With or without you

Chapter 23

"You're what?" Riley practically shouted.

"It's only two weeks calm down." I had just told her about the vacation my family and I were going on. Obviously, she wasn't happy.

"Why do you have to be gone so long?"

"I don't know. That's just how long they said." My dad likes to takes us on hiking trips every year. It always changes where we go too. They're usually a lot of fun, but this is the first year that I have a girlfriend, that I have to leave her behind. Since we got together we have been almost inseparable. We haven't gone more than maybe a few days without seeing each other, and even then, just a few days was too long. Two weeks would be torture.

"That's too long." She whined some more. Hearing her complain made me laugh but it came with a twinge of sadness knowing she was right. It was too long.

"I'm sorry. I can't just not go." She rolled her eyes then just hit me with a pillow from her bed. We had been in her room for the past hour. This was before we'd had sex, so all we'd done was watch tv, and make out a bit. She was still pouting but she then smiled at me and leaned in and kissed me on the cheek.

My memory fast forwarded to the day after I got back from my trip. I had been so exhausted from all the travelling the day we got back that I didn't even see her, plus we had to unpack everything. The next day I woke up early because my body had gotten used to being up so we could get up and hike before it got too hot. I rolled over and reached for my phone that was on my night stand. I decided to text her and see if she was awake. As soon as the text had gone through she text back and said 'come over'. I did as I was told, got up, got dressed, then drove the short distance to her house, I only had my drivers permit at the time but my parents still let me drive whenever I wanted as long as I promised not to get pulled over. The second I got to her house I texted that I was there. The whole drive I'd had butterflies in my stomach. I was counting the minutes to get to her house, holding my breath the last few that it took me to get there. When she got my text the next thing I saw was the door open. I got out of my mom's car as she ran to me. She practically tackled me to the ground, and I would have fallen if she hadn't been strong enough to catch me before I completely lost my balance.

"You're back!" she screamed.

"I'm back!" I screamed back. She then grabbed my face with both her hands, I remember how warm her hands were, and then pulled me I and kissed me on the lips, hard. When she pulled back she looked at me for a second and then just smiled.

"I really missed you Tess."

"I missed you too."

I woke up to complete darkness. It took me a second realize that I was in Gray's room and not my own. I thought about the dream I had, or rather the memory I had. I then remembered everything else that happened after that memory. I pulled the covers over me and went back to sleep. Its too early to be thinking about these things right now.