Winter's Kiss (Summer Rain #2)

XXIII ~ Echo

{Ghost ~ Noah Cyrus}

...Reaching for a dream that always fades, madness in a smile, won't you stay a while?...

----

10th November

AVA

     Her hair hung in long golden ringlets, half-pinned back but unable to be tamed. Her eyes lit like Christmas lights, bright and twinkling as she looked at us. All three of us had stood, dumb-founded in a moment we didn't know if we could handle. A silence I never wanted to break. I would have stayed in that moment of elation forever, to feel it. 

     Poppy. 

     Elliot's hand tightened around mine at that moment before he broke free, reaching forward for her. It was like no time had passed. She looked a little older, but still the same girl I remembered. The same face. The same blue eyes. Just like her brother's. 

    She had ushered us inside, the shock written all over her face. I hung back behind the two of them as they talked and talked at her, but she couldn't believe any of it. Elliot. Benjamin. Me. 

     The apartment was small but clean. It wasn't elaborate in any way but had a cosy feel to it: white walls and no photos. I couldn't tell how long she'd lived here, but she was comfortable in this place, just in the air she had around her, and so I knew it was hers. 

     It was almost like the wave of elation overtook the sobering questions that still had yet to be answered. For Elliot, he had Poppy back. Case closed. I think Benjamin did too. And who was I to argue? 

     She had grown up gently, still the same round face and girlish grin. But she had a calmness about her. She moved slowly, precisely. Not quite as energetic as she was when I first met her. I wonder what she thought of us. How we had changed since the last time we all sat together. 

We laughed together, explaining our hair-brained scheme to come all the way up here to find her. She listened intently, hanging on to Elliot's every word as he explained us falling back into each other's lives.

  "You just left out the window?" Poppy asked me. "All so you could find me?"

  "Of course," I nodded, smiling. 

  "It must have sounded like some adventure," she laughed. "I'm sorry it brought you all the way up here. It's not quite New York City."

  "It doesn't matter," Elliot replied. "I'd go anywhere to make sure you were safe."

     Poppy smiled, placing a hand on her brother's knee. 

  "God, I'm so glad you're home."

  "I couldn't... I was so..." Elliot stammered, his racing mind unable to find words fast enough. 

  "He missed you," Benjamin interjected. "We all did."

     Poppy turned her head to look at Benjamin, her eyes softening. 

  "I didn't think you realised I was gone," Poppy said to him. "I thought you didn't care that I left."

  "Of course I care," he reacted.