24 Hours (Wattys 2016)

Hour 5

Hour 5

(11:00 AM EST)

"What's next on our little adventure?" I ask as we sit in Beckett's old truck holding hands over the gear.

    "Check our list." Beckett smiled, pulling our joined hands up to his lips and kissing my hand.

"Flying kites at Daytona Beach Pier." I spoke, giggling at Becketts lips touching my skin.

"Perfect." He said, turning a corner to Daytona beach.

"Do we have kites?" I asked, turning in my seat to look into the back of the truck. There, in a pile by the fireworks are two kites. A purple and blue striped one, and one with blue elephants on it. "Elephants?" I cried, my face lighting up.

"I know you love elephants, and when I saw this in the store I knew I had to get it for you." Beckett blushed, and pulled into a parking spot, and I leaned over and kissed his cheek.

"You are the most amazing boyfriend ever." I leaned back and Beckett smiled at me.

"I love the little things that make you so happy." Beckett pushed open his door, letting go of my hand.

I climbed out of his car and walked around to the back of the truck where he was unloading the kites.

"Oh my gosh look!" I cried, pointing to the tale of the kite where instead of little bows attached to the string floating behind the kite there were little animated elephants.

Beckett laughed at my joy and kissed my cheek again. "You are so cute."

"Like a rabid fox." I muttered.

Beckett laughed again. "Foxes are cute."

"You know what I mean." I mutter, lowering my head.

"You are beautiful, and I love you so much for every part of you." He grabbed my wrist and forced me to look at him. "You are the most adorable fox I have ever seen and don't let anyone ever tell you different." Then he kissed me, and there was not a doubt in my mind that he was anything but perfect. "Now lets fly some kites."

After Beckett's little pep talk I was loving him more than I could handle at that particular time.

We walked out to the end of the pier and sat down, our legs barely touching the ocean water.

"So how do we do this?" I asked, touching my elephant kite.

"Let's just let it catch the wind." Beckett raised his kite up and the wind blew into it. Beckett let it go and it flew away, pulled by the wind. Beckett let the spool of thread go as far as it could, and he held on to the end. The kite drifted across the sky, floating, soaring, and occasionally being jerked in another direction with the ever changing wind. It was beautiful, how free the kite looked, being controlled by something untouchable. Something untouched by human hands. We can control everything, but the wind is something free on its own. We can harness it but we can't change it. To see something being taken over by such a free source was simply beautiful.

I let my kite fly in the air, with the little elephants on the tail of the kite waving in a sort of goodbye. I can't imagine how it would feel to be pushed by that wind, that strong powerful force. I suddenly wish the wind would pick Beckett and I up. We only have another nineteen hours together, before everything changes. If the wind would only take us away we could be as free as those kites. But just like those kites, we have a string holding us down, we have our lives that we have to live and that we have to move on with.

I noticed Beckett was watching my face, and I turned to him, staring into his blue eyes, as blue as the sky.

"You are so beautiful." Beckett whispered, his words caught in the wind. I blushed at his words, and looked up at the kite in the sky. "What are you thinking?"

"That my kite is cuter than yours." I grinned. "And that we should take a picture."

Beckett pulled out his camera and snapped a picture of us quickly, printing it out in silence.

    "Cute." Is all I say when I see the picture.

"I can't deny that." Beckett laughed. "But you are only this quiet when you are thinking deeply about something.

I sighed, Beckett knew me so well. "I was thinking about the wind. How I wish it would take us away like those kites."

"But we can't." Beckett muttered, understanding me as always.

"And we never will be able to." I whispered. "Beckett I'm scared."

"There is nothing to be afraid of" Beckett murmured, placing his hand on my shoulder, pulling me close.

"I'm scared of how everything is changing, that nothing will ever be the same." I buried my face into his chest. "That we will never be the same."

"Everything is going to change, but it will also stay the same. 1800 miles might change where we are, but it will never change the way I feel about you, the way I know you feel about me." Beckett tilted my chin up so our heads were level. "Do you feel this?" He pressed his lips to mine for a second, just long enough for my heart rate to increase and my whole body to tingle. "This will never change."