The Elites

Chapter 76

"It's nothing. I just wished I had come earlier. You've never really been any good at sports. Remember how you always pretended to break your leg back in secondary school because you didn't want to play football with the other girls, and the coach always made me carry you on my back to the school's clinic?"

I chuckled the moment I began to remember those memories. The good old days. Luke was laughing too.

"And then I got upset that one time when the opposing team from Greenville scored a goal against us while I was away?"

"Yes." I laughed. "I remember. You had to rat me out to the coach. You walked up to him and told him that I was fine, and I was only faking to be hurt. All the girls in my class got so mad at me that they didn't talk to me for a week. You didn't talk to me for a week either."

"It was four days."

"No, it was a week."

"It was four days."

"I did the counting. It was a week. I remember perfectly. And on the last day of the week, you sent me a text to meet you at the cinema, and then you made me see that really boring movie as my punishment. What was the name of that movie again?"

"Sage." He reminded me. "You ran all the way in your pajamas."

I laughed so hard at how funny those memories were. God, the good old days we had.  The memories I had with Luke were one of the bests in my entire life, and talking about it with him made everything feel okay, I had almost forgotten everything that had happened earlier, almost. And then when I did remember, my laughter began to fade. I was sure he could see it. He frowned a little bit too and then stretched his hand towards me. He paused, focusing his gaze on the sheets while I held my breath, trying to see what he wanted to do. He reached for my hands, making me slowly turn to them. He held my hand in his and then took a deep breath.

"I've missed those days." He said "I've missed you." I could see a tiny smile drawing itself on his lips. "I shouldn't have let you go. I shouldn't have said those mean things to you, I shouldn't have taken that deal with Racheal and your step father, and I should never have turned my back on you and pushed you away." He slowly raised his head to mine.

"L-Luke." I whispered his name because I didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry, Kora." He told me. "I'm sorry for everything. I'm sorry I turned my back on you when you needed me the most. It only took me until a few weeks ago to know that leaving you was the biggest mistake of my life. Nothing has been the same since you left. I thought if I had just kept on pushing you away and acting like I didn't see you even when I did, I thought if I just focused on my dreams, on the reason I left you in the first place, it would make it easy for me, it would make forgetting you easy for me but it hasn't. I can't get you out of my mind Kora. I can't stop thinking about you and about everything I've let go away,"

"Luke-" I tried to pull my hand away, but he held on tight to me.

"I regret it." He told me. "I regret ever doing and saying those things to you. I regret that I turned my back on you and tried to forget you. I want us to go back to how we were. To how it used to be between us." He smiled a little bit. "You know, when you were you and I was just me, when there was nothing else-"

"Luke-" he wasn't even trying to listen to me or let me speak.

"We can still make it work. I can end things with Racheal this moment and explain my reasons to your step father. I'd withdraw my application from NAUN if he asks me to. I'm ready to do anything, pay whatever the price is. You still love me don't you?" He pushed himself closer to me while I just stared at him dumbfounded. "You said we are soulmates, we are destined to be together. Our names are still written in the stars. We don't have to throw it all away. We can still make things work. We can still be happy."