chapter sixteen
three months later
Calum found Asia in a Mexican restaurant in a small town of the coast of New Jersy—a pair of washed out jeans hung loosely on her hips, she had a nose ring now (the kind where it was just a stud) and if you and I (who had promptly forgotten all of our knowledge of Asia Mills in the past months) had glanced at her, she would've seemed like a normal nineteen year old—with a funny sadness in her eyes.
He watched her from behind an upside down menu, tucked away in a corner booth—each time she breezed past him to the kitchen he sunk lower in his seat, pretending to be absorbed in the pictures that hung on the wall. (They were of naked women riding cows.) He watched as she laughed at something a customer said, how when no one was looking she straightened the stack of menus on the bar—and how her smile faltered a bit when she saw a young girl proudly wearing a shirt displaying his face on it.
"I love your shirt." Calum heard Asia say softly, turning to the right he manged to catch a glimpse of her on her knees; at the girls eye level, a smile across her face. "I once met Mister Calum Hood."
"Really?" The girl exclaimed, her lack of front teeth combined with the excitement she was feeling caused her to slur her words together (it sounded like whelryh?) "Oh my gosh—w-was he nice??"
"Oh he was very nice, he even kissed my cheek."
Although Mr. Calum Hood had done much more than kiss her cheek, Asia felt a familiar whisper of warmth trickling down her spine - the innocence of their conversation reminding Asia of her own youth.
The sounds of the small girls distressed comments filled his ears, before he heard Asia's hushed tone once again. "Hey, hey, hey! Relax hun—I can get you an autograph or something, I um—"
"I can do it right now." Calum found himself calling, his legs carrying him over to wear the voices were, Asia's face paled, the small girls grew red with excitment—and her parents silently celebrated never having to buy her Meet and Greet tickets.
After Calum had signed practically every inch of the child's body, Asia pulled him into the Staff's break room, her dark eyes narrowed in confusion.
"H-how did you find me?"
Calum shrugged—she had to admit it was a bit of a shock seeing him after three months, but she had grown to expect shock with him.
"I asked your mum, and she told me."
Asia frowned at the mention of her mother, disapproval evident on her face, "Cal, I—"
He ignored her protests and wrapped his arms around her, she eventually slithered her arms around his middle and laid her head against his chest.
Asia and Calum weren't soulmates, they were just two people that loved each other very, very, much. And as you grow older and wiser and your skin starts to get freckles in places it never got before, or you find yourself crying over episodes of How I Met Your mother that weren't REALLY that sad, you realize that simple truth. It is said that there are over seven people you could end up with in the world, seven individuals that hold the possibility of your future happiness in the palms of their hands. And that scared Asia, and that scared Calum, and as the two of them stood pressed against each other, ignoring the steady stream of faint conversation from the other room they both realized something.
"Did you ever love me?" Asia asked, her lips numb with cold, her eyes rimmed with red from the countless tears she had shed upon meeting Calum Hood so long ago.
He paused, "I think I did." he murmured, his eyes meeting hers for a split second, before looking away from her. "I think I did too." she mused, "but not now."
"No, not now." Calum agreed, although neither of them moved to remove themselves from the embrace they were captured in.
"I'm tired of running away from reality" —Asia sighed "As dreadful as it is, we both belong in it." He laughed softly in agreement.
"Do you think we would've been able to make it—if, Daisy were still here?" he asked, his voice barley over a whisper, instead of tears that he expected he found a soft laugh that mirrored his.
"No. We weren't able to make it WITHOUT a child, what makes you think we would of survived WITH one?"
"Besides--" she fumbled with her words for a moment, "—she's gone now, and all that's left is something that was broken a long time ago." he frowned, but nodded silently in agreement.
"And it's no ones fault but our own, we tore each other apart, for the short amount of time we were together that is. We confused love and lust."
"You always had a way of doing wonderful things with your mouth, and I suppose right now you're telling the truth." his hug around her tightened as they felt the end drawing near, "it's time for us to grow up." she grumbled into his shoulder.
"But we are adults." he responded, feeling her shake her head he laughed slightly--"I mean it's time for us to stop using each other as excuses that hold us back from doing the right thing. it's time for us to find the people we love."
If it had been three months earlier calum would've said "but i love you."
If it had been their sixth date calum would've said "i love you."
If it had been her birthday the year before, calum would've said "i love you. forever."
but it wasn't any of those times, and he didn't love her.
"Can we be friends?" he found himself asking, hoping that she'd agree--and to his surprise she nodded. "Eventually I suppose, but not now."
Their embrace that seemed to last forever eventually ended, as they stared at each other, memorizing the curves of each others faces; their lips drawn tighter in silence.
"When did we become so wrong?" he finally asked, breaking the silence that hung in between them, she in turn simply shrugged.
"From the start."
They parted ways that night in the parking lot, Asia watched as Calum tucked his thumbs in between the loops of his jeans and slouched off back to the cab he had taken to the resturant—he paused when he reached the cabbi, his large hand frozen on the handle.
"You sure you won't miss me?" He called to her, his voice taking on a joking tinge, although his eyes were filled with sorrow.
She was standing in the middle of the empty lot, her arms hanging by her side; she paused before shaking her head slowly.
'I'll miss you Calum—but you won't miss me, I'm positive about that."
