hoped he found happiness in those sad eyes of his.

It was during a warm fall day that she found out what he’d been doing. Their reuniting was anything but magical, but it was still momentous, a literal crashing-into when they just happened to be in the same place at the same time.

Smack.

They ran into each other head on, the impact intense, but not as intense as seeing each other again.

They were in shock.

Stunned.

Breathless.

But most of all, they were just glad to see each other alive and breathing.

‘Hey,’ the girl said as the wind and leaves danced around them.

‘Hey,’ the boy replied back, looking better than he had before. His eyes, although they still carried sadness, also carried happiness.

Their first words weren’t the best of opening lines, not like in the fairytales the girl had read when she was a princess. Stories that promised fantasies of princes sweeping princesses off their feet, wooing hearts with words and sometimes song.