Blinded by Limerence

Epilogue

— TWELVE YEARS LATER —

"Mom, you didn't have to see me off."

As he walked down his high school's halls for the last first time, Nick's head continued to rotate 180 degrees left and right at such a fast pace that his mom understood almost immediately the underlying meaning of his statement; in fact, the latter could've sworn she saw beads of sweat glistening on her now seventeen-year-old's forehead. She couldn't help but laugh.

"It's your senior year, love!" exclaimed Morgan, who was positively beaming with pride. "I had to — oh, what, you're a big boy now? You don't need your mommy to come with?" she added tauntingly, keeping a close eye upon her Nicky's face.

It was so subtle that if you weren't Morgan Darhk, you probably would've missed it: Nick's cheeks betrayed him for a second, a dull shade of pink spreading across his features.

"You know," Morgan began, satisfied with his reaction, "when I was your age, treading through these exact same halls, I was just head over heels in love with this guy, despite knowing I'd never get him — and spoiler alert, I didn't."

At Morgan's painfully truthful joke, Nick cracked a smile, and his previously crossed arms slackened.

"It was hella frustrating and unrealistic, and it was just so dumb," Morgan went on.

"So why do it?" Nick asked.

Morgan shrugged. "Well, 'cause being in love is just... everything," she replied with a wistful sigh. Nick noted the way her brown eyes unfocused for a moment, looking as though they were clouded in something he could not recognize. A second later, she snapped out of it, blinking rather rapidly. 

"But now you're my everything, Nicky," she said with a warm smile, "and who knows? Maybe you'll find someone who sweeps you off your feet, someone you'll swoon over and be smitten by."

She watched her son as he appeared to consider this for a moment, but then he shook his head fervently, laughing. 

"Nah," he said. "I highly doubt it."

|

The moment the bell rang, Nick was first to race out of the classroom, his stomach gurgling, hungry for lunch, his backpack bouncing rhythmically against his back as he ran. He was in such a rush to get some food in him that he had dashed straight into someone, causing that person's things to fly in every direction.

"Sorry —"

"Gosh —"

In an instant, the two crouched down, Nick, who was ridden with guilt, in a fervor to help pick up the items he caused to drop. 

"I'm so sorry," he kept saying. "I'm just in a real hurry to —"

He stopped mid-sentence as the girl looked up, her golden hair swinging back at the movement to reveal grey eyes reflecting his own dumbfounded face. As he eyed her loose dress shirt and denim jeans, he couldn't help but feel like he's seen her before, as though he's known her forever but also not at all.  

Nick felt his cheeks burn red as he continued to gaze into her curious face, and he knew that she was feeling the same way. He was first to break their staredown, thinking that it was getting way too hot, turning his eyes instead upon the discarded items lying across the school floor: A canvas pencil case with pins littering its surface and a silvery but dull keychain dangling off its zipper caught his eye.

"I — er — I like your keychain," he said, picking the pencil case up and handing it back to its owner. 

"Oh, thanks," the girl replied. As Nick continued to stare at the little keychain, whose half-heart shape seemed to shine despite looking older than himself, something seemed to click in his mind at the exact moment the blonde added with an awkward cough, "It was my dad's."

"Funny, my mom gave me something just like it," said Nick before he hastily took off the backpack he wore, unzipped it, and plunged his hand into its depths, not withdrawing it until his hand landed on the item he was seeking. He pulled a keyring out, upon which hung two keys and a near identical half-heart silver charm, whose chain was rusted with age.

"Wow," whispered the girl as she inched closer, seemingly mesmerized by the half-heart. She was starting to come to the same conclusion Nick just had. "I think — I think it's a match," she said before taking Nick's hand suddenly (Nick's face darkened in a blush) and connecting her charm with his, the magnets of the two half-hearts snapping together with a satisfactorily resounding click. 

Nick couldn't find any words to say as he continued to stare stupidly at the connected keychains: The heart that had formed showed the words I love you.

"Fascinating, isn't it?" the girl whispered in a low but inquisitive voice, tearing her eyes away from the keychains and looking up. Nick caught her gaze, and his heartbeat seemed to pick up the moment he saw the smile she was showing him.

As the girl hoisted all her things into her embrace and got up, Nick realized stupidly that despite their shared encounter and the mysteriously intriguing circumstances surrounding the half-heart keychains they'd both inherited from a parent, he still didn't know her name.

"Oh, um, I'm Nick, by the way," he said clumsily, shaking his head as though to snap out of the trance she had put him in and getting up as well.

The girl smiled again; this time, Nick had an inkling as to what was going on as his heart began to beat abnormally fast again. He hoped against hope he was wrong, that he was actually suffering from some undiagnosed heart disease that only showed itself in weird, unexplained times, but he knew the instant he told himself this wasn't it, it was it. 

She took a step closer, pushed her blonde hair out of her grey eyes (Nick cursed himself for staring longer than he should have), and spoke in a soft but clear voice.

"I'm Adrienne."