Please Mind The Gap #1

Epilogue: Please mind the gap between us

Epilogue: Please mind the gap between us

--- banner by @RosyKun ---

Previously: Teddy decided to break up with Nathan after her nightmare about losing him as well as her family and also because she noticed his apathy towards his sister, Enalie's situation at the hospital. This epilogue is about Teddy leaving to go back to London.

Teddy woke up the next day feeling an instant dread flooding her system. Today was the good bye, the letting go, the beginnings of the gap. And it was her decision to push Nathan away. For the best.

For the best. What did that even mean? It was the mantra that she reviewed over and over in her head. Sure, they'd just met several weeks ago but somehow, they just clicked, no matter how impossible it sounded. Opposite charges attracting like magnets.

He has his family and I have mine and we're forgetting ourselves, Teddy reminded herself mentally as she plodded across her room, packing her stuff into her measly suitcase.

Her room. It was funny how she got so used to the idea that this room belonged wholly to her. Once she was gone, she wouldn't have a room. This would be Enalie's again.

A gentle knock sounded at her door. She stood up from her packing, trudged towards it and opened it a bit.

"Hi," said Nathan, looking at her with hesitancy in his green eyes. "Can I come in?"

Teddy didn't say anything. Instead, she merely opened the door wider to allow him in.

"So, apparently, Enalie lost consciousness while we were on the Prancer," he began, interrupting her before she could talk. "No, don't worry, she's all right. Mum and Dad are coming straight from the hospital to see you off this afternoon."

Her stomach lurched horribly at the thought. "Nathan, you know..."

He ignored this. "All I wanted to say was that I completely understand why you said what you did yesterday. I think you're right. We still have to fix ourselves before we fix this thing between us."

Teddy slowly nodded. "So Brownie, it's platonic now?" she half-heartedly teased, just to lighten the dreary mood.

"Don't call me Brownie, just... I can't," Nathan muttered and stood up. "You need anything? Help with packing?"

Teddy winced. "No, I'm fine."

He nodded, moving to the door. "I'll be downstairs if you need anything."

All she could do was nod back and watch as Nathan slipped out the room and down the hall. She could hear his muted footsteps thudding down the stairs.

Breakfast was the slowest meal Teddy had ever had in her entire life. Each spoonful of cereal seemed to take hours to chew as the two of them sat quietly in front of each other, barely talking. She stared determinedly at the box of the cornflakes next to her, reading the ingredients on the carton to avoid looking at Nathan, who was reading the newspaper. And he never read the newspaper. The tension between them swirled thickly around the air like syrup; the silence was deafening.

Finally, after she'd swallowed the last cornflake, she stood up quickly and left the table without another word.

Stuff, stuff, stuff. She mechanically dumped all her unpacked belongings into her suitcase then zipped it up. Stuff. In went her tennis things. Stuff. Then came her pajamas and the cheap Australian flag fridge magnet she got at a souvenir stall. Stuff. Stuff.

Finally she surveyed her - Enalie's - room to see if she'd left something. Her gaze fell upon a pair of earrings on her bedside table. A small teddy bear and a brownie glinted at her. She stared at it for a moment, considering whether she should wear them or not.

Teddy swept the earrings into her hand and pocketed them, but she did not put them on.

She headed down with her luggage and deposited it at the bottom step. She checked her watch. Her flight was at 3:30pm and it was 11:04am on her watch face. That was good. At least I set my alarm this time, she thought ruefully.

"Nathan?" Teddy called tentatively. "I'm ready."

Just then the front door opened and in came Ethan and Natalie, Nathan's parents. Their faces were pale and there were dark shadows under their eyes. Natalie smiled when she saw Teddy by the stairs.

"Hi, Teddy dear," she said, sounding slightly weary. "Ready for the airport?"

She nodded as Nathan came in a faded shirt and khaki cargo shorts. Their eyes briefly met and they quickly glanced away from each other.

"Come on," Nathan muttered and headed out the door.

Ethan drove them with Natalie sitting beside him in the front seat. Nathan sat beside Teddy, the two barely talking to each other.

"Why is it so quiet in here?" Ethan finally said to break the silence. "What's going on with you two?"

"Nothing," Teddy said hastilly. "I'm just quite tired, that's all."

"Same," mumbled Nathan, looking out the window.

They said no more until they reached the entrance to the airport. Teddy quietly got her bag out of the car and said her good-byes to Ethan and Natalie.

"Thanks for everything," she said to them gratefully, shaking Ethan's hand. Natalie gave her a hug.

"Visit us anytime you like," Natalie said with a smile.

Teddy nodded, unable to grasp the right words to say as she turned to Nathan who was standing under the sun, its rays casting a golden glow over his shock of dark brown hair.

He said nothing as well until she came nearer to him, looking up at his olive green eyes.

Then he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug. His warm breath stirred a few strands of hair by her ear and she hugged him tighter, trying to commit the way he smelled like lavender laundry detergent and the smooth feel of his faded shirt to her memory.

"I'll miss you," she said, barely a whisper against his ear.

She felt him smile slightly. "Please mind the gap," he said back, "between us."

She felt her own lips quirk upward. She untangled herself from him. "I expect to hear from you," she said.

"Ditto," he said and winked. The nerve.

"See you next time," she said and she got her luggage and turned around, going through the airport glass doors.

"She's a good kid," Natalie murmured to Nathan, pulling him close to her, looking at the way he stared after her with a strange longing in his eyes.

Nathan smiled, turning away from the airport's entrance. "Let's go home," he said softly, heading back to the car.

And so they did.

The End.

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Thank you to everyone who's read Teddy and Nathan's journey from beginning to end. You are so freaking amazing.

LOVE YOU GUYS <3