"Andy!" I yelled from the green foliage surrounding my face.
"(Y/n)?" He asked, walking closer. My taller classmate looked up into the tree to see my shoes about two feet above his head.
"Can you help me get down?" I asked sheepishly.
"Just carefully put one of your feet on the lower branch-"
"Catch!" I yelled. I jumped off of the branch I was standing on, and landed in his arms. I poked his chest. "You're a livesaver." I smiled as he put me down. I picked up my books.
"What were you doing in the tree anyways?"
"I was watching you." I shrugged and walked away. I walked to my house and plopped on my bed. I loved that boy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That was the last thing he ever said to me. He basically dropped off the face of the earth. I couldn't find him anywhere. I texted him, but his phone had long since been disconnected. It was now five years later, and here I sat on the campus lawn of St. Lawrence University, my dream school. I sat sat down in a group of Art majors. I was still undeclared, but I was leaning towards the arts. I snapped out of my trance by another boy sitting next to me. He had long black hair, and he was wearing a beanie covering most of it. He had a lip ring, and was wearing a black leather cord around his neck. Everything about him seems so familiar. I rolled my own leather cord between my fingers. I could tell the necklaces were the exact same. He was wearing a black jacket similar to my own. Only his had a few buttons just above the pocket. His eyeliner had gotten a little smudged, but I didn't question it.
"Okay, so why don't we introduce ourselves." The oldest one in the group said. "I'm Alex, a senior art major. And I'm from Dallas, Texas." A few more people said their names until it was my turn.
"Um, well, I'm Livella, I'm a freshman, and I'm undeclared. And I'm from Aster, Ohio." I looked to the boy on my left waiting for him to speak. He looked puzzled as he stared at my face.
"I'm Andy, freshman, and I'm an art major. I'm from-"
"Aster, Ohio." I blurted out. That's who it was! He's Andy! Oh my god!
"Wow. It's definitely been a while." He realized who I was, and everyone else just looked confused. I stood up.
"Excuse us, we have some catching up to do." I waved to the art majors and walked away with him.
"How long has it been?" He asked, as we sat on the stairs of the main building. I put my stuff down and looked at my watch.
"5 years, 7 months, 1 week, 2 days, and 4 hours." I said.
"You missed me that much?" He smiled.
"I've been counting the seconds." I smiled, looking at the ground.
"I kept waiting for something, a call, a text, an email. Something!" He said, bewildered.
"I called you 48 times. 347 text messages. And 118 emails. You dropped off the face of the earth. I cried myself to sleep for years waiting for you." I admitted. "I thought you hated me! I would stare at my phone, looking at our screensaver. But you never tried to call me either!" I said.
"The moving truck ran over my phone. I lost your number, and every picture of us along with it. Except one. I kept that photo of you I took with my Polaroid. That was the only thing I had of you. And then the necklace I found a few days ago. When I moved into my dorm it was in the bottom of one of the boxes. I knew it was a sign I'd see you again."
"You couldn't even tell me you were leaving?" I asked.
"I didn't know. My parents packed up all my stuff that day during school. They wouldn't let me say goodbye. I was heartbroken." He said.
"You weren't the only one." I wiped tears off my cheeks as I pulled him in for a hug. He wrapped his arms around my small frame.
"I see I'm still taller than you."
"At least that's one thing that hasn't changed." I said with a giggle.
"So what has changed?" He asked.
"Well, I have a band, um, I obviously dyed my hair. I got tattoos. And well, I'm obviously not in Ohio anymore."
"Basically exactly what happened to me." He smiled.
"My band is actually playing tonight." I said. "You know, I thought me going to college was my final goodbye. I knew that going away meant I'll never see you again. I guess it was my last way of letting go."
"I thought the same thing. I never imagined that you and I would ever end up together again. I thought the little pair of partners in crime was gone for good. I mean, what are the odds! I thought for sure you would just soon be another distant memory."
"I wanted to let go, but not forget. Your name was my first tattoo."
"And your's was mine. I also got the date I last saw you underneath it." He rolled up his sleeve, showing me the black letters on his wrist. I rolled my sleeve up and showed him mine. They looked so similar.
"Where did you get yours?" I asked.
"A place in New York City. It was called Dragon's Den. I think my artist was-"
"Vinny." I said, looking up into his eyes.
"Wait, did you?"
"I actually met my band in NYC. There was flyers looking for college kids who could play drums. Patrick was the intern at Dragon's Den, and I answered the flyers. I met him at the tattoo shop, and while I was there, I got my first tattoo." I said.
"That's such a coincidence."
"Trust me, this obviously isn't a coincidence." I said. "But Patrick let me into the band, and it just so happened to be that he was only in NYC for the summer. He is a St. Lawrence student. And so are the other members, Pete and Joe." I said.
