Until I Say Goodbye | ✔

until

SCENE: school field
TIME: 3pm, afternoon

chapter form

••••••

It's dwindling into the bright rays of sunlight, the clouds running across the expanse of the sky, although it's still oddly cold.

Camilla feels the brush of the wind across her cheeks as she hurries towards one of the tents. Thanks to today's food sale, they had made more than they had dreamt of, all going towards the repairments and more classrooms. It's weird, she reflects, how today went surprising well. Everyone there was stuffing their mouths with food or sitting at one of the tables they'd dragged out to the field and talking. There was even a game booth, which Camilla was pretty sure she did not approve, but it did not matter away.

Most of them have gone home, so she's now making her rounds, including bringing down the tents, clearing up any rubbish and seeing how it went.

"All right over there?" she asks kindly to one of the freshman, giving them a grateful smile. "I do hope you had a good time."

One of them blushes, warming Camilla's heart. "Of course," they reply, grinning widely and holding up the almost empty tray of egg tarts. Camilla's often considered trying to learn to make them, but her obsession with cookies made them less of a priority. Not that she'd ever throw the thought away. It just wasn't now.

Camilla nods. "Good then," she says when she feels a form sidling up towards her, breath warm on her neck.

"I gotta go," she says tightly, giving the girls a wink. "Business calls."

She turns around and Kyle is there, grinning at her. The tufts of his black hair won't stay down, popping up wildly, and he has a blue scarf draped messily over his olive green jacket and brownish-black pants.

At least he had style.

"So what did you want to tell me?" She asks, winding her  arms around him for a hug. His shirt smells of him and the laundry powder he uses. He's a good foot taller, but that doesn't matter, because over the weeks, he's Kyle, the random boy she found and spent her time with.

"Glad to see you're still in one piece," he notes, pulling away from her. "I was starting to worry you were with Daniel."

"Daniel?" Camilla frowns. She doesn't get his obsession over him, or why it seems to bothers him so much. Daniel simply offered his help, until Kyle heard of it and brought his decorative bat instead.

But when he looks away, it hits her and she can't believe how stupid she is.

Kyle was jealous. It should have been obvious when he fake-threatened to poison Daniel's ice cream, but now she knows what it means, she's not really sure if he actually means it.

But it doesn't excuse the torment she's about to inflict on him.

"Come on, what's so special about him?" she teases.

Kyle rolls his eyes, a trait she learns he does whenever he's being cornered, but doesn't want to show it. "He's stupid," he finally manages to say.

Camilla holds in her laughter, because the answer is just, so, so ridiculous. "Is that the best insult you can come up with?" she asks wryly.

Kyle bites his lip. "I had a tiring day, okay? After being dragged into this whole affair," he waves his hand around to indicate it, "I think I have some right to insult."

But Camilla knows he's stalling, desperately flailing around for a foothold, despite his outward grumpy friendliness and bites that don't really hurt.

Sometimes.

"Kyle," she prods him, "what did you want to tell me?"

His eyes fly wide open, and she squeezes his hand encouragingly. "Come on, you know you pulled me over for something."

Kyle finally gives in with a snort and presses something in her hand. Hard. "Found this while we went window shopping," he muttered. "I hope you like it, it was really difficult to get a good price-"

Camilla opens her hand to find an object. A chocolate chip cookie rests on the open palms of her hands, every last detail crafted, painted and glazed lovingly. The little chips stick out, the bumps realistic in its uneven texture, toned with various shades of delicious golden brown and connected to a braid black string with a silver clasp at the back.

She's at a loss for words. It's wonderful. Perfection, even.

She looked up to see Kyle obviously thinking differently, still babbling and trailing off into nothingness.

"No way I was getting one of the best-friend-split-in-half-heart necklaces," he said, "because I'm not that cheesy, and that'll look weird-"

"Kyle."

"-and weird is not gonna be in my vocabulary, nope, not at all, although it still somehow ends up-"

"Kyle."

"-besides, the shame, it's too strong, I think I'm going to die from it, I can feel the angels singing from above-"

"Kyle, shut up."

"-angels! Ha! What am I thinking, the angels are probably laughing at me too. Anyway I hope you like the gift, it took me a looooong time-"

Camilla clutches the charm necklace stands on her tiptoes and presses a kiss to his lips.

And Kyle does shut up.

"I love it," she murmurs after she's back on all of her feet again. "Thank you."

Kyle's smile widens for a fraction of a second before disappearing. "So what happens now?"

"What do you mean?"

He gestures towards the cookie charm. "Now that there's no more of that, there's no more reason to stay. It's over."

Camilla's frowns for a moment before realizing the implications of Kyle's words. "Are you serious?"

He tilts his head. "What?"

Camilla bursts into a fit of giggles. "Oh Kyle, don't you get it?"

Kyle shakes his head. "Bring it out."

She intertwines her hands with his, still smirking. "We are like one of our phone calls."

It dawns on him and Kyle rolls his eyes. Again. "Right."

She presses another kiss onto his flaming cheeks. "Yes, and because it's not over until one of us says goodbye."

A familiar grin answers her. "Well, let's hope that we last then."

➵

-COMPLETED-