𝐀𝐃𝐀𝐌 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 clock on his bedside and switches his eyes briefly towards his bedroom window, overlooking the yard next door. The grass is freshly cut and a various pallet of greens and yellows. But he doesn't care about that, really. There is only one car in the driveway and that is what matters to him. One car in means one car out. One car out means picking up Rowan from the airport. She is coming home today. Any moment, really.
"I don't know," Alex mumbles as he tosses a lacrosse ball above his head repeatedly. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that this coach is a complete dick swab and I want him fired."
"You could say that again," Brendan agrees, glancing towards Adam. "Guess that's why Rowan kissed him."
"What?"
"There we go. Now he's listening."
"Rowan kissed who?"
"No one," Alex sighs. "Brendan's just trying to mess with you."
"Had to get his attention somehow," the boy shrugs.
Alex smiles and shakes his head. "Very interesting how Rowan's name is what it took to finally break you from your sad boy stare out the window."
"Yeah, very funny," Adam grumbles.
"You know, looking at that driveway isn't going to make her get here any faster."
"I'm willing to bet on it."
"Alright, Loverboy. You do that," Brendan says. "But you're not exactly doing so hot at trying not to be obsessed with her so..."
"I'm not obsessed with her," he quickly denies. "I'm just excited."
"And in love!" Brendan whispers not too quietly.
"Okay, Brendan. Thank you for that."
"Leave the guy alone, McGill," Alex says.
"Exactly."
"He's only trying to make her his girlfriend again–the wedding has been postponed to make room for all the upcoming summer angst."
"Oh my God."
The two boys laugh and try to dodge Adam chucking a t-shirt at them from across the room. They retaliate with a large gray pillow and suddenly Adam has forgotten all about the missing car and creeping time. The three boys who had once been four years old together were now hurtling towards the last four months of all being in the same place. They knew it was not the end, but rather just a long vacation. Alex even decided to skip out on the Italy house, leaving him completely home alone come the start of July. Him and Brendan have already started to make some arrangements regarding this newfound approaching freedom to say the least.
It might have been twenty minutes into the intense war when the sound of a slowing car halted them in their movements. When a car door shut nearby, they bolted to the window. The second car was in its usual spot, a set of boxes and bags already being carried up the driveway and to the front door.
He heard her voice before anything else, muffled behind the window's glass. His heart nearly stopped there. All the pink excitement pumping through his body at a million miles per hour took a sharp turn to a purple fear. He was almost worried that she would have changed completely within the months apart, but then reminded himself that change is good. It means growth has been here and growth can never be bad. She might be different, but he might be too.
"Okay, Alex, let's get out of here."
"I thought you guys were gonna stay and help her move back in," Adam voices, taking his eyes away from the outside view for only a short moment.
"So innocent and naive, Banks," Brendan sighs. "You might not have a plan, my friend, but I do."
"We do," Alex cut in.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Later, Loverboy!"
𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐀𝐍 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 long way around the house to get to her bedroom. The walls are the same color but she suspects a fresh paint must have been done over the winter. Other than the piling stack of boxes and suitcases in the corner, her room is the same neatness she left it in back in the fall–a large white blanket folded to the foot of her bed. She takes it off because she doesn't think she'll need it anytime soon with the looming summer heat. Rowan heads back to the car for the last few things to bring in. The sun is shining extra bright and the trees carry a light breeze towards her flowing overalls. She grabs the last box in the backseat, filled to the brim with books.
"Hey, stranger."
Adam stands there in a dark blue t-shirt, his usual gold chain tucked carefully around his neck, and smiles at her. She watches him for a moment, inhaling the last six and a half months of life that continued here without her–and couldn't help but grin back. "Hi, Banks."
"What? I don't get a hug?"
Rowan laughs, shutting the car door, and places the large brown moving box down to the pavement of her driveway. "I was starting to think you'd have forgotten me by now."
"Me? Forget you?" Adam repeats, almost in a teasingly clueless kind of way. "Never."
Her arms clasp around the back of his neck within seconds and his grip on her tightens. It was the kind of hug that felt like the ocean sucking the tide back in. It was an incredible force tied with the knot of an invisible string.
"How are you?" he asks, taking a deep inhale to her familiar scent in which he longed for over the last half year.
"Good. Really good now."
Adam smiles into her hair. "Me too."
He inches away from her and studies her face, his hands holding her head. "I missed you so much."
"Me too," Rowan says, running her fingers across the veins on his wrists.
Another smile spreads into Adam's eyes and his thumb draws small movements across her pinkening cheek. "Call me crazy," he says. "But I think you're blushing."
She grins. "Wow, you must really be losing it because I am not blushing."
"Oh yeah? Then what's that?" Adam asks mockingly, pointing to patches of her warm skin. "And that? And right here?"
"I'm seriously going to kill you," she threatens.
His head tilts to the right and a lopsided smirk settles at the corners of his mouth. "Oh, I'd like to see you try, Pierce."
Rowan fights off a smile for a brief second and sinks into the everlasting comfort that's standing across from Adam Banks in a summer's driveway. She creeps onto the tips of her toes, reaching upwards, and pushes strands of his golden hair out of his eyebrows.
Adam watches her, his gaze never leaving the curve of her cheekbone and color of her life manifesting into the greens of her eyes and tan skin. His hands gently find the outsides of her arms as he trails them like running water. To him, she was a cold glass of soft sweet lemonade on a day as hot as the one they were in now.
"Do you want to help me unpack?" she asks him quietly.
"Yes, Ma'am."
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𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 | 𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐦 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬
Fanfiction"Tell me to stay and I will." He thinks for a long moment. If we were meant to stay in one place forever, we'd have roots rather than legs. "I think you should go," he says finally.
