Fly Away || l.h

17

***

He released me from his hold, and looked down at me and muttered to himself.

"Uhm, I gotta go. I'm so sorry, my manager insisted that I do a radio interview when I'm here so rumors don't spread too wildly. I promise I'll come see you after, in a couple hours. I'll call you, and I really mean it this time. Trust me." he said softly in my ear.

"It's alright, I know. I need to get to class anyways, I sorta blew it off to be with you. No big deal though, I finished most of my work." I said, smiling.

We both gathered our stuff and got ready to go. When I came out of the bathroom and he saw me wearing his old shirt, he giggled.

"Always thought you were cute in that." he laughed.

I laughed back, and grabbed him in for a gentle kiss. We both walked out the door and I pulled it closed. I scared him by jumping on his back for a piggy back ride, and he carried me down the stairs while he grabbed my legs to secure me. He walked me all the way to my college way down the street, while we laughed and made funny small talk all the way. He lifted me up completely over his head while he squatted down and placed me down on the soft grass. He kissed me one more time, smirked, and jogged to get a cab.

I stayed there silently for a second, taking in what had happened, smiling to myself.

Suddenly, I heard the soft sound of running feet against the wind and felt a body bounce onto me, and I screamed.

I whipped my head up, scared, but noticed it was my bestest of friends: Cheyenne, or chey for short.

I completely forgot I hadn't even spoken to her in the past couple days, let alone responded to any of her messages.

"Where the hell you been, huh? You okay? That guy seems pretty.. familiar." she said, laughing.

She was one of the only people close to me now that knew about the history of Luke and I, who knew everything. She was one of the only people I could trust.

"Yeah.. We sorta hooked up." I said, smiling.

Her smirk on her face grew into a huge smile until she started laughing so hard she brought attention to us from everyone in the area.

"Iz, what'd you do?" she said suspiciously.

"I..I kissed him. He kissed me. We had, you know..." I laughed. I was pretty modest about these things.

"Dude, your with the other guy, Brad. What's going on here?" she asked? A look of worry crossed her face, she was the one to introduce us in the first place.

"Look, I know what this seems like. I know you're rooting for me and him, us getting married, settling down for once, doing the whole thing. I do love him, I really do, but I don't think I'm in love with him. You know what I mean?" I said.

"But your in love with Luke? I do know you are. I just... Is that really what you want now, after the pain he's caused you over the past years, everything that you went through?" she asked.

"I don't know if we're together, if that's what we are going to do now. I really don't. I guess I have a couple more days to figure it out, when Brad gets back. God, I feel so awful. It's just, over the years, I lost all regard for myself, thought I would never be that happy again. I didn't allow myself to, I cared about him too much. Now I have the chance to be happy again, or at least I think I do. And I'm just too selfish in the now to give that up."

We both stayed silent. We stood up and began to walk to the art building, when she asked how we saw wach other anyways.

"So I wrote him this letter, next thing I knew he was here standing over me, literally, and one thing led to another..." I said, biting my lip, and smiling as I walked.

"I see you're wearing the shirt. Seems like you're almost a different person. I can't even believe I'm saying this, but I think you should go with him. He makes you happier than you usually are. Much more than I've ever seen you with Brad. They both love you, but Brad I know for sure. Enough to let you go if it makes you happier. I know that much, he is my cousin after all."

God, I loved her. Of course, in a platonic way, but she was just someone who could understand me in the best way possible. I thought about her words as they echoed in my mind over and over, as images of Luke and Brad flashed through me.

Loves you enough to let you go... Wants you to be happy... You'll be happier...

I knew what I had to do, as much as it pained me.

***

Sitting through class was like hell, with the words echoing in my mind. Everything overwhelming me.

Chey and I went to grab lunch from the cafe on the corner, the same one Luke took me to awhile back. The picture of the owner and him and I were hanging on the wall, but I was cropped out. I laughed, just like I did every time I saw it.

I got a salad and coffee, and we both sat down at a corner table near the window. She was going on and on about cute guys she saw walking down the street, and I politely joined in with her, but the only boy that could possibly be on my mind was Luke.

She could obviously tell, so her comments came to an end, and we both ended up bursting in laughter.

We both gasped when Luke entered the backdoor of the cafe. The same manager, who must have not recognized me from the photo she cropped me out of, did see him immediately.

He did the whole nice to meet you, snap a few photos thing that he adopted as a routine over the years, and then sat down next to me in our booth.

"Your... Cheyenne, I presume?" he asked.

With her mouth full of pizza, she said "How'd you know? I do know you."

"As I have said to this one," he said pointing at me, "I've done my share of profile creeping. I've seen enough cute little selfies to know who you are." he let out a laugh, and Chey just giggled.

"I thought you were gonna be at the radio station all day." I asked.

"Yeah, I went for a quick interview, but it isn't even gonna be broadcasted now. I didn't need to stick around for long, especially since it was only me and Ash out of the whole band." he said.

Chey's face was full of obvious excitement, and she pulled up her phone to verify something she seemed to be thinking in her head. She nodded, and swallowed before she talked to Luke.

"Is it true that Michael's flying here? I saw it on twitter, just a rumour. Figured you were the best one to confirm it." she said.

"Yeah, my lad is coming. He gets in from a private plane in a couple hours, I was just about to ask Ella to come with me and Ash to pick him up. You could tag along if you'd like, if I recall he did say you were pretty hot that one time he saw a picture of you." he said, looking at Chey and back at me.

Her eyes opened so big she looked like a crazed person, and she looked back and forth between me and him in disbelief.

"I...I.." she couldn't speak.

"He's her favorite. She'd love to meet him, I'd love to be anywhere with you. Seems like a set plan?" I said.

He nodded and offered me his hand, just as we were about to get up to pay the bill.

"Shall we?" he asked, sweetly.

I took his hand in mine and we locked our fingers together again, which was of course a perfect fit. It was like our bodies were built to be together. We all walked out of the cafe with smiles in our faces, excitement in our eyes, waiting for what would happen next.