Southern Belle

Ch. 6 Russian Literature....Huh?

"Belle." She reached forward and placed both of her hands on the cheeks of my face. We were looking at each other straight in the eyes. "You can take the girl out of the south, but not the south out of the girl." Then, she leaned and kissed me gently on the forehead

Did she really expect me to come back to this hell hole? I would rather get eaten alive than come home and become a housewife at twenty-two while my husband works all day and night at a low rate job. 

 I wanted to make something out of myself.

I wanted to be a success.

 I wanted to be happy.

 And I couldn't be all that in the south.

 But no one understood that.

 Being an adult, I knew I had to suck it up and pretend that her words weren't full of crap.

"Okay, I hear you," I replied slowly. My smile was so big that my cheeks were killing me.

I turned towards the door, realizing that one person was missing today. One person that I wanted here, so I could tell him how sorry I was. How angry at myself I was for being so insensitive. How much I missed him.

Ash.

After that whole graduation fiasco with the kisses, I distanced myself from him. We were moving way too fast for my liking, so I stopped hanging out with him everyday, and whenever he came over for dinner with his dad, I refused to talk about anything else except the weather. Ash, at first, fought me every step of the way. He would show up at least twice a day with flowers and a baked good. However, as the weeks went on, his visits became less and less frequent. Soon, he just never came back.

"Is there anyone else you want to say goodbye to?" Dad asked as he held two of my crimson red duffel bags. I could see the worry wrinkles on his face, and his eyes squinted. He was trying to figure out how I was feeling.

"Um," I said as I placed a few loose strands of my hair to the back of my ear. "Nope. Nope. Nope. I'm good. Just dandy."

He didn't buy it, though. He dropped one of the bags onto the ground and put his left hand on my shoulder. He squeezed it softly before picking the bag up again.

"Well, bye everyone. See you in a few months!" I called out the last time before following my dad out the door.

Fake smiles, Belle. Just keep pretending that everything was okay.

I kept my head tilted towards the ground as I walked, so no one could read my emotions. I didn't want to be an open book.

"Well, well. I've been waiting years for you to finally leave that house of yours."

My head snapped right back up. I knew that voice.

My eyes flickered to a dark blue trunk in our driveway with Ash leaning against it. He was wearing bright red Nike shorts that fell right above his knee, and he was shirtless. His blond hair stuck to his head, and I could see he was smirking at me.

"I thought you wouldn't come," I replied, shocked to see him right before my eyes.

His smirk grew wider. "You thought wrong."

I grinned back and ran down the stairs of my patio into his arms. He lifted me up in the air and twirled me as we hugged. If it was any other day, I would've found it cheesy and so cliche. Today, it didn't matter. All that mattered was that I was in Ash's arms again.

"I'm going to miss you, Belle. Make sure you stay in contact with me. I promise," He chuckled as he took a pause. He raised three fingers of his right hand. "I promise that I will be on my best behavior, and I won't rush anything."