Say Yes

California Langley

The second Langley's Nikes hit the tile of the arrivals wing at LAX, all the weight she'd carried with her on the plane ride melted away. She pulled her suitcase to the wall, stepped out of the stream of bodies headed out into the August California heat, and closed her eyes. Just for a few breaths, long enough to think: I'm finally here. 

She'd dreamed of running off to college in SoCal since she was old enough to learn about the PCH and the endless sun and the entire country between California and her home state of Maryland. It was a fantasy she dreamed in brochures stuffed under her mattress and deleted search histories of every school on the southern west coast. Her family had a plan for her life, but she had made her own plan, and she'd done it. She'd actually done it. 

Nothing had deterred Langley from her dream. Not even when, in her junior year, she found out that Jude Waite was headed to the school she'd marked #1 on her list. USC.

Langley reluctantly opened her eyes and fished her phone out of the pocket in her leggings.

Viv: Don't forget to thank Jude for picking you up. 

Viv: Give him a hug for me. I miss that idiot.

Langley's thumbs hovered over the screen for a moment. She shifted her shoulders and pulled at the neck of her hoodie; even the airport was baking.

Langley: I will.

Her phone dinged with another text.

Jude: I'm here.

Crap. Langley glanced around for a bathroom. She'd parked herself a few feet from the nearest one, and she pushed her suitcase through the open doorway. It was a long bathroom, with a huge mirror along the length of one wall, and moved past the women at the sinks nearest the door in favor of the last sink on the end.

She shrugged off her backpack, and then her sweatshirt, and shoved it inside. Her deodorant was right beneath, and she pulled at her white crop top to swipe on another layer and turned to the mirror.

Her usually pale face was flushed. Partially from the sweatshirt, but partially not. Her charcoal eyes were wide, and her inky, pin-straight hair fell to a blunt line just below her chin. She'd always worn it long, but she'd chopped it off a few days before -- California Langley, she'd decided, was going to be different than Maryland Langley. And change on the outside was the start to change on the inside. She hoped.

Fake it 'til you make it, right?

She needed to be California Langley for the same reason that the dazed girl in the mirror looked so starstruck. She started crushing on her sister's best friend Jude since she was thirteen years old, and she refused to be Vivian's bumbling, blushing little sister anymore. She was under no pretenses that Jude was going to notice her as anything more - in fact, after this polite ride from the airport, she was hoping he forgot she existed - but today was a test. She had to be cool, friendly, non-embarrassing Langley. California Langley.

She pulled her phone back out.

Langley: Me too. See you in a minute!

Back in the arrivals section, Langley searched through the awaiting crowd, an eye out for Jude. He'd bulked up since starting real, college football, that much she knew from his Instagram - which she definitely hadn't stalked on the plane ride over. Training camp was why he was here in time to pick her up for freshman orientation. 

"Langs!"

Langley's feet were off the ground before she could even turn toward him. A pair of wide, corded arms lifted her a clear foot off the ground; she squeaked and swatted at them.

Jude's chest - that was, dear Lord, flush against her back - rumbled with laughter, and her sneaks made fresh contact with the ground. Langley whirled and came face-to-face with a broad set of shoulders encased in a yellow t-shirt. She tilted her head back, and there was Jude's boyish smile, white teeth against dark skin, pulled up to one side. She melted.

And he was looking at her the way he always looked at her. With familiarity, warmth, and absolutely no condescension, which was the worst part of it all. Maybe that reminder was what boosted California Langley, but rather than blushing and forgetting she was supposed to speak, she acted.

"Jude! Thanks again for picking me up. It's good to see you." She reached her arms up around his neck, just for a second, and stepped back. "That was from Viv."

Jude's smile stretched wider. 

"It's good to see you too," he said. "Shall we?"