Each promising to keep in touch—but they didn't.
four weeks later Asia reunited with Mindy and Jeff (rather dramatically), who got married in the February of the next year; their wedding was a large affair, and Asia was awarded the duty of giving the Maid of Honor speech—where she promptly spent the entire time gushing over how supportive Mindy and Jeff were, how she had watched them grow to love each other more and more each day; and how she wished to one day obtain a love half as pure as theirs.
No one understood why Asia ended her speech with "Daisy would be proud." And frankly, everyone chose to ignore it. But Jeff knew, so did Mindy—and that's all that mattered.
After the speech, Jeff quickly introduced Asia to his cousin, Antonio, were she felt a flutter in her stomach and pick up in her heartbeat when he smiled, "Asia—like the continent?"
It had been so long since someone had looked at her for her, not for Calum, not for the baby; but her. So naturally she spilled her glass of champagne on his shoes and apologized prefusly—only to be met by his charming smile. "Don't worry, I was going to throw them out after the wedding anyways, it's good luck."
It's of course not good luck, he was just nervous about meeting someone so pretty at a wedding (how cliche) and he told her this year later—and Asia laughed and laughed. Her laughter distracted a couple a few tables away, but they didn't care. They were in love, they were happy.
Jeff and Mindy grew old together, Mindy eventually went to College (at the age of 22) and earned her degree in Cosmetics—all those years of wearing fashion forward lipsticks paying off. They had two children, and to this day Jeff swears talking to that fiery waitress that night was the best choice of his life, this of course was true. Jeff eventually embraced his love for reading and bought the very coffee shop Asia had gone into labor in (don't worry...Antonio thought it was weird also) and renovated it into a re-sale book shop.
Mali went back to Australia and never married—but that's alright, Independence was her middle name. She never did return to America, although she still has a picture of her, Asia and Mindy taped to her bedroom wall. (They had taken it on a burning hot afternoon in June, their faces were sweaty and their smiles were forced, but Mali wished to never forget that memory.)
Calum sat in the back of the chapel watching as Mindy sobbed her vows to Jeff, his eyes drifting to Asia, who looked uncomfortable (the amount of emotion in the room was making her skin crawl) her cheeks tinged with red. At the reception he planned to find her, but when he finally did—she was already blushing over a conversation she was having with a tall guy with no shoes; and despite his hopes of reattaching his lips to hers, he felt a smile slip across his lips. She was happy—her nose was crinkled, which was what it always did when she found something particularly enjoyable.
So he had turned and left the small hall, pausing to kiss Mindy on the cheek at the front of the hall.
"Lovely dress, the pair of you are simply charismatic together." Jeff had gripped his arm (a little too tight) and Mindy had tossed her arms carelessly around his shoulders.
"You come b-back anytime, alright? You m-might be an asshole—sorry grandma (her grandmother shuffled away from their conversation in a disapproving manner) but you're a nice asshole."
"Of course I'll come back."
(but he never did)
A girl named Christina who had a pretty smile and long red hair, she gave him a small tattoo of a daisy on his left bicep—and in return he gave her his heart.
Asia eventually forgot the way that fire spread from his touch on her skin, and Calum forgot how she made him feel like the luckiest man in the world, they forgot the countless 'i love you's' and the nights they had spent blissfully by each others side. But they never forgot their child, Asia visited her child's grave each year with Antonio by her side—Calum too visited her grave whenever he was in New York, they both unkowlingy touched the same place on the grave each year, smiling at the familiar feeling of each others touch.
And as our story draws to a close, I suppose you're wondering who I am—but why ruin the illusion?
the end.
--
dedicated to YOU!!! FOR READING THIS!!! AND BEING MY BEST FRIEND THROUGHOUT THIS ENTIRE STORY, WOw we had some good times. i love you, don't evER forget that, alright?????
we expect to find love so easily, and our society encourages the notion that TRUE love is just hiding behind the the next street corner. we read about it in books--i suppose a major percentage of you expected this to end differently, but i wanted to install a stable thought in your mind about love.
love and lust are neighbors, and are most commonly confused--as i said, asia and calum never loved each other; they spent most of their relationship crying and fighting (which is most unhealthy). life isnt going to toss you a prince charming, or the perfect Cinderella. i suppose the pair of them could have made it work, but the portrail of human society is that we are selfish, we think of ourselves--that's where they went wrong.
we as adolescents expect love to found so easily, when in fact it's the hardest thing to find. like it fucking bothers me so much that people think love is just something you stumble in to, THAT'S the true meaning of posi+ive, JUST because you love someone, doesn't mean you belong with them.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR GOING ON THIS JOURNEY WITH ME, I NEVER EVER IMAGINED THIS STORY WOULD EVEN GET ONE READ AND I SERIOUSLY WOULDN'T BE HERE WITHOUT YALL OMG!!
thank you to my frIENDs on here fOR PUTTING UP WITH MY SHIT!! I LOVE U!!
alright, i just don't want this to end, but it has too.
with ALL MY LOVE FOR FUCKIN EVER,
wendy
hi friends!!! i used to have a sequel for POSI+IVE ((it was called NEGAT-VE bc im cliche af)) on my profile, but than i realized i LIKE how i ended this story. so i deleted it!!!! this is now the PERMANENT ending for POSI+IVE. life is hard, sometimes you don't end up with the person you think you are. but that doesn't mean you don't get your happy ending! look at Asia, she moved on and left it all behind, instead of wishing she ended up with cal, be HAPPY for her. i liked this story so much bc it was realistic. NEGAT-VE just made everything messy, i am so happy with my choice. thank you a million times for reading my story. ur cool.
ps asia was black bye