Reunited

| Chapter 6 |

          We were laying on Mal's bed in her dorm room with me leaning against the headboard and her in between my legs, leaning on my chest. Evie was apparently out on a date with Doug right now, so we had the room to ourselves. I look at my hook, or rather my father's hook, on my hand that was draped across Mal's body and remember that night with Gothel a week ago. I remember the conversation that we had, leading up to our kiss and us getting together, and I decide to ask her the question that had been gnawing at me ever since.

         "Hey, if you don't mind me asking... Why were you so adamant on not getting back together with me or even being friends with me when I first came back?" I asked her apprehensively, not knowing how she will respond. When she stays silent for a long time and tenses in my arms, I start thinking that she will just ignore me and pretend as if I never asked the question. But to my surprise, she turns around in my arms to look at me and begins to speak.

         "At first, I was happy with Ben and you were just that annoying guy who hurt me in my past and won't leave me alone. I was determined to ignore you however long you decided to stick around. But then the more I saw you, the more I remembered our past. I relived our best moments in my mind. Our first kiss, our late night walks when everyone was asleep, every moment that we cherished I saw in my mind as if it was a slideshow. But with every one of the good moments, I remembered a bad one. How damaging our fights sometimes became, how we were at each others' throats seventy percent of the time because we were both so stubborn and unwilling to let go of our stands, and lastly, the most traumatizing moment of all. When I had to get in that limo, knowing that you and I were over and you didn't even care enough to say it to my face. You just let me leave, you didn't even say goodbye! Now I know that you sent letters after I came to Auradon, but back then I didn't. I thought that you didn't give a damn about me or my feelings and I hated you for that. But at the same time, I knew that just the fact that I was thinking this way about you and our time together meant that I couldn't be with Ben. I had to break up with him before the wedding planning began to happen. After I broke up with him, you were starting to win me over. I was still apprehensive because seeing you meant opening the wounds that I spent so much time trying to heal. But yesterday... after you told me everything I just couldn't let myself live in the past anymore. That was when I finally forgave you," Mal said, avoiding my eyes. I feel so guilty. I knew that I had hurt her when I didn't contact her the day she left the Isle, but I didn't know it was this bad. I didn't know I had wounded her that badly. I look down at my lap, not being able to meet her gaze.

       "I'm sorry," I say in a small whisper. "I'm so sorry..." I hug her close to my body. She places her chin on my shoulder while I bury my face in the crook of her neck, inhaling the scent of her strawberry shampoo, still lingering on her hair after her recent shower. We lay on my bed like that for a while. Entangled, letting each other know that we're here, and we're not leaving.

       The next day during lunch, we sit at our table outside in front of the school again. Today's theme for the food in the cafeteria was Mexican, and because I have tourney practice later today, I decided to have a protein and energy-rich meal. Mal and I both picked burritos with chicken filling for me, and soy filling for Mal. Mal being the messy eater that she is, has sauce - mayonnaise I think - on her lower lip. I start laughing at her and she looks at me like I've grown two heads.

        "What? What is it?" Mal asks, pulling out her phone to look at her reflection.

        "No, no, wait. I'll get it..." I say as I lean towards her with the intention to kiss her to get the mayonnaise off. I gently kiss her, licking her bottom lip on purpose. When we break away, I notice that Jay was sitting on a table not that far from ours, and he was looking straight at us. I gently nudge Mal, nod my head towards Jay's general direction and softly whisper in her ear, "We've got an audience..." She whips her head to see him immediately looking away as if he hadn't been stalking us the whole time. She rolls her eyes and sighs.