The John Hughes Club

Chapter Sixty Nine - Five Years Later

"Look at that! Show mummy!" Chas yells with childlike delight, waving at me with the same endearing delight.

"Look, Mummy! Sandcastles!"

"Wow! They're the biggest and the best sandcastles on the whole beach!" I happily reply, feeling just that...happy.

If I could freeze frame a moment, it would be this one. The boy I fell in love with is now the man I am still in love with, smiling back at me and playing in the sand with our son.

With youthful feet, we used to tread upon this very beach. With youthful angst, we cried on this beach. With youthful passion, we fell in love many times over on this beach. I like to think that the universe weaved together the whole of our lives, to bring us to this very moment. I like to think that the universe worked hard to bring us together, and worked even harder to keep us together. And I thank the universe for that every single day.

"You're reminiscing, aren't you?" Running up to me, Chas rakes his fingers through his windswept hair before gathering me into his arms. "It's good to be back, isn't it?" he asks, a smile handsomely there on his face.

Gazing back into the brown eyes of his that always pull me into their adoring world, a smile of my own comes to my lips. "It is," sighing, it's a sigh of contentment and nostalgia. "Your hair seems to cope far better with the Bristol Channel sea breeze now that the quiff has gone," I tease him, sinking my fingers into the dark depths of his shorter, maturer, striking and messy head of hair.

"Just like this beach, that quiff will always hold a special place in my heart." Grinning, Chas settles that gorgeous grin of his fully on my lips.

I always thought that Chas without his quiff, wouldn't be the same Chas, but I was wrong. He parted ways with it a few years ago now, but who he incredibly is, has remained with me. Of course, some things have changed, but our love never has.

We got our GCSE's.
We became parents.
We completed college.
We created our own businesses.
We moved from Minehead.
We bought a cottage.
We married.
Yeah, there's been some changes.

That's why I am here now, feeling so incredibly lucky. With the sand between my toes, I know it's sand that has been left with the imprint of the teenagers we used to be. Every tiny grain, is now meeting with the adults we have become. Hugging Chas and peppering his face with many loving little kisses, how lucky I feel surges through my veins. For I know that what we have is rare, so amazingly rare. Chas didn't just become my childhood sweetheart, he became the adult who completely fills my heart. He has filled it with him and our son. For them, my heart happily now beats. For them, it shall lovingly always beat.

Everyone thought we wouldn't work. Everyone thought our love wouldn't go the distance, yet here we are, still proving the doubters wrong. Five wonderful years down the line, we're just as much in love as we were back then. We're just as much committed to our being together, as we were back then. Just like we have, our love has matured. When we left our teens behind, Chas and I never left us. I love the man that Chas has become, in the same way I loved the boy he used to be. He's still just as exciting and unique. Just as intelligent and vibrant. He still likes to go in the opposite direction of society, and people respect and admire him for that. I, respect and admire him for that. A love like ours never fades. It never gets suffocated by life. A love like ours is a love that continues to deepen, continues to thrive.

So yes, I'm going to stand here with my feet sinking in the sand of memories, kissing my husband whilst keeping a protective eye on the darling child who has become just as treasured in our lives. "I love you," I devotedly declare to Chas, that surge of gratitude now flooding every single one of my blood vessels.