✔️ Midnight Sparks『 T.H. 』✧･ﾟ:*

Chapter 30: This forgiveness thing

Tell me your secrets

And ask me your questions

Oh let's go back to the start

- Coldplay

- - -

My hand reached out to pull down the plane window shade, thinking I could get some shuteye before landing in London.

But two hours later, I was still awake.

The flight attendant came around with a tray of different colored juices in small clear plastic cups. I picked a cup and as I sipped my orange juice, I decided to unlock my phone screen.

Using the onboard wifi, I clicked on the link that Jayna sent me the day before. A link that I had not planned to open ever. But at 35,000 feet above ground and two more hours of flight ahead, I had changed my mind.

It took a few seconds before the Instagram video loaded.

My heart felt a tight squeeze as Tom's face appeared on screen. His hair had grown long. Dark brown curls that brushed his forehead as he looked down at the acoustic guitar in his hands.

"Hey, what's up, everyone. Uhh so I've been playing around with some words and a melody. It's still extremely rough. But anyway. Here we go."

He began to strum and sing.

"Sidewalk kisses

Caught in an endless winter day

Wondrous smile

I never got to say

It's so clichéd

But I've never before felt this way

If I had held on tighter

On the sidewalk that day

Would you have stayed

Could we have won

Despite the hand that was dealt?"

I stopped the video. It was just too much. Tom was singing beautifully, with just the right scratchy, yearning undertone.

The feeling was bittersweet.

Could it be possible that he was singing about me – about us?

I couldn't be sure. But it was probably for the best anyway...

Because I wasn't ready to find out the answer either way.

* * *

The next day, when the cab stopped in front of the gates, I was tempted to tell the driver to keep going.

Then the gates glided open to reveal Tom, standing solemnly on the driveway of Uncle Ollie's home, with hands tucked casually in his coat pockets.

I inhaled sharply. "Thanks," I told the cab driver before stepping out into the blustering March air that smelled faintly of the first spring blossoms.

"Ali," Tom greeted me in that husky voice that was uniquely his. "Thanks for coming."

"Hi," I replied, nervously biting my lower lip as I remembered how easily this boy could seize me and make everything else around us disappear.

We stood facing each other, Tom's tentative smile mirroring mine.

"How are you holding up?" I asked.

Tom's eyes flashed with sadness. The same sadness that I caught sight of the first night we met at the rooftop. It felt like another lifetime ago now – so much had changed since then.