Preath - Behind The Door

California Girl

3 days later, end of the camp - Tobin's POV

It's 7 A.M, Christen and I are packing and getting ready to leave to go back to Portland. Her recovery is going great so far, luckily. Our flight leaves in three hours, and we've already said our goodbyes to the team. 

Flight back home - Christen's POV

We're about to board the plane back home. The last few days have been uneventful for me, I'm excited to get back home to finish recovery and get back on the pitch. I hear our plane being called now. 

After we find our seats, the captain goes over the routine speech. I zone out for most of it until he mentions that it's going to be chilly back in Portland. I'm going to miss the warm weather. I hope I didn't forget anything at the hotel, I don't think I did. Tobin let me have the window seat this time. The plane was relatively quiet for the first hour until a baby starts screaming. The remaining three hours were painfully long, the baby screamed the whole time. We could hear the mom apologizing several times. Tobin and I just listened to music together in an attempt to drown it out. My leg is aching worse than ever, I can't really stretch it out while sitting on the plane. I distract myself by looking out the window, the clouds are really bright and they look like fluffy cotton candy. 

We finally landed and practically ran off the plane to escape the crying baby. We go over to get our bags and then get an Uber back to Tobin's place.

Tobin's place - Tobin's POV

Finally, we're back home. We throw our bags on the floor and settle back in. This brings me back to the first time I brought Christen here. She helps me clean up around my apartment and then we chill on the couch. It's much colder here in Portland, the skies are grey. It's supposed to storm soon. It's silent in the living room, besides the occasional few cars driving past. I watch Christen's chest rising up and down and sync my breath with hers. I'm sitting up while she's laying down with her legs in my lap. The room is filled the with scent of the new candle burning that we got while in Orlando. I'm starting to doze off but feel her grab my hand and place it on her leg. When she does this it usually means she wants a massage for her leg. 

"Hm?" I ask. My eyes are still closed, I'm half asleep. 

"Massage?" She whispers. I open my eyes to see her smiling at me. I could never say no. I adjust myself on the couch and begin the massage by using my forearm to warm her muscles up. I can feel tension in her muscles so I use a kneading motion moving over her thigh using both of my hands. I alternate levels of pressure as I work in the areas with the most tension. Moving closer to her knee, she flinches and grabs my hands. 

"Sorry!" I say, fear crossing my face. I lift my hands off her leg.

"It's okay," she says gently with a smile, reaching back up for my hands. She holds my hands in hers and I stare into her sparkling eyes. She swings her legs off my lap and stands up to stretch her legs out. She turns around towards me and grabs my hand to pull me off the couch.

"Let's dance together." She says, still holding my hand.

"Okay," I reply. I grab the remote and put soft music on in the background. We join together, our feet in perfect sync with each step. She still gives me butterflies even after all the time we've been together. As the music continues, we relax more into each other. As I'm looking into her eyes, I can only think about how I got so lucky. She guides me around the room and it seems as if this is a dream. Every movement feels natural. We become one with the music, our movements, and each other. We continue dancing until the sounds of the music slowly fade away and the sound of thunder rumbling and the rain pattering against the windows take over.

"Another storm." she says, staring glumly out the window. We stand in silence for a few moments, just to look outside.

"Do you miss home?" I ask. I've been meaning to bring this up but never got the chance to until now. 

"What do you mean? This is home." She replies, looking over at me.

"No, I mean California." I reply. 

"Oh. Yeah, sometimes I do. Home is with you, though." she replies, shrugging her shoulders, "I don't feel homesick if that's what you were asking." She adds. I nod my head. 

"Okay. Cool." I reply. 

"Why do you ask?" She asks, still looking out the window.

"I don't know, you just seem like such a California girl. I thought you might have been sad to come back here or something." I reply.

She shakes her head. "No, I mean don't get me wrong, I love California but I love it here. I love it here with you."

A surge of happiness suddenly floods my body. I can't explain the feeling, but all I could feel in this moment is that she is the one. I realize my breathing is getting heavier. I swallow before looking over at her. 

"... you okay?" She asks. 

I start to laugh. "Yeah.. you make me nervous. A good nervous- Like the butterflies." I say.

She laughs and nods her head. "Ah, gotcha," she stops and turns towards me. "What about me gives you butterflies?" She asks.

I stop to think. I can't put my finger on one specific thing. "Everything about you," I say with a nervous laugh. "Your eyes, how they have a special sparkle. Your smile, how it's so contagious. Your lips, self explanatory. How you have the biggest heart out of anyone I've ever met. How you somehow always know the right things to say. Your laugh, how it makes me fall harder for you every time I hear it, I could go on forever." I add, inhaling deeply. 

"Tobin, that's the cutest thing I think I've ever heard." She says, jumping and clinging onto me. "I love you." She whispers in my ear. There go the butterflies, again.

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Hey y'all, sorry for the short part! I think this will mark the end of this story. I don't have any other plot ideas to continue on and don't want to become repetitive as that will obviously be boring to read (and write!). This is the first story I've ever written and it's been so fun and a great learning experience. I will be starting a new story very soon! Thanks for reading! <3