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by camsnewton

by camsnewton

+NARRATIVE
FIVE YEARS AFTER THE BEGINNING

"RESOLUTION"

"hey," grayson gave a small wave as he pulled out a chair at the table cali sat at. she reciprocated his gesture by sending one of her own; a simple smile. however, it's simplicity was foreign to calista at that moment — lifting the sides of her mouth seemed like such a chore after the night had taken its costly toll on her.

"congratulations on prom king," she spoke up after a few strange and silent minutes had passed. desperate for any sort of distraction from talking to grayson, cali scoured the dance floor looking for something interesting to concentrate on — anything other than her current conversation with him.

"i feel humbled," gray laughed briefly. brief due to the fact that he had caught himself off guard and in turn, scared himself, as the laugh had been a real one, full of sound and happy emotions, contrasting to the false ones he'd been dishing out for the past few months. looking at calista, he realised why he'd been able to let himself feel happiness again.

she was his joy.

and living without her embedded in his everyday life deeply upset him.

"i'm sorry for what i did..." he murmured cowardly. he was ashamed at not apologising sooner, ashamed for even starting the fall out between him and his former best friend.

"you can't even bring yourself to say what you did out loud," she scoffed. she rested her chin in the palm of her hand and looked over towards anderson wood and gabrielle johns taking the couples' final dance way too seriously. his large hands laid shamelessly on her large arse as the two swayed to the acoustic version of a pop song that appeared to have everybody in tears. it was either that or the combined feelings of a special night well orchestrated. the school had done a marvellous job, setting up the gym to look like a true wonderland fit for the finest — homecoming kings and queens.

"english proms are weird," grayson said, completely ignoring cali's previous statement. he didn't wish to find himself arguing with her. his true desire was to place his hands on the sides of her face and kiss her with a force, with passion and intent. though he knew that he'd messed up his chances the moment he'd balled his hands into fists and landed them on her boyfriend (who funnily enough was no longer part of her life after that incident).

"well that's because proms are an american thing, we barely have them over here; our school is a weird exception," cali's blood was boiling at the fact that he'd dodged her comment only to proceed to criticising her country. "how would you know what proms are supposed to be like anyway?"

"i snuck into my sister's one back in new jersey," he replied.

calista managed to get a good look at grayson without it seeming as though she was staring. he had on a crisp tux (certainly tailor made), and his hair had been cut. not too low — his quiff still stood, just not as highly as it did before. his silky hair was entirely brown, no shades or streaks of dirty blonde which was a pleasant change. his face was clean shaven and flushed, possibly from speaking to his old friend.

"why did you tell him those lies?" cali whispered. being in such close proximity to somebody who used to fill her heart with nothing but glee was trying. her deep brown, black-ish eyes looked as though they had a glass coat on top of them protecting the large tears which brimmed in her eyes from trickling down her makeup covered cheeks. "i didn't even like him that much but you humiliated me."

grayson sighed and served looks of guilt and empathy towards the emotional girl, "i thought that telling your boyfriend that we'd had sex would scare him away. and it did..." thinking about that damaging day at school made cali feel even more melancholy. she'd been eating lunch in the courtyard with her, then, boyfriend. and then came him. 'oh hey there, enjoying my second hand goods?' were the words similar to the ones which came out of grayson's mouth so suddenly. lies: of course. he and cali had never made love but the fact that his, then, best friend had been ditching him to spend time with her new boy made gray feel unwanted and set aside.

"so you were aiming to make me miserable?" she sniffled.

"i was aiming to have you all to myself as it had been before."

"well you miscalculated that big time. except you recovered; found yourself a pretty bimbo from my friendship group and moved on—"

"—that's not fair, i never 'moved on'," he rolled his eyes. "how could i have moved on from you? she was nothing but a temporary, platonic companion."

they made eye contact for the first time that night and nostalgia circled around them, it hadn't even been that long since their friendship ended. it had probably only been three months but staring into each other's irises allowed their minds to think back to moments in the past where they were at their happiest, in each other's company.

grayson's hand reaches across the table where he scooped up cal's and ran his thumb over her knuckles, letting her in on the fact that he was nervous, and almost sort of asking for her to be nervous with him — he always felt calmer when they'd do things together, including sharing emotions irrespective of whether they were good or bad.

"do you remember when we first met?" he asked which earned a scoff from cal as it was a ridiculous question, she could never forget that day, despite the fact they were so young, little eleven-year-olds.

"obviously, it was one of the promising days of my life; i'd met a new person who i believed could turn out to be a fitting piece in my group of intimates and i went home from school that day so excited at the promise of our new friendship," she grinned to herself, reminiscing the day.

"i still have our notebook and i drew something in it for you," he said smiling as was she. he took out the small, green pad from his jacket which had five years worth of conversations scribbled inside and flicked to the back page which was covered with a beautiful illustration of a pouty grayson holding a note which read 'be my friend again?'.

"what you can do when given a piece of paper and a pencil stuns me, this is gorgeous!" she chuckled with her hand slightly covering her mouth in shock that he'd drawn this for her. she knew of his incredible artistic talent but this small drawing made her tear up and truly appreciate his gifts. with a small nod she confirmed that he'd earned her forgiveness and flung her arms around him desperately. the need to touch him was immense, and with her limbs touching his she felt fulfilled.

she was tired of snubbing him, she just wanted to feel him.

"i'm so sorry," he mumbled into her neck, giving it a little peck before resting his chin on her head. he interlocked their hands again, letting his palms touch hers as they stood, rooted to the spot in a euphoric embrace.