Are you mine?

Chapter 53

After getting back from the senior trip, things started moving pretty quickly. Finals week was a blur of sleepless nights, flashcards, and colorful highlighters. The only way I made it through was with the help of unhealthy amounts of redbull and coffee, a sleep deprived/zombified teenage student's addiction. I survived though, I passed all my exams and just like that, senior year came to a conclusion.

Our graduation ceremony was nothing remarkable, just a bunch of students in formalwear hidden under caps and gowns, sitting in a gym, hearing a standard speech about how each and every one of us has the potential to change the world and make all our dreams come true if we work on it hard enough. There may be some truth to that. But there is also truth in the fact that most of us will settle for being average and getting by, instead of trying to live up to our full potential and become remarkable. Which may seem a little depressing to some, but that's reality for you.

Now a couple of weeks into summer break, I still can't really wrap my head around the fact that my highschool career is over. Soon, my friends and my boyfriend will be heading off to college, and I'll stay here. In the same spot I am right now, laying in my bed in the dark, staring at the ceiling and trying to convince myself that following Sydney to California and giving my dream career a shot is definitely not what I want. I want stability, a life in the quiet suburbs, designing houses for rich couples that play tennis on the weekend and want a wraparound porch where they can sit to watch their kids riding their bikes on the street. Yes, that's exactly what I want. Right?

My phone rings, snapping me out of my thoughts, the brightness from the screen cutting through the darkness of my room. I sigh, rolling over to pick it up.

"Hello?" I raise the phone up to my ear.

"Mads, can you come over? Like right now?" I hear Noah's voice on the other side of the line, the sound of him pacing back and forth loud and clear.

I pull my phone away from my face to check the time. Twelve thirty a.m. "Noah, is everything okay?" I ask, sitting up and grabbing the hoodie hanging off the side of my bed.

"Yeah, yeah," he doesn't sound very certain, "Well at least I hope so."

"That sounds reassuring," I say sarcastically, putting him on speaker as I slip my hoodie on over my head, ready to rush out the door with that overtop my silk pajama shorts.

"Just hurry up. Please," he says and hangs up the phone.

Worried, I grab my car keys and a post-it note from my desk, before rushing down the stairs. On the note I write down "Went to Noah's for an emergency. Be back soon." and paste it on the front door, in case either of my parents wakes up and notices my car missing from the driveway.

I step outside with my hood on, running to my car in the pouring rain, jumping into the driver's seat and inserting my key in the ignition. My windshield wipers do their best to keep up with the downpour, as I drive as fast as the speed limit will allow me through the empty streets of our town, but they're not much help against mother nature's rage.

I pull up to Noah's house ten minutes later, my car's headlights sweeping over his figure on the porch under the roof, where he stands waiting for me. I get out of my vehicle, rounding the hood and walking up the steps to meet Noah, my legs covered in water droplets.

"Hey," he greets me casually with a smile and a kiss, cupping my face with both hands.

I'm confused by his nonchalance, and I wait in silence for him to explain why I'm here. But he just stands in front of me without saying a word. "Uhm, hello?" I wave a hand in front of his face, "I'm dying here, and I don't even know what I'm freaking out about! Care to explain?"

He takes his time twisting around, taking something out of the back pocket of his jeans, "I got the letter," he says, holding up a white paper envelope.

"The letter as in...?"

"The acceptance letter that decides my future? Yep, that exact letter."

"Your mailman comes in the middle of the night?" I ask, puzzled.

"Apparently it came while we were in Brazil and my mom just forgot to mention it. I just found it on her desk under a stack of her work papers." he explains.

"Have you opened it yet?" I inquire.

"I wanted to do it with you, that's why I called you."

"You know you could have just said 'I got the letter' instead of being so cryptic and creeping me the fuck out, right?" I say, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Well, I needed you to hurry. I figured the more curious you were, the faster you'd get here." he smiles.

"Asshole," I scoff at his plotting.

"I prefer the term genius," he corrects.

"Noah,"

"Yeah?"

"You're stalling." I state.

"Right," he says, looking down at the envelope as he twirls it in his hands.

"It's still closed," I remark, as time keeps ticking by and he won't open the letter.

"I know," he nods, "I can't do it, you do it," he says, extending the envelope to me, but taking it back before I can grab it from his hand, "No, no. I need to do it." he tells himself, "Or maybe..."

"Noah, for the love of god!"

"Okay, okay!" he says, finally tearing the envelope open, taking the folded piece of paper out of it. My palms sweat as I try to read the expression on his face while his eyes scan over the contents of the letter.

"Well?" I ask impatiently.

"I got in," he whispers, incredulous, "Oh my god, I GOT IN!" he shouts into the night at the top of his lungs, making the neighbourhood dogs bark. Before I can even congratulate him, he picks me up over his shoulder, spinning me around as he does. I laugh along with him and he sets me down, crushing his lips against mine while still smiling.

"You did it!" I say, cupping his face, finding it impossible to be prouder of him.

"I can't believe it," he exhales, his hands up to his head, "I'm so amped up I feel like I could go for a run right now," he says, jumping up and down.

I bite down on my lower lip, smiling and looking at him as I step backwards into the rain, "I have a better idea."

He follows my gaze, and laughs incredulously, shaking his head and stepping towards me as he understands my insinuation, "I fucking love you."

"WOOHOO!" I yell into the night, holding on tightly to Noah's waist as we speed down the road on his motorcycle. The deafening sound of the engine roars, as Noah's grip on the clutch tightens. With velocity increasing and without a care in the world, I let go of him, rising my arms up to the sky and throwing my head back. The rain pours down on my face at such a rate and with such force that I feel like the water droplets could pierce through my skin. But it doesn't matter, because this is it. I found the feeling that I'm sure people spend their entire lives chasing. The kind of feeling that can't be fully encompassed with the use of words. It's being struck by a lightning bolt, it's electricity coursing through your veins, it's supernova. It's waking up to the fact that you're so unbelievably lucky to be alive, to have the chance to experience the things and the people that by mere coincidence get woven into the tapestry of your existence. It's feeling so incredibly grateful that you get to exist in the same lifetime as the person laying beside you.

Leaving the bike parked on the side of the road, Noah and I lay down on the street, the gravel against our backs and the stormy skies above us. We hold hands, letting the rain wash over us, puddle round us, drench us to the bone. And I can't help but laugh, because there is no other way I could express that this is the happiest I've felt in my entire life.

This is the moment where the screen would fade to black and the credits would start rolling at the end of the movie. But on the contrary, this is just the beginning.