Come Over

-4-

I was flying down I24, racing toward the sun as it lifted high into the Eastern Tennessee sky. I was in a hurry, not because I had somewhere to be, just simply because I was heading home. I made it to Chattanooga before lunch time. The digital numbers on the face of the radio showed straight up 12 o'clock as I crossed the state line into Georgia. I was making good time. If I kept at the pace I was going, I'd make it to Polk County before 2.

Coming up on I59, I flipped on my turn signal and moved over to the right lane. My stomach rumbled loudly, reminding me that I'd skipped breakfast. I was going to be skipping lunch, too. I was anxious to be there already, so lunch would just have to wait. Besides, if I was lucky, my granny would feed me just like she did every time I popped in to see her; the same as she'd done since I was a kid. As my stomach rumbled louder, I merged into the flow of cars and set the cruise control to 75.

Once I was settled into traffic, I reached over and picked my phone up from where it sat in the cup holder. With one hand on the wheel and one eye on the road, I used my thumb to unlock it. I swiped upward, quickly scanning through the notifications. When I didn't find the number I was looking for, I hit the button on the side to turn the display to black and slid it back into the cup holder once again. I sighed and turned my attention back to the interstate.

The Alabama state line came up on me quickly as I drove south. Familiar landmarks dotted each side of the road, but I didn't see any of them. Instead, my thoughts were lost on a certain blue-eyed brunette that had yet to acknowledge my message.

Who was I kidding? I knew she wasn't going to reply. She never did. To be honest, I don't really know why I even text her in the first place. She'd made it pretty clear the last time I saw her that she didn't want anything else to do with me.

I was fine with that, really. I mean, after everything I've put her through, I can't say that I blamed her. It wasn't like we were even friends anymore; we hadn't been for some time now.

It hadn't always been like that, though. Hell, there was a time that she thought the world revolved around me; like the sun rose and set on my shoulders. Back then, I could do no wrong in her eyes. But that was before I left for school and decided not to come home that first summer. Before I broke her heart that very first time and then all the times after.

We weren't the same kids that we'd been back then; joined at the hip. We're two completely different people now. We have different lives. From what everyone keeps telling me, she's happy back home in Georgia with her classroom full of kids and her house with the white picket fence. Something she's always wanted.

I'm sure that she's found herself a good guy by now, too. Someone that wants the same life that she does. One that supports her. One that takes care of her. One that can be there when she needs him. Most importantly, one that can make her happy in ways that I never could.

But then again, what if she hadn't found that guy? What if he hadn't come along yet, sweeping her off her feet and treating her the way she deserves to be treated? What if she was still single, still waiting for the right one to come along? What if she still went to bed alone at night? What if, after all this time, when the lights were out and she was all alone, it's me that she's missing?

Lord only knows how often I'd thought of her over the years. Or how many times I'd lain awake wondering how she was or what she was doing now. Or how I'd compared every girl I'd ever met to her.

Don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying that I still love her or that I can't get her out of my head. Because I don't and I can. It's just that she was important to me and I still care. And maybe, in another life, we'd be together now.

Maybe that's the real reason I text her every time I'm home, just to see if there's still something there...

I spotted the Fort Payne sign overhead as I came up on exit 222, dragging my mind off her and what might have been and back to the highway. Pointing my truck toward Georgia, that giddy feeling I always got when I was home slowly started to spread. With a smile stretching my lips, I turned the radio up and hit the gas.