"Cole?"
Kellen probably hadn't expected me to be there after his last check of the blinds, making sure no one or thing was missed. I should have departed with Brian and the last group, but I couldn't leave without Kellen.
"I think this is it." He sat by me, his words echoing the feeling that rolled inside me like a bowling ball. "I don't think we'll be back at the Academy anytime soon. Not if things went down the way Sergeant Egers said."
"No." The sad desperation I'd been trying to put off was beginning to form a lump in my throat. "Probably not."
"I'm going to miss you, Cole."
I didn't attempt to stop the tears that were swelling past my lashes and leaking slowly onto my face; I would miss him and too many of my friends so terribly. The void was already noticeable and beginning to ache. I took his hand, fiddling with it before lacing our fingers.
"Promise me something, Kels."
"What is it, Babe?"
"Okay, promise me two things. One, you'll stop calling me Babe, and two... You'll fix things with Katia. It won't be easy, because you guys have been hard on each other for a long time now, but, promise me you'll try."
A tiny lopsided smile graced his face. "I'll try, I promise... Babe." He let me smack him once, but hugged me as I attempted it again. "God! I'm going to miss you, Cole! Who else is going to keep me in line?"
"I'm sure Jess can do it."
"Nah! I don't think Jacks would be okay with me getting that close to her―he has enough trouble with you and me."
"As if Jacks has any control over that! Besides, I'm sure Katia will be more than happy to do it... if you fix things with her."
"Oy! You two!" Sergeant Egers called, "Let's go!"
Kellen climbed into the helicopter that waited on us without a problem, but I had to be boosted in. We laughed as he caught me around the waist and we toppled to the floor. "Way to catch me, dweeb!"
"I could have sworn the one we airlifted was your boyfriend." Sergeant Egers said as he watched us. What? I froze as I struggled with my harness.
"Mark? Gross! He's like my little brother!" I shuddered as the Sergeant did up my harness for me.
"Ah. This makes more sense now." He gestured from Kellen to me. I might have said something to him, but he left us to talk to the pilot. Good thing too, because I realized that saying something would have made the situation more awkward.
The bowling ball in my stomach was joined by a single fluttering butterfly. I looked out the window instead of at Kellen. Sergeant Egers wasn't wrong in seeing what he did; none of them were, really. I'd been trying to ignore it for a while, but with the finality of goodbye looming over us, it was hard. Kellen had become more to me than I realized. A friend, a comfort, and somehow a home for my heart when I'd been free falling.
The pesky single butterfly flapping wildly in my belly, that stupid fluttery thing, made me wonder if he possibly felt the same. Katia had implied as much, but I didn't put much stock in her words. Back at the Dell, he'd said... What in the name of flying roundhouse kicks was I doing? The thoughts of butterflies and fuzziness left me as the Academy came into sight and I grabbed his hand instinctively.
"Ho-ly!"
While parts of Waterbridge looked no different than normal, other parts looked like the setting of a half-assed post-apocalyptic movie. Scorch marks adorned the teacher's wing, from where fire had billowed out the windows, the lawns were torn up, and the fields were a campground for helicopters. Kellen and I exchanged a look as Sergeant Egers pointed out the city of tents we needed to report to immediately on landing, in front of the Academy. It was where we'd find our families. My eyes welled with tears as we landed on the now destroyed soccer pitch.
-.-
"Home, sweet, home." Kellen said as we passed in front of the residence.
"Not for long," I muttered. I left him standing there, as I continued toward the Academy, blinking back tears I didn't want to spill. Not yet.
"Speaking of not long..." He ran to catch up with me and spun me around.
"What, Kel―"
His mouth. On mine. For the minutest fraction of a second, before he jumped back, wild eyed, he kissed me. I think.
"Shit. Sorry, Cole!" He paced, hand brushing over his face as he peered at me often to gauge my reaction. "I know you and Eddie are, well, whatever you are, and I'm not trying to get in the middle of that. Shit! I... it's... It sucks we won't be seeing each other anymore, and I've been feeling all these things, and―shit! I'm sorry. Eddie's a good guy."
"He is." I had to cut him off, unable to listen to his rant anymore. It was adorable, and he'd turned his hair into a glorious mess, but I needed a moment to sort my head.
He looked at me as if my words had punched him in the gut.
I smiled and adjusted his scarf. "He might wanna be more, but... Eddie's just my friend, Kels. "
Hope lit in his eyes. "Yea?―"
It was my turn to blindside him, and I crashed my mouth onto his, kissing him hard. He stumbled back, but caught himself, his hands gripping my sides as I pressed against him. It was a messy roller coaster ride of everything I felt and everything that had built between us. So intense I bit his lip, pulling it into my mouth. His groan sent shivers running through me to settle in my stomach and birth a hundred more butterflies. Oh, shit. I ran my hands into his hair, softening the kiss as tears wet my face. Slowly, reluctantly, I stepped back to put space between us.
