[ for @argentile's one shot competition ]
let's make a deal: when we're 25, and if we aren't in a relationship
with other people, let's be boyfriend and girlfriend instead.
♥ ♥ ♥
[ P A R T : O N E ]
♥ ♥ ♥
It has been awhile.
She stands in the airport terminal with bated breath, her luggage tightly in hand as she casts a weary glance down the almost empty halls. The town has always been small, and in the tiny, local airport with hardly anyone else other than the elderly janitor and a rather bored Hawt Dawgs café employee, it feels even smaller.
It has been awhile.
Awhile is an understatement, she thinks. Over a decade is far too long. Over a decade of Skype calls and late night texts and brief two day visits that feel like two seconds. Seeing him but never really meeting him again.
She wonders if it'll be different. If they'll be back to the beginning; her with the awkward blushing and he with the short, clipped conversation enders. And then they'll be stuck in a metaphorical rut deeper than one from a totaled car, because she won't have the heart to speak again.
(Because she really sucks at making casual conversation.)
The loneliness is starting to become suffocating. The silence is a festering ground for dangerous thoughts; horrible, horrible thoughts that plague her mind worse than last season's flu.
Still, it's too late to turn back now. She's at the airport, in the same little town it all started.
The same little town where she's about to get closure.
Closure.
That's what she's here for.
She is here to see him and all her friends and her loved ones (one in particular), but she is also here for closure. To make sure he doesn't blame her. To see if they can still be close, even though they both know it'll never be the same.
"Eleanor?"
She doesn't know whether to be delighted or nervous.
He's gotten taller, she muses dimly. Not exactly tall, but certainly taller. In her flip flops, she's pretty sure that they're the same height. The years appear to have been well to him, treating him with the kind grace of a chiseled face and strong features.
"Hi, Noel."
The silence is palpable. It's the biggest what if what if what if what if what if. It resonates with her heartbeat in a sickening rhythm.
Thump. What if.
Thump. What if.
Thump. What if.
"So is this the part where we hug?"
And suddenly, she doesn't remember what she was so worried about in the first place.
