Goodbye Kiss

Chapter 3:

Arielle's POV:

Chase and I sat in that dimly lit coffeehouse for two hours, reminiscing the distant memories that we once shared, laughing about some of the crazy things we indulged in in our youth.

As we stood up to leave, he asked me, "Are you free tomorrow?"

"Are you asking me on a date right now?" I teased him, gently nudging his right shoulder with my left elbow. We may have gotten slightly more comfortable with each other in the last two hours.

"Hey hey hey are you suggesting that you want it to be a date?" he joked.

I acted nonchalant, though I was unable to conceal the smile that had found its way to my lips.

"It's my mom and Allie, they miss you and they want to see you." he said.

Allie was his little sister who was five years our junior. I remember how close I used to be with his family. I would go over on weekends to bake all sorts of little goodies and go on shopping trips with his sister and his mom. But I haven't seen them, let alone heard from them, ever since Chase moved away. Losing him had meant losing his family too. But I suppose that it was for the best, for holding on longer than I should would only serve to extend the longing I had for them.

"Yeah sure, I'm free tomorrow. I miss them too. How have they been?" I asked.

"Well you could ask them yourselves when you see them tomorrow." he winked "I'll text you where to meet."

"Sure." I answered, I stuck my hand out, waiting to key my number into his phone.

For a second he looked at me with a perplexed expression. His eyebrows slightly furrowed as if he didn't understand what my gesture had meant.

"Well aren't you gonna hand me your phone so I could key in my number? You know...so you could text me where to meet?" I looked at him with a "duh" expression.

A smirk began forming across his lips, he was clearly amused. "Arielle...I have your number... I mean unless you changed it." he went on.

"Oh- No... no I didn't...it's- it's still the same." I clarified.

"Great. So it's settled then. I'll see you tomorrow." he waved before heading off in the opposite direction.

As I walk down the boulevard alone, I thought about how he still had my number saved in his contacts. For I have lost his two years back, when the software on my phone decided to malfunction and die on me. And me being me, nothing had been backed up. But I thought that he would've deleted mine, or burned that letter I wrote him, just like how heartbroken people do in movies. Then I began to wonder if he ever thought of reaching out, but never did. Because I know I have. Countless of times. But I just never found the courage to.

As I enter my apartment, I take my shoes off, cast my bag aside and walk into my bedroom. I rummage through my bedside drawer in seek of a specific black notebook which was a gift from Chase. This notebook contained our story, the feelings that I had felt, the things that I never said, it was an outlet for me to retreat into, a place where I could be free to express my emotions. Chase was the one who had encouraged me to take up journaling, claiming that it had a calming effect. And I took his word, and true enough I found myself falling in love with writing. And in the notebook, there was a special compartment where I had stashed the letters that he had written me. I got onto my bed, leaning against the cushioned bedframe, I open the journal that I hadn't touched for the past five years, the journal that I kept locked away. I thought, "out of sight, out of mind".

I flip the journal, the first page covered with five photographs of Chase and I posing together in our costumes.

Five years earlier...