At first, he looked elated, yet confused by the space, but as he took in the tears on my face, wiping them away with his thumb, he nodded. "This is it, isn't it?"
The lump in my throat threatened to steal my voice, but I swallowed it down. "You were right back there, you know? We won't see each other after we get to those tents." I touched his cheek carefully. "It's gonna suck missing you!"
Kellen argued, his heart not willing to accept it, even though his head clearly had, given his already defeated tone. "We could try, you know?"
It was a wonderful thought, and I considered it for a half second, before crushing my butterflies with my bowling ball. We'd been through so much, and it would take a lot to get over it.
"We're friends, Kels. That's what I need―what we both need, if we're going to get over this year."
"I guess, you're right." His throat bobbed. "Let's get over there. They're probably wondering where we are."
"Sure. And, Kels?" I smirked at him. "If you say anything about this, Babe, it'll be your word against mine, and let's face it, no one's going to believe you!"
I laughed as he chased me the rest of the way to the tent city.
-.-
I sought out my family first, but was entirely unsurprised when I didn't see them. Mom was likely... Well, I didn't expect her to show up. I knew my father would be on his way, but I had no way of contacting him. Giving up on that, I sought out the faces of my friends, and their families, watching their reunions.
Jess and Jackson were being smothered by a thick layer of their mother's worry. Their father, a normally stoic Japanese man, would not stop hugging Jackson every two seconds, tears on his face. They pulled Kellen and I in as well, hugging and holding and crying over us before they realized we needed to find our own parents. I couldn't help but notice that Jess was oddly stoic, her eyes puffier than I'd expect them to be considering she'd been reunited with her parents. She evaded my question about it as her mother gently shooed Kellen and I off to find our families.
Robert and Emma held tightly to each other, with their families talking nearby. I thought it was adorable, until both of them avoided looking at us as we waved at them on passing. Strange.
Across the space, I saw a gorgeous dark haired lady standing with her arms crossed and glaring at Katia, who was under the arm of a man who was Kellen in thirty years. They scanned the crowd, most likely for Kellen. Katia saw him first, yelling his name and breaking into a run through the tents.
I slapped his chest and pointed in her direction. "Someone looks relieved to see you."
"Yeah..." he looked at me awkwardly.
"Go. They're waiting for you." I shoved him forward and watched him jog to her. Him crushing her into a hug, and her mouth moving a mile a minute, made me smile. I hoped things would get better between them now, if only because they would have each other to ride out this trauma with.
With nothing else to do, I wandered out of the tent city, watching the families as I went, hoping to see my Dad. Instead, as I passed the last tent, I saw Becca and her parents and my heart stopped.
"No!" I heard myself scream and broke into a run toward the steps of the Academy. My knees buckled as I crashed into her side at the body bag she cried over. Her father, red eyed and already holding up her wailing mother, steadied Becca from falling at the impact. Eddie!
"No!" I cried again, my voice cracking.
Becca grabbed my hand, crushing it, and then me, as she sobbed. "I hate you!" She cried into the front of my jacket. "I hate you so much, Nicole!"
I understood it. I really did. Her boyfriend was severely injured, her brother was dead, and she needed an outlet. I hated myself as we sobbed together; I should have gone back for him. I shouldn't have let him stay. I should have taken him with me.
"I'm so sorry, Becs!"
"It's not fair!" She hiccoughed as she tried to breathe. "Why did he have to die?"
All I could do was bawl with her until her broken parents were ready to leave.
"Bye, Love." I pressed my hand to the front of the black vinyl as they set to roll Eddie away. Grief poured out of me as I watched him being taken, his family stiffly following.
I felt a hand on my shoulder, a gentle shush reached my ears, and it didn't matter who it was, I curled into them, clutching on like I needed them to stay upright.
"Babe. Let it out." Kellen's wavering voice broke, and I knew he was crying too.
I felt Jess's hand in mine, Ashley hugged my back, and Jackson's arms squeezed Kellen and I together. I'm not sure how many others joined our lump of bodies as we saw Eddie off, but I know they did.
We'd been a family―one forged by mischief, laughter and a general love for each other, and fortified by compassion, trials and survival spirits―and we'd lost one of our own.
We stayed there till families slowly began dragging them off. Eventually it was just Kellen and I again, and I pointed out his family hovering nearby. He looked around, at the mostly cleared out area and back at me with a frown.
"Your Dad isn't here."
I shrugged. It was nothing I wasn't used to. "Go on, they're waiting on you." I pushed him back a step, but then caught his hand. Tapping his chest, I said, "Tell Katia, I'm sorry about your heart."
He looked surprised, but smiled and cupped my cheek. "I'm sorry about yours, too."
As he walked away from me, I sniffled a soft goodbye, thinking he wouldn't hear me. "Bye Hotness."
He turned and graced me with his dazzling mischievous grin and a wink. "Bye, Nat."