Memory Lane

PART 06 » kilig

Author's Note | it's been 84 years (well actually about one and a half), and I apologize DEEPLY for keeping you guys waiting for so long. Sean and Olivia's story is such a rush to me, but it's also really complicated to write, so I've been taking my time away to think more about where their tale is headed. Thank you so much for over 20,000 reads and 1,000 votes on this little ole account, that's INSANE!

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

p a r t    s i x

k i l i g

(n) • exhilaration or elation caused by an exciting or romantic experience; an instance of this, a thrill.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

IT TASTED SWEET.

Too sweet, which I hadn't even figured for a thing until this very moment. I let go of the straw after sucking in the last of the strawberry lemonade in Sean's cup, relishing the disappointed look on his face despite how I was somewhat disappointed as well.

"So you like it, huh?" He asked, a stern look on his face like a storm that I knew would pass. After all, I didn't mind the rain sometimes.

We were lying on the grass in the middle of the quad and embracing the exchange between spring and summer weather on a picnic blanket with our shoes off, our knees up, and a textbook propped against them for me while Sean was busying himself with a football game on his tablet. And of course, two cups of delicious strawberry lemonade that were emptied in one fell swoop, despite the truckload of sugar he had mixed into them.

It was nice like this, spending time alone with Sean apart from our friend group. After his breakup from Carla, it was one thing for us to feel obligated to hold our gang together, but now that Sean and I were dating, the conflict between the two ex-lovers had abated more into tension. After all, Carla and Max seemed to be hooking up with each other a lot more now, my roommate sometimes not returning to our dorm room until after our 12 p.m. lectures ended the next day. It was crazy to think my college roommate was avoiding me after all we had been through and all the friends we shared with each other. Hanging out with the others was always a treat and when we were all together, Carla showed no real signs of animosity towards Sean nor I. But her presence in general was enough to make me dwell on the possibility: maybe I had to choose between my best friend and my boyfriend at some point.

Sean also made for great company because I always had the feeling there were multitudes to him, that unraveling the carefully packaged persona he put out in the world was an added bonus to spending time together in general. Every so often, he would take me to places in his comfort zone, like restaurants on the outskirts of town I never even bothered to take a chance on, or hidden spots where he would party with his high school friends and it felt like a trip through a post card from his past life. Like he was taking me with him down memory lane in the hopes that when he was long gone, this is what he would be remembered by.

A bit unnecessary planning ahead on his part, I knew I wanted to be here with him forever. But then again, I wasn't entirely sure how to tell him that.

Instead, I looped my fingers in his, feeling our warmth tangle and collide until it began to mix together and become one.

And hoped I didn't have to.

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

THERE WAS SOMETHING about being in a relationship with someone that made the world slow down all around you, like time was a matter of spending it with him and when they were nowhere to be seen, you were caught in an eternity you couldn't have prepared for.