Freefall ✓

e p i l o g u e

boo: or we'll miss the dolphins

I smiled, feeling like rolling my eyes, even though he couldn't see me. I knew he was alluding to that one time I got too lost in my daydream and missed my stop. 

me: oh shut up

me: that was ONCE

boo: ily too

me: ily more

My condition was beyond impatient and this conversation certainly wasn't helping.

It felt like that first time back in freshman year all over again. We'd been apart for five days, and it seemed like the longest time conceivable for my cute eighteen-year-old self. I'd taken the T line all the way to the Northeastern campus to get him straight after his last lecture. 

I'd sprinted towards him for all I was worth, grabbed his face, and kissed him so hard he almost choked.

I was feeling the same way now as I jumped out of the sub and began crossing the small distance between me and his radiant figure. I nearly knocked him off, leaping on his shoulders and clinging onto them for dear life.

"Woah there tiger," was his greeting.

"I missed you," was my response.

He swung me around in the hug, my legs dangling like pendulums. A lot of things had changed in these years, but my lilliputian stature certainly wasn't one of them, unfortunately. 

"It's been so freaking long." I let go, only to bring his mouth down to mine, tasting his lips like it were the first time ever. Gosh, I needed this. He tasted of home. 

Forget that, he was home.

"I know. I missed you too," he was trying to catch his breath after my fierce kiss. "How did your exams go?"

We started up the stairs, out the station, and directed ourselves towards the wharf. Cameron had booked us a place at this dolphin and whale watching yacht cruise we'd fancied checking out. Their website screamed that encounter with at least one type of mammal was guaranteed but, of course, everyone knew how disillusioning these events tended to end up. 

 "Quite good, actually. I think," I added, not as confidently as before. "Most importantly, they're done," I emphasized, letting out a sweeping breath. "Frickin' finally. How were yours?" 

He'd written his last assessment four days ago already, but I never got the chance to ask.

I'm not sure whether what his mouth let out was a laugh, a huff, something in between, or all of the aforelisted together. "Honestly? I don't even know. I did my best, that's all I can say. I don't have the energy to care at this point, either. It's the effort that counts, isn't it?"

"Yeah, right," we both laughed cynically at his latter platitude, knowing full well how unfitting it was for the world we lived in. 

"But I'm sure you did great. Like seriously. You worked your ass off." I suddenly turned, in a mood to tease him. Taking him by surprise, I pinched his cheeks, like the 22-year-old baby that he was. "I'm sho proud of you!" My pronunciation mimicked a small child's. "You're gonna make the best aerospace engineer on Earth."

He made a wry face at me. "Oh yeah, especially with that final year project that I haven't even proofread yet."

"Nah, but you're practically done. What you showed me last time was tip-top stuff."

"What about you?"

"Oh, I turned mine in months ago," I put out plainly. 

"Right. Of course you have. I forgot I was talking to the most organized student alive!"