coasting - tommyinnit

15

saturday, january 7th, 2023; 5:27pm
5 months, 23 days, 6 hours, and 27 minutes since flight home

i took a deep breath and pulled out my phone, setting my bags off to the side. number 925, it was the right place. i smiled and opened up my text thread with tommy.

in the past five and a half months, i had kept and even gone to exceed my promises with everyone. within a couple of weeks of leaving, i had set myself up with a discord and immediately got added to a server with the friends i made that week, and of course it was different than being able to see them in person, but i still felt just as welcomed and appreciated.

i frequently vced with my friends when everyone's schedules allowed for it, and had appeared in some of their streams here and there. i didn't start my own twitch or youtube as i wanted to focus on school work, but people asked for my socials frequently and my twitter had amassed a decent following from my recurring interactions with them.

my promise with tommy, though, was the one that i was most happy to have been kept. we took time to facetime each other nearly every day. of course, having a relationship, whether platonic or romantic, was tough to keep through distance, but we both put energy into reaching out, and that alone made it all the more bearable.

the two of us got matching conch shells that we kept on our bedside tables - a memento of our first time meeting that united us every morning and night despite the seemingly infinite miles between us.

our relationship remained romantic, and we had finally agreed on officially being significant others only about a month prior to that date.

y/n
just got a notif that your package got there!!!

tommy
i'll go check :)

i had lead tommy to believe that i sent him a care package for the holidays that got delayed in the mail. it wasn't quite a lie, but i was hoping for him to be pleasantly surprised when he opened the door.

i heard footsteps padding on the floor directly on the other side of the door and smiled widely, preparing myself. he was going to be so excited-

my thoughts were cut off by a shrill scream and the front door swinging open. before i even got the chance to look, i was tackled into a forceful hug by tommy and i struggled to stay upright, nearly falling over in the process. i hugged him tightly in response.

the safe feeling came rushing back to me and i smiled, burying my head in his neck again. he slightly pulled back from the hug and smiled widely at me, putting one of his hands on my cheek. i saw the glint coming from my ring that was still on his pinky, and noticed the scrunchie on his wrist.

apparently, i had subconsciously chosen to wear his sweatshirt on the plane ride, since i couldn't remember putting it on, but saw that i was wearing it when i quickly glanced down.

"i missed you so much," he whispered.

"i missed you, too," i responded quietly. he leaned in and pressed a short yet passionate kiss to my lips, which i reciprocated as soon as i processed what was happening. the kiss ended all too soon, not lasting nearly enough time for me to make up for the five and a half months that we were apart. as he pulled away, i kept my eyes closed, savoring the moment. he quietly laughed at me.

"what?" i asked, smiling.

"you're acting like we're never going to kiss again," he responded, smirking.

"well, who knows, maybe we won't," i returned playfully.

"i'll make sure that doesn't happen."

he pulled away the rest of the way and grabbed my bags, quickly bringing them inside and sitting them by the door. he held the door open for me and signaled for me to walk in. he took my hand once we were both inside and the door was closed, and he led me to his couch, both of us sitting down so closely that there was barely any space between us, but neither of us minded.

"so, what exactly are you doing here? i've been asking to buy a plane ticket for you for months and you do it on your own?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows at me.

"well, i've been saving up for the past few weeks, and i figured it would be cooler to surprise you," i explained with a smile. "i don't know, i wasn't really thinking clearly as soon as i started thinking about seeing you again."

his cheeks turned slightly pink and he cracked a small smile. "okay, but i'm paying you back, and you're not allowed to talk your way out of this one."

after a couple minutes of catching up, tommy stood up from the couch, grabbing my hand and taking me with him. "want a tour of my place?"

"sure," i responded, smiling at him. he took me around each room, and within seconds i realized that i already knew my way around his place from the many times he had moved around during a facetime call. i didn't tell him that, though, since i was too busy watching his excited eyes flickering between me and his house while explaining the memories that he had in each of the rooms.

the last room he brought me to was his bedroom. we both sat down together on his bed and i leaned back on my arms as tommy flopped down next to me. i caught sight of the conch shell on his bedside table and smiled, scooching over to be closer to it.

i turned around to tommy to see him smiling widely again for what felt like the hundredth time. i wasn't complaining, though, because it gave me such a rush of adrenaline each time i saw it. i tilted my head at him, not quite understanding why he was smiling, but his smile spread to my face, too. he shuffled in his bed, sitting up fully, and leaned in, kissing me again.

when he pulled away, i was smiling from ear to ear, and he was doing the same. just having the ability to kiss him on a whim rather than waiting months to do so was bringing me so much joy.

he grabbed his phone from his pocket and opened it up to the camera, pointing it to face the two of us. we both smiled at it, and i didn't need to fake mine for the picture's sake. tommy opened up the discord app on his phone and sent the picture in the server full of the twelve people from that week with no caption.

my phone pinged with the notification from discord, but it didn't slow down after the first notification. everyone was freaking out that we had met up, since no one knew that it was happening ahead of time.

my ringtone sounded, so i picked up my phone to see clara calling me. i laughed and picked it up, putting it on speaker phone.

"why didn't you tell me?" she asked.

"i wanted it to be a surprise for everyone," i responded with a smile.

"well, your plan sure as hell worked," she added, chuckling. "now are you glad we told you to go for a fling last summer?"

i glanced at tommy with a smile and turned back to my phone. "i stand by not wanting a fling, but finding love doesn't sound like such a bad idea anymore."