Flynn - a kissing booth fan fiction

Hours

A/N - gosh, this has taken me a long time to get back to and publish. I can only apologise and say I'll try for a bit more consistency across my stories (all four of them that I'm currently updating) going forward.

The last week of winter break goes by way too fast. Elle and I spend every minute we can together, both waking and non-waking. There are days where it feels like time stretches, like when we hang out downtown before heading to the Rams game. A long, sun-drenched day that seemed like it would last forever. But then there are nights that disappear seemingly between blinks, when we can't keep our eyes open any longer and we wake up to sun streaming in around the curtains.

And in those times, it's hard not to mourn the loss. It's unfair that so much of our limited time together gets stolen by sleep. I'm trying not to miss Elle before I've even left, but it's hard, knowing that in just a couple of days, I'll be boarding that plane back to Boston without her by my side. After being stuck to each other like glue for the past few weeks, my natural instinct is to try and put a little distance between us now, so it's not such a shock to the system then.

But I find myself reaching for her anyway, drawing her closer still, and I just have to hope I can soak up enough of her presence to tide me over between now and spring break. I've already started laying groundwork there, dropping a couple of hints about her and Lee maybe coming east for their break, Elle to visit me, and Lee so he can spend time with Rachel while she tours Brown. I'd be lying if I said that I hadn't been a bit thrilled when Rachel informed him that she wanted to go there next year. Because if his girlfriend is going to college back east, maybe, just maybe, my brother might think about applying there too. If not at Brown, then somewhere else close by.

Boston College, BU, Tufts, there are so many options, and if Lee ends up on the east coast as well, there shouldn't be any reason why Elle wouldn't pick a college there too, right? Without the whole Berkeley thing hanging over her head, she'd surely want to be close to both me and Lee. Mom will probably lose her mind if Lee and Elle end up moving across the country as well, though. She's been giving me misty-eyed looks again the last day or so. Seems like I'm not the only one starting to think about that flight back to Boston.

My last night at home, Mom makes a special dinner, with all my favorite food, and we all sit down to eat together as a family, Elle included. At this point it would be weird if she wasn't here. Even before she was my girlfriend, it was pretty common for her to appear miraculously out of thin air whenever Mom decided we needed to have a family dinner. I still don't know if she had some sort of sixth sense or if Lee (or maybe even Mom) would invite her specifically, but I never minded either way.

In fact, I was always glad to see her sitting next to Lee, across from me. In those days, her presence at the table usually meant that Dad wouldn't start in on lecturing me about whatever I'd done wrong according to him, that week. And of course it meant I got to tease Elle, make her blush. The thought makes me roll my eyes at my younger self. How did I not realize I was in love with her sooner? God, I was an idiot.

Tonight, as is the new norm, Elle sits next to me, across from Lee. It took awhile, but it no longer feels like we're living in opposite land. Not everything's changed, though, and I cover my smirk by shoving more steak into my mouth. I still like to tease Shelly and make her blush. In fact...

"You need to eat more," I murmur in her ear while the rest of my family bicker about something or other.

Elle raises an eyebrow, clearly puzzled.

"Why?"

I smirk. She makes it almost too easy.

"Because you're going to need all the energy you can get later."