The Distance Between Us

Finally

"THANK YOU, METROPOLIS!  GOOD NIGHT!"  The crowds of screaming fans gave out one final roar as the stage exploded with fireworks and multicolored smoke right before going black.  Conner clapped his hands furiously.  "What an amazing concert!  Wasn't that amazi—"  He turned around to see the empty seat next to him, and remembered that he had come alone.

All of his friends were in one place and one place only—Prom.  Kaldur, Wally, Dick, Barbara, Raquel, and especially Megan.  Conner wondered if they had announced Prom Queen yet.  He wondered if Megan had won.  He hoped that she had.  He pictured her wearing her crown, sharing the King and Queen dance with Xander.  That last thought made Conner want to cry.  But he grabbed his duffel bag and hurried past the seats and up the aisles.

As he exited the stadium and entered the parking lot, he thought about Megan, and how he stupid and embarrassed he was that he climbed her tree and proclaim his feelings for her.  What was I thinking?  A girl like Megan could never really be interested in a guy like—  He looked up, and his heart jumped up into his throat.  ...me?

Standing just a few meters away, illuminated by the full moon, her emerald skirt flowing in the winds, her copper tresses tussling in the breezes, looking at him with glossy eyes...was Megan.  His own sweet, beautiful Megan.  She was there.

Conner felt like he was in a dream as she approached him, every step towards him seeming as if it was in slow motion.  At last, she stopped mere inches away from him, staring right at him with her golden-brown eyes glistening with hope and love.  After it felt like an eternity had passed between them, she spoke.  "Hi."  He gulped.  "Hey."  His mind broke down trying to think of something else to say to her.

He said the only thing he could think of, the only thing that made sense at such a time.  "I'm sorry."  Once he said that, everything else just seemed to flow out of his mouth like a waterfall.  "I never meant to hurt you.  Our fight last week, I didn't mean what I said.  I guess I was just mad because you chose Xander over me.  But if you really like him, if he really makes you happy...than I'm happy, too."

Megan's eyes grew wet as she bit her lip and shook her head.  "No...", she said softly, her voice breaking.  "You were right about Xander.  He is a jerk."  She had been able to stop herself from crying back at the Prom, but now the tears she had been holding back were coming back, and there was no stopping them this time.  Conner blinked twice.  "What do you mean?  What happened?"

She looked up at him with teary eyes.  "He slept with Amber."  Conner reeled back.  "He what?!"  "He hooked up with Amber behind my back.  She announced it over the microphone after I beat her for Prom Queen."  She saw Conner's blue eyes narrow into dangerous slits and his lips curl into a defiant sneer.  "I'll kill 'em both."  Megan held both gloves up.  "No!  Conner, no!  Please, don't make it worse!"

He sighed and looked at her sympathetically.  "How are you holding up?"  She shook her head.  "I was so wrong about those two.  I thought that Amber had changed since we were thirteen, Conner.  I really did.  But she's the still the same awful person now that she was back then. And Xander...all this time, I was so certain that he loved me. I thought he really cared about me. But to him, I was just a pretty little bauble to hang on his arm to make him look good."

She bopped herself on the head lightly. "Hello, Megan...I'm such an idiot." Conner blinked. He hadn't heard Megan use that catchphrase in years. It was the trademark of her favorite TV character, Megan Wheeler from Hello Megan!. She had said it all the time when they were kids, but she stopped using it in junior high after the others kids started making fun of her for it.

Secretly, Conner had always loved it when she said, "Hello, Megan!" He thought it made her sound endearing. He had also loved her clumsiness, her ditzy streak, her weird laugh, all of the things she had hated about herself because it made her stand out but he had loved for the exact same reasons. He missed that Megan more and more everyday.

But now, as he stood before her, heartbroken and vulnerable, he could see her. The old Megan, the one he had first fallen for. He saw her innocence, her clumsiness, her absentminded airs, her goofy demeanor, he saw it all slowly coming back. She was no longer Megan Morse, the cheerleading captain. No longer Megan Morse, the Prom Queen. No longer Megan Morse, the most popular girl at Young Justice High School. She was just Megan. Purely Megan.

Conner took a step forward, getting closer to her. Their faces were so close, they could feel their breath on each other. He smiled at her and said, "I love you." Megan smiled at him through her tears, feeling her heart up, up, up, out of her stomach to which it had sunk so low. She choked back some more tears, tears of joy this time, and whispered, "I love you, too."

Conner and Megan stood in front of one another, their eyes locked together. Then, after what felt like forever, they leaned in, and their lips perfectly, divinely, finally met in a long-awaited for kiss, in which they poured in all of their passion, their sadness, their anger, and their joy into. It was more perfect than any kiss she had ever shared with Xander, more perfect than any other kiss with any other boy. As for him, it was his very first kiss, with anyone, not just with her, but he was determined that it would not be the last kiss with her.

It had taken eighteen long, complicated years, but Conner Kent and Megan Morse had finally figured out that they were meant to be together.