ᴀɢᴇᴅ ᴜᴘ ᴛᴡᴏ ʏᴇᴀʀꜱ; ᴄᴏɴᴛᴀɪɴꜱ ʙᴀᴅ ᴇɴᴅɪɴɢ ꜱᴘᴏɪʟᴇʀꜱ
𝑔𝓊𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝑜'𝓈 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝒽𝑜𝓂𝑒!
┊ ┊ ┊ ┊
ᴀᴜʙʀᴇʏ ɢʟᴀɴᴄᴇᴅ ʙᴀᴄᴋ and forth between her watch, looking both ways before leaning back against the wooden bench she was sitting on. Time was moving so slowly...
"Aubrey, relax," Basil said, tossing a juice box into the nearest trash can. "Kel's coming home soon enough."
Aubrey didn't respond but stopped looking at her watch every five seconds—she changed it to every ten seconds. Could he blame her for wanting her boyfriend to come back from college quicker?
A few years ago when Sunny killed himself, their friend group had been a mess. Now they lost Mari and Sunny in less than a decade—but at least it was better than when Mari died. They stayed by each other's sides and wouldn't leave. Aubrey was starting to think their friendship would stay together and nothing could break it.
But then Basil told them the truth.
He told everyone how Mari died. He told them how Sunny probably killed himself because he couldn't face it, and he understood how he felt. He said on the night he and Sunny went to the hospital, he was thinking about killing himself, but Sunny went into the bathroom just in time. He told them he regretted everything he did, but he didn't want their forgiveness; he wanted them to know the truth, to not have to live the rest of their lives thinking Mari killed herself and wonder why Sunny committed. He ended it by saying that was what they would've wanted him to do.
The remaining members of the childhood friend group split up for a while after that. No one wanted it to be like how it was only several weeks ago, but the news was so shocking that everyone needed time to adjust to it.
Not surprisingly, Kel was the first one to try to keep the friend group together again. He went around and got to hang out with everyone one-on-one, and eventually got bigger and bigger until everyone was hanging out together. He was the one who didn't want the friend group to break apart again the most, and he tried his hardest to keep them together. His plans didn't go like they were supposed to, but he didn't give up.
Maybe his determination was why Aubrey started falling for him. He wanted everyone together, and Aubrey felt more passionate about it too; his energy was rubbed off onto people so easily. Eventually, she realized that while she wanted the friend group to stay together, she wanted to stay by Kel the most—she gained a crush on Kel.
A couple of months before Kel's last year of high school, Aubrey sucked up her pride and confessed. She died on the inside when Kel rejected her, but they still remained friends. She tried to get her feelings to go away and never come back, hoping it would be something they could laugh about in the future. They wouldn't go away, but thankfully somewhere along the way, Kel had started feeling the same way about her, and he confessed the first day of winter break.
Now that they were together, they spent the past months having a long-distance relationship. While she was glad Kel was still with her even with how far apart they were, she couldn't help but imagine scenarios on what could happen at his college. She didn't know what his college life was like—and she wanted the full picture, not the little snippets she got when Kel briefly talked about it over calls.
"He'll be back any moment now," Basil promised. "And I'm sure he'll be happy to see you, so just relax."
"I know," Aubrey sighed. "But I'm trying to busy myself, or else I'll start thinking again."
Basil sighed. He had to suffer through the months where Kel was at college and assure her Kel would still want to stay together by the time he came home.
Aubrey looked down at her watch again, tapping her toe to a quick rhythm. She started biting her nail—a habit she developed after Basil told them the truth. "Like what if Kel met some other person at college who's better than me?"
"Kel would never think someone was better than you."
"You don't know that."
"I know what he would think."
"But what if that person changes his mind?"
"No one would be able to do that."
"But what if ?"
"Here, think about something else ," Basil suggested, resting a hand on her shoulder.
"What if he realized he didn't actually like me because college is so much more interesting than high school?"
"He still likes you."
"But you don't know that! He could be meeting much more interesting people than me. Maybe they convinced him he didn't need his girlfriend."
