Chapter 26
"Harry?" I heard, and my head snapped. I looked up to see her, and I jumped up immediately, running to her and pulling her into my chest, crushing her with my hug.
"You're here," I breathed, "I'm so sorry for what I said yesterday, and I wanted you to know that I didn't mean it. And I support you 100% on going to Florida, and I just want you to know that. Don't worry about me here, I'll be fine. And um, here. I wanted to make sure you took this," I handed her the boxset that I had carried around this entire time. She grabbed it carefully, eyes wide.
"You came all the way here to bring me this?"
"And to say the other things, yeah," I shrugged. "I wanted to say goodbye. I didn't want you to just leave and that be it."
I could see tears welling in her eyes, and as soon as one fell, my thumb caught it.
"Don't cry, it's okay."
"It's not, Harry," she shook her head, more tears building up. "I don't think I want to go to Florida."
"Why not? You'll be great, there. You'll be such an inspiration to all of the kids who need to graduate, still. And that university is surely amazing, and you'll be great."
"I don't want to leave you," she stated, and I could feel her hands bunching my t-shirt up as she held it tight in her palms.
"Don't worry about me. I know you said you don't want to try to make this work, but I really think we should. We've already been through all of this, yeah? We owe it to ourselves to at least give it a shot."
"It's going to be hard," she sniffled, and she laid her head on my shoulder. She had dropped her bags, and I could see over her shoulder that her mother was standing, watching our interaction. I hugged Gardenia, rubbing her back softly.
"Relationships are always hard. You just have to find the one that's worth it. I think ours is, don't you?"
I could feel her nod, and I squeezed her tighter.
"Okay," she responded, pulling away to look up at me.
"Okay?" I asked again, just to be sure. My hands held onto both of her cheeks, and she nodded quickly.
"Yes, okay. I'm in this."
"Me too," I answered, leaning in immediately to catch her lips with mine. I could taste her teardrops, which wasn't exactly pleasant, but I didn't mind. I was kissing her, and we were still very much together, and nothing else mattered.
Apart from the flight she needed to catch, that is.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but your flight was just called, dear. You have to go."
Gardenia watched her mum as she spoke, nodding her head in acceptance before looking back up toward me.
"Thank you for coming. And keep this, please. I gave it to you, and I want you to have it," she stated, handing me the boxset. I accepted it, smiling softly at her.
"I'll borrow it. That way I'll have an excuse to see you when I have to give it back."
She smiled, leaning up and kissing me again.
"Rose, we really have to go," her mum stated, and before that moment, I forgot that she went by that. I forgot that I was basically the only person to ever call her Gardenia anymore.
"I'll see you later, yeah? We can Skype on your laptop, or iMessage or whatever. You really should buy a phone, or something. But for now, Skype and iMessage. Shit, you don't have my email. Um, let me find some paper," I looked around not seeing anybody with a notebook, pen, magazine, anything, but came up short.
"Rose, honey, come on," her mum intervened again, and I looked around frantically.
"Can you remember it if I tell you?"
She looked alarmed, shrugging and I sighed, trying to think.
"Harry_Styles@gmail.com is my email, so just email me, I guess. Can you remember that? It's just my first and last name, with an underscore in between. And it's G-Mail."
She nodded, "Yeah, okay, got it. I'll see you later. I'll email you when I land, I promise."
"Okay," I sighed, kissing her one last time, and squeezing her in an air tight hug, before her mum had finally had enough of waiting and had to physically pull her away from me. "Sorry," I stated quietly.
Gardenia smiled sadly, waving at me before she turned around and followed her mum. That was it.
We were fine, and we were together, but now she's gone and the emptiness doesn't feel great.
My heart didn't feel great. My arms felt empty. I felt like I was missing something, and I knew it was her. This was going to be hard, I knew that much. But we would make it work.
We had to. I care for her far more than I even realize, and I don't think I could handle ever losing her.
We'd make it work.
