𝐒𝐲𝐧 ┃𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞

11. 𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝐴 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑘𝑒𝑟

April 29, 2023

Syn

I pulled the dark hoodie over my head and lowered my head as I jogged around the foreign neighborhood. There were a couple of large houses spread apart my big acres of land or people's unnecessarily huge backyards. There was thankfully a large forest surrounding the forests. If I needed to somehow disappear, it would be into there.

"Turn left in three hundred feet," the robotic voice spoke wirelessly into my ear. The destination was set on my phone so all that was needed was for me to stick strictly to the instructions. I jogged past a couple of people on walks or running with their dogs, and they smiled at me as I passed. I must've blended in as a regular jogger with my large hoodie and sweatpants.

"Your destination is on the right in 500 feet." I continued running as instructed and after a few moments, the note I wanted to hear came up: "You have arrived at your destination." A smile made its way onto my face, but instead of stopping, I continued running until I was past the house and I crossed the street into the large forested area.

The forest had a large trailer entrance in the front of it where a couple of joggers were running and I stretched against a bench as they passed me. I eventually sat on the bench and held the top of my hoodie as I kept my head down.

I didn't know when Queen would come out, but I'd wait as long as I had to. I turned on the playlist D had created for me and listened to it as I let my mind drift. I didn't know how long I sat there until I looked at my phone and realized it had been almost two hours.

It was now almost six in the afternoon and the sun was beginning to set, casting a pinkish-orange hue over the sky. Seeing as it was getting dark and Queen was most likely not coming out, I stood up and decided I'd come back tomorrow.

As if the universe had somehow carved another path for us to end up together once again, the door to the mansion opened and she walked out. I hid my face from view and watched as the woman I loved walked down the driveway happily, practically skipping. I could hear the music blasting through her headphones and I smiled to myself as I looked at her.

Over the years I hated seeing how much she changed because I couldn't be there to witness it until she stood as a new person in front of me. I wanted to watch her get older and discover more of who she was. I didn't want to just look at the woman BECAME. I wanted to watch the woman she was BECOMING. Yet here I was, another few years I missed and came back to her somehow being even more beautiful than the last time I saw her.

She opened the front gate and when she stepped out, she bent over and pulled her curly hair into a high ponytail. My eyes drifted lower to see her wearing tight grey shorts with a white sports bra and my jaw clenched. I usually wouldn't have minded her wearing whatever she wanted, but she wasn't with me anymore. Any man could walk up to her and ask her out and she could reply however she wished.

When she stood up straight and stretched, I could still distinctly see my name tattooed to her ribcage and I relaxed. I didn't know if I expected her to have it removed, but just seeing it on her after all this time did unexplainable things to my mind.

She turned back around to the house and my eyes fell onto her ass. Naturally, my body reacted to seeing her body before I logically could so I sat back down and leaned my arms onto my knees. Deep breaths filled and exited my lungs as I tried to call myself down, and I shook my head as I thought about all my experiences with other women over the years. I was stupid to think I could even remotely replace her. My reaction to seeing her alone surpassed every single fuck and meaningless kiss.