All the Missing Pieces (UNDER REVISION)

Twenty

              "Em, get in the back. I'm driving this time." Marina says. We're barely in the car before Marina's put the car in reverse and drives straight back onto the road. Some car honks at us, but none of us care, and we promptly go directly through a red light. My heart is bouncing off the walls of my rib cage in a way that defies every law of physics. I haven't felt this nervous in my life. Not moving, not in baseball tournaments, hell state finals were barely a week ago and the butterflies in my chest from then felt infinitesimal compared to the throbbing of my heart.

               When we reach the train station, the dumping rain hasn't faltered. It pours and pours as it hits the windshield of the car, the sky throwing its whole body at our little Toyota 4Runner. I see the train platform off in the distance, it's outlined by a hazy fog of of light, barely visible behind the curtain of rain. Marina's driving like a madwoman as fast as she can, cutting across parking spaces all at once. The clock strikes 4:57, and feel too late. She pulls up in front of the building and all three of us get out of the car as fast as we can, not even caring how sloppily it's parked. In fact, I'm not entirely sure she turned it off. We run into the building, first me, then Marina, then Emily, and we split up through the platform in search of James. We don't even have to communicate the idea to each other, it just happens like our sheer will alone is enough to telepathically communicate our thoughts.

               I've already passed three different platforms, I'm running so fast I feel like I'm stealing home, but the base keeps getting farther and farther away. The rain is dumping buckets of water onto me, but I don't care. I can't feel anything right now but a desperate rush of adrenaline that courses through my blood. I run into a guy, "Watch where you're going, lunatic!" He shouts. "Sorry!" I don't even look back, I just keep running, running, running. My hair is soaking water into my eyes, and I think my initially white shirt is doing little to cover my body at this point, but I keep running. I've made it to the Greenville stop, and through a blur of rain, I think I see him. The shaded figure has g a red umbrella, which they're attempting to close as they step onto the train. "James? Jesus Christ, tell me that's you." The figure turns around, and I catch a glimpse of his circular glasses, but he turns back and steps onto the train. I grab him by the shoulder, "James!" I shout, "Peyton?" I trip on my own feet and fall over into a puddle. Emily and Marina are nowhere to be seen, but they've completely slipped my mind. The soaking rain, and my other friends, and the three day drive to South Carolina don't even matter any more. I only care about one thing in the world right now and that is James O'Connor. I run through the rain to meet him, my hair dripping with water and my shirt see through by now. When I reach him, he holds the umbrella over me. "Peyton? What the hell?"
"Shut up." Is all I can manage say. He holds his umbrella over me, putting even less space between us. I hand him the letter that I'd written on the ride here. It's folded into three sections, the same way his was. Miraculously, it seems to be the only part of my entire body that has remained dry. He reads the paper with simply on thing on it:

I love you too.

Written over and over again, all the way across the paper. He doesn't understand. "What does this even mean? He asks, taking a step back. "Listen I appreciate that you came all the way here but I don't think you love me the way that I love you. I really need to start over, somewhere where I can just be myself." I grab his wrists. "Do you really think I would be standing here in the rain at five o'clock in South Carolina of all the places in the world, if I didn't really love you? James, I would do anything for you, I've been in love with you since the first time you smiled at me."

I don't think he gets it, though, because then he starts to pull away.

But he can't

Because then I kiss him.

Whatever I felt when I kissed him at Jared's party was nothing compared to the way I feel right now. Every emotion that I've ever felt before comes flooding through my body. My body is on fire, and I just want more. I put my hands on his lower back, and he puts both of his on my face, and I just keep kissing him and kissing him. I think he's crying, but I can't tell over between the rain. I know I'm crying. Choking on a sob, and laughing, and kissing him. I slide my tongue into his mouth gently, and I bite his bottom lip as gracefully as I can at a public train station. The train is long gone before we finally pull apart, and I just kind of hold him there for a second, looking at the station around me. "James?" I whisper into his ear. "Yeah?" He asks.

"Come home."