Scent (Scomiche)

Time

A/N: please notice the time skip! Five years in the future!

Five years is a long time, but nothing much has changed. If that doesn't show how sad my life is, I don't know what will.

Okay, I guess I might be exaggerating, because of course things have somewhat progressed since five years ago, but not necessary positively or with anything incredible. Which is why I just stopped telling every single moment of my day.

But it's time to catch up!
God, I sound old and like I actually want to talk about my life and get into a conversation about old times.

I'm 32 now (yikes), I moved back to my hometown and stayed there, and I'm still single. When I moved in with my dad, I realized that I had needed something different all along, and it was good for me. But I only lived with him for a little over a year before I moved out and got an apartment not too far away. It was fine living with him, but eventually I was ready to start dating again after Scott and Bryan, so I moved out (still pretty close by). Bringing guys back to your dad's house isn't always the most appealing thing to admit. While I was there, however, we started up a small business with his woodworking hobby. I helped with the finance portion of selling and whatnot, and we created a schedule for him. The sales go up and down. I just kind of help him every so often from afar now, but he mainly gets the gist of what he has to do to keep it running. Either way, I’ll stop in on my way home from work sometimes and grab a bite to eat and talk with him about it to keep him on track.

I casually dated a few different guys over the next two years before I found a guy named Charlie. We dated for only about a year before he moved in with me. Then things went downhill really fast. Some people are just not meant to live together.

Trust me.

Kirstie met Charlie once when she was visiting. It was one of the only times where only she came down and didn't make it a family excursion. She wasn’t a fan of him. According to her, he seemed lazy and had too harsh of a sense of humor. Of course she ended up being right, and my sensitive self couldn’t handle much more, so he moved out, and I’ve been single ever since.

Usually Kirstie brings Adam and the girls with her. Yes, girlS, as in multiple. She has Eliana who’s five and Cassidy who’s two, and she’s pregnant again now with a little boy who they’re planning on naming Milo. She said after him she wants to stop, but we’ll see.

I still work at the bank, but I was promoted to assistant manager. So basically I have a few more responsibilities and have a little higher salary. I get some paid time off now, too, so that’s pretty cool.

I suppose it’s time to talk about Scott and Lindsey, huh? Well, it’s nothing extraordinary, but Scott and I text each other on birthdays and holidays, like an ode to the friendship we used to have and no longer do. As for Lindsey, she doesn’t talk to me. Ever. It doesn’t matter how much I text her or call, she rarely answers. When she does, she’s nice of course, but something in her hardened, and thinking about it makes me incredibly sad, so I try not to. They’re part of my past.

No matter how much I wish they weren’t just my past.

But anyway, the reason I started telling my story again was because I got a call from Scott a few days ago. I was in such shock I barely processed what he was saying, but it went something like this:

“Hello?”

“Hi, Mitch.”

“...........hi Scott.”

“How are you doing?”

“Fine… how are you?”

“Great.”

“Cool.”

“So…. okay, well, I was just calling to see if you could come visit for a few days sometime soon.”

“O-oh, really?”

“Yeah, Lindsey and I haven’t seen you for a while and she’s learning to drive and stuff, so I thought you might like to come see that disaster.”

“Um, yeah, I… I haven’t seen either of you in, what, five years?”

“Has it been that long?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. But anyway, I haven’t taken any vacation this year so I’d love to come visit.”

“Illinois is hardly a vacation.”

“I meant vacation time from work but whatever.”

“Oh!”

“Sorry, yeah. So when were you thinking?”

“Maybe next week? What’s today, Thursday? You could come as soon as you know you can get the time off.”

“I could fly out Monday. Getting time off isn’t that big of a deal.”

“Great! Yeah, um, fly into Chicago and I’ll come pick you up.”

“How long will I be staying for?”

“As long as you want.”

“Scott, please, just give me a number.”

“I don’t know, like, five to seven days would be good?”

“Okay, I’ll fly out Sunday.”

“Awesome. I’ll, uh, hear from you soon, then.”

“Mhm. Bye.”

That explains why I’m on a plane right now, flying to Illinois. Maybe I shouldn’t have given in so easily, but let’s be honest, could I ever say no to Scott? Even after what he did…. I guess my heart still believes, somewhere deep inside, that he could be the one.

I wonder if he’s any different. If anything, I hope he’s matured.

And what about Lindsey? I haven’t gotten a response from her in ages with no explanation why. He mentioned she’s learning how to drive. My little Lindsey girl, old enough to drive. I shift in the plane seat, trying to lighten the weight of my heart.

There’s nowhere I’d rather be than six years ago. Right before Christian died. When my love for Scott consumed me and there was nothing I could do about it, but I believed he was perfect. And to have an unbiological little girl look at me like I held the world.

My heart feels heavy again so I reshift until the passenger next to me cuts me a dirty look. I sigh lightly to myself and lean back to attempt to drift off. But memories of Scott flood my eyelids instead and I’m left remembering things I had pushed out long ago, back when I decided that Scott was a waste of my time.