Chapter Forty
I rested my head on his knee, comfortable with the position I was in, and smiled. The source of the joy that evoked the simple sign of happiness was unknown to me. Everything in my life was good, and gave me a reason to smile.
My friends were at peace with each other once again, Adam and Talia were in love, I was doing okay in school (straight B’s, which I considered admirable, considering some of the lesser grades I had received over the years), and I had a boyfriend. No—I had something better than a boyfriend: I had Chase. There was nothing to be apprehensive about or fear. I was done with finals, and there were just a few days of school left that would easily drift by in my mind. Life was good.
“Hey, Chase,” I said, turning my head so that I could look into his gorgeous eyes.
“Yeah?” he looked down at me, grinning warmly.
“Can I tell you something?”
“Knock yourself out.”
“For the first part of seventh grade, I made the same eleven-eleven wish every night,” I recalled. “It was for a boy.”
“Do I know him?” Chase yawned.
“Yeah,” I said, continuing my tale, “but the wishes I made were never anything specific for the boy to do, like kiss me or ask me out. I just remember whispering his name every night at eleven-eleven, wishing that something—anything would happen between the two of us.”
“What happened to the guy?” he asked calmly, though he knew the answer. From his demeanor, I could tell that he enjoyed the silence, and was simply soaking in everything around us at a relaxed rate.
“Well, he asked me out in some sense, we fell in love, and now we’re chilling here, on his front porch, talking,” I said, nudging him lightly.
“Oh. So, I’m guessing the guy was me?”
“No, it was Justin Bieber! Yes, it was you!” I laughed.
“In seventh grade, I had the biggest crush on this girl, but then one of her best friends told me that she didn’t like me. Three years later, I’m sitting on my porch with that girl same who I had a crush on,” Chase said, picking up a strand of my hair and beginning to play with it in his fingers.
“Guess everything kinda worked out, huh?”
“I guess so,” he agreed, as a brown truck stopped next to the sidewalk of his house. I watched as a man exited the truck, adorned in a brown jumpsuit, and holding a large cardboard box. Chased too noticed, and gently lifted my head off of him.
“Are you Chase Ryan?” the man asked, approaching us.
“Yeah,” Chase said, standing up so that he almost matched the man’s height.
“Can you sign for this, please? It’s for you,” the man gave Chase a clipboard with a pen attached to it. I watched as Chase signed for the package, and then returned the clipboard back to the man.
“Thank you,” the guy said, reclaiming the board and handing Chase the large cube.
“Yup,” Chase said as the man retreated. “Take it easy!”
The man waved, and returned to his truck.
“What’s in the box?” I asked curiously.
“Body parts,” he said seriously, before cracking a grin.
“What’s in the box?” I reiterated.
“Well, I guess we should open it to find out,” he said, smirking. He peeled off the thin, transparent tape that was keeping the package secure, and opened the two cardboard flaps. I peered within, and saw two black boxes of the same, relative size. They too were made of cardboard, and I had a feeling that I had seen them before. They almost looked like… shoeboxes.
“What are they?” I questioned, waiting for him to make another move.
“Here,” he said, handing me one that was marginally smaller than the other. “Open it.”
I looked at the top of the box and saw a star. No. He didn’t. He couldn’t have. I lifted up the top, and tore back brown tissue paper. Carefully, my hands picked up the contents that were held within. My assumption had been right. It was a pair of shoes. Converse, more precisely. Red converse with a black stripe on the bottom, if needed be even more exact.
“What are these?” I asked, inspecting the shoes.
“Look at the heel,” he instructed. I did so willingly, and my eyes read the word stitched on: “Forever.”
“What’s in the other box?” I inquired.
He took the other box, and pulled out the same exact pair of shoes as the ones held in my hands. Their size, however, was slightly enlarged in comparison to the ones I had. He underlined the word on the heel, and I smiled, as my eyes comprehended it: “Always.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Those are for you,” he pointed to the shoes in my lap, “and these are for me,” he explained, gesturing to the “Always” shoes.
“I don’t get it,” I stated densely.
“I believe that you’ve mentioned on more than one occasion that ‘Converse are epic’, so I thought that I’d get us a matching pair of them.”
“That’s really sweet in a totally adorable way!” I said, wrapping my arms around his torso. “Thank you!”
“You’re welcome, Jules,” he said, encircling me with his own arms.
A dog barked in the distance, but didn’t disturb the peaceful serenity that was taking over the evening. Everyone had his or her own way of defining perfect, and mine happened to be this. Everything was what I considered to be perfect. There was a light breeze, but not enough to affect the warm air around. The sun was going down, painting the sky a mix of purples, pinks, and oranges. And there I was, sitting next to Chase, on his porch, enjoying perfection.
“I love you, Chase Ryan,” I said, pulling back from him so that I could see his face.
“I love you too, Jules,” he said. I leaned into him, and connected my lips with his, savoring the sweet taste. Chase was perfection. The quarterback and I… who would have ever thought? But, in reality, I didn’t view Chase based on the position he played on a sports team—I looked at him as who he was: just Chase.
“I have a question for you,” he proclaimed, pulling back.
“Yup?”
“I know at first that you weren’t the biggest fan, but now, are you glad you that came back here?” he asked.
I pondered what he had wondered, and only one answer stuck out in my mind as appropriate. “Yeah, I guess I am,” I said, intertwining our fingers so they fit perfectly together, “I’m glad that I came back again.”
YOU ARE READING
Back Again
Teen FictionJulia Tylers was gone for two years. She hadn't been in contact with the people from her old life. To her, they were gone, and she would never see them again. She unexpectedly came back-- back to the place she swore she'd never return. She changed...