"Maybe they tried. Kel would never break up with you because people he knew for some months told him he was better off without the girl he knew for years."
"But they could be the best people on Earth!"
"Not one of 'the best people on Earth' would convince him of that. Otherwise, they're not the best."
"Not the best-best, but still one of! We don't get to experience that until next year because Kel just had to be born a year before us.
"What if that one-year difference was what he needed to change his mind? What if he completely changes because of college and I'm still me, so he decides he doesn't need me anymore? What if college was his way of ditching me, and now he's found someone that's the complete opposite of me and is therefore better, so now he decided he wants to be with them and not me, so he decided to come here and tell me he's found a better girlfriend or boyfriend or partner because he didn't want to break up with me on call?"
"Aubrey, just—"
"And what if—"
"Relax," Basil interrupted. "Take deep breaths and calm down. You both like each other. There's nothing to worry about."
She decided then to listen to Basil. Deep breaths in... And out... In... Out...
She leaned back, sighing. "I miss him."
"I do, too. We all do."
And, speaking of the Devil, a familiar voice in the distance shouted, "Hey, guys!"
Aubrey sat up straight, her eyes widening as she saw Kel running up to them. He had the biggest smile on his face and his eyes were practically shining—God, he was so cute.
"Hi, Kel," Basil greeted when he caught up to them.
"Hey," said Aubrey, trying to play it cool.
"Come on, guys, I just got back. Where's my welcome-back hug?" He spread his arms wide.
Aubrey got up and gave him a hug. Basil, still not used to physical affection after going years without, tentatively hugged him before Kel squeezed him and Aubrey in a bear hug.
"I missed you guys so much!" said Kel.
Aubrey leaned her head against his shoulder. "That's nice."
Basil pulled away from the hug. "Aubrey..."
"What?" Aubrey couldn't help but smile when Basil narrowed his eyes at her. "Okay, fine. I guess I missed you too."
"You guess?" repeated Basil.
Kel, used to Aubrey being Aubrey, didn't mind, smiling and wrapping his arms tighter around his girlfriend.
"Oh, Kel." Basil took a quick glance at Aubrey before looking back at Kel. "How's college?"
Kel shrugged. "Boring, but also not? I don't know. It's just stressful with everything. My roommates aren't bad, though. They're nice."
"I forgot about having roommates," mumbled Aubrey.
"Have you met interesting people?" continued Basil.
"Tons!" Kel smiled. "But none of them are as cool as the people here."
"So none of them would change your mind about...well, anyone in Faraway?"
Kel shook his head. "I've known the people in Faraway all my life. Why would some people I've known for a few months change how I thought about them?"
"None are cooler than the people here?"
Kel shook his head. "Where are we going with this?"
Basil ignored him. "So you wouldn't cheat on Aubrey with one of them?"
"Of course not!"
Basil nodded. "Good. Because while you were away, I had to hear Aubrey ask me questions like..."
He started listing off some of the questions she asked in a high-pitched voice to match hers. Aubrey talked over him by loudly saying, "Hey, I'm sure everyone would love to see you again since basically everyone likes you. So why don't you go say hi to everyone after settling back in? And I'm pretty sure you're parents are gonna be so happy that you're back! You should say hi to Sally and Hector too. I think they might've missed you the most out of everyone."
Kel blinked when both of them were done talking, not sure what to say.
Basil gave a tired smile. "Let's just say that Aubrey missed you a lot more than she'll ever admit."
Aubrey glared at him. "Don't you dare tell him."
Kel looked back and forth between the two. "Tell me what?"
Basil smiled innocently. He was definitely going to tell him.
Aubrey decided then and there that when Kel returned to college, she was confiding in Kim and not Basil. Kim would never tell Kel unlike Basil, which his actions would end up causing what would feel like endless weeks of teasing.
But, if she was being honest, she could suck up the teasing—for now. So long as Kel was back, he could tease her as much as he wanted to without complaints until she got tired of it—and she could not complain for a lot longer than some might think.
- - - -
𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝: 𝟷𝟻𝟺𝟾