Ugly Girls and Pretty Boys

Chapter 33

I think waiting is the most horrible part of anything. My heart was pounding – I even began picking at my outfit. I will meow you? What...what was I thinking? Is my braid ugly? Should I take it down? Should I have my hair out? What will he think? I touched my face, is it swollen? Should I...I don't know what I should do. My phone buzzed giving me a heartache that led to me dropping my phone. I picked it up.

OH MY GOD. ONLY 2 MINUTES HAD PASSED.

I began to race through how long it would take for Jase to get here from his house. 15 minutes?! I had to wait another 13? If he showered...it would be 20 minutes...I groaned I should've just gone to his house. My phone buzzed again and I looked down to it. A text message from Vince:

In case you lose hope.

There was an attached link I opened it. It was a video clip.

"-to what I have to say. Back when were 13 I never made it in time and I pray to the skies that this time around I make it in time. You have to hear these words I have to say." I gasped feeling the tears in my eyes. It was Jase making an announcement in the airport. It was him... "I watched you leave and it broke my heart, if you leave again it will shatter. You need to know that without you – those years without you, I was very tempted very day to just fly out to see you...and now you've come back I don't – I can't let you leave me again. I love you Kay. Please don't go."

My mind raced thinking back to that day.

'You mean you never heard the announcement?' he had asked me.

'Just a boy desperately looking for a girl...' why didn't he tell me then?

'Did he find her?' How could I have not seen it?

'So the story goes.'

"So the story goes..." I mumbled to myself – everything was becoming so clear. I blinked away the tears. My feelings surfaced. I regretted every word I had said at the airport – I would not pretend anymore. No more.

I looked out towards the city skyline, just caught in this moment. As the clouds moved in slow motion I felt like I was frozen in this feeling, almost submerged into this indestructible and almost unfaltering knot in my stomach. How long had I felt this way?

How long had I twisted this story?

How long have I waited...? Questioned...thought...believed that no one loved me.

How long had I deceived myself.

I chuckled to myself, it was almost turning into one of those love stories where best friends eventually come to realize they're in love with each other.

If...it was, why was I waiting here for Jase? ...in this one single spot in an endless space of time where my true feelings were here. I watched the silhouettes of birds flutter past me; I could almost hear the flutter of their wings in my ears. Or was that my heartbeat?

I felt the weight of the bench shift and for what felt like forever I froze. I couldn't move, I couldn't even turn my head because I could already feel he was here. Jase was here, his vanilla scent – his oh so familiar scent reached my nose, calming every nerve I had.