Chapter Twenty-Eight:
"Cheer up, would ya? Your birthday is tomorrow!" Elise said as she pounced on my bed.
"I was sleeping, I couldn't even be unhappy," I mumbled into my pillow. "Is it even eight yet?"
"Nope, it's 7:30 on the dot! Now go, go, go, shower up and primp yourself because we, my friend, are going out!"
I groaned and turned away, hoping to catch a few more minutes of sleep. Of course, Elise had none of that and she took one of my pillows and whacked me in the head.
"Do you really think that's going to put me in a better mood?" I hissed.
"Just get your lazy ass out of bed, okay? I want to get some coffee, doesn't that sound great? I think it sounds great," She jittered before smacking my butt. "Now up. We leave in twenty."
"Not like you even need the energy," I couldn't help but mumble bitterly.
"Move," She ordered again, before shoving me off my bed.
I wiped my hair out of my eyes to glare at her. "Was that really necessary? I was about to get out of bed!"
"We both know you weren't," She beamed at me before skipping out of my room. By now she knew that since I had left the safety of my bed, I would do as she told. She had an authoritative side of her that also made me afraid to ignore her, too.
All in all, I settled on not even showering and instead braiding my hair back and using a lacy headband to keep the extra hairs out of my eyes. The careless person's hairstyle. The braid wasn't even neatly swept by any means.
When I came into the hall, Elise looked at me with disapproval. "Sophia, it is July. You're not going to where a sweater and sweats. Now put on some shorts and a tank top in case we see hot men on the streets! They don't call this place a slice of cake for nothing!"
"People don't call it that," I shook my head as I walked back to my room.
"Well, I do."
I sighed, knowing my best friend was a little bit insane when it came to eye candy. Still, despite her crazy tendencies, she always seemed to have attractive guys wrapped around her finger. Not surprising, but it is admirable.
"Why are you even dragging me out this early?" I complained to her after we made our way outside and began our walk to the nearest café. It took three tries, but I finally had an outfit that was acceptable by Elise's standards.
"You haven't had a good day since, well, at least a couple weeks. So I wanted to give you an excellent one!" She chirped. And it was far too early for any human to be chirping.
"Tomorrow is my birthday, why couldn't you make tomorrow great?"
"Andrew wants to meet up with us for lunch, he's excited to see you since it is your birthday," She casually commented in response, once again ignoring the fact that today is not actually my birthday.
"Tomorrow is my birthday!" I corrected. And as of now I really only have two good friends around here to share it with, her and Andrew. Will and I still aren't on speaking terms and Gavin, well, that's just something else entirely. And my co-workers don't really count.
Now that she's celebrating it with me today, tomorrow – my actual birthday – will be nothing but another ordinary day.
She gave me a questioning look, "I know that, duh. But Andrew and I are celebrating it with you today."
I shook my head. It was hardly past eight and I had already given up on understanding her. Besides, it can be a lot easier to go with the flow when dealing with difficult people.
Elise flicked me on the nose. "Ow! What was that for?!"
"For calling me difficult," She said before turning her chin up and storming ahead of me. Curse those long legs of hers. Using them against me.
"I didn't mean to say it aloud."
She abruptly stopped walking and flicked me in the forehead this time.
"Damn it Elise, what was that for?"
She smirked, "You didn't say it before. I just assumed you were thinking it."
"Curse you and your psychology knowledge."
She laughed and grabbed my wrist so she could pull me alongside her. "Oh Sophia, stop complaining so much and just enjoy the day! I promise, I'll make sure you have fun."
"And Elise Woods never breaks her promises," I said in a mocking tone, laughing. It was only moments later that we made in to the coffee house, giggle fits already under way.
*****
Two days after I returned home, I broke things off with Gavin. Even though I hadn't considered us to be in a real relationship in the first place, I knew how he felt and I also knew it was the right thing to do. I'm too much of an emotional jumble for someone like him, he deserves better. He took it reasonably well, I guess.
"You know what? I've kind of seen this coming," He had admitted after a moment of silence. He said it in an admirably calm tone of voice, and even shook his head at himself.
"What do you mean?" I had asked.
He shrugged, "I guess it wasn't really going anywhere with us."
"Oh. I'm, I'm sorry."
He shook it off, "No, no, it's fine. I'd never match up to that Will Harvey anyways. Damn professional athletes, always steal the girls." He chuckled at this and I did too.
"He didn't steal me, Gavin," I assured him, knowing he probably wouldn't understand completely what I meant but needing to say it anyways.
He nodded, "You're right. He can't steal back what he never lost in the first place." I blinked at his understanding in surprise, and he met my eyes with a small, knowing smile.
I could only give him a smile, since I wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that. Diving in to a conversation about mine and Will's feelings is probably not one to have with Gavin. He gave me a half-hearted smile, "Goodbye, Sophia."
*****
"Easily the best chocolate cake ever," I spat to Elise and Andrew through a mouthful of rich chocolate. Andrew knew of this amazing little shop that sold, according to him, 'the best desserts in the Big Apple.'
"Told ya so!" Andrew smirked.
"Slow down, you're going to choke!" Elise laughed.
"If I die choking on this chocolate cake, I will go down with dignity."
"Well at least savor each bite, you're eating it too fast," Elise told me, a wide grin on her face. I heard a click and looked up to see Andrew's phone camera pointed at me.
"Wow, you are really something. Look at the chocolate on her face," Andrew snickered before showing Elise the picture.
"No shame in the stuffing your face game," I shrugged before taking another heaping spoonful. "Do they give out recipes? I don't even need the cake batter one, just the frosting would make me so happy."
Andrew let out another bark of laughter, "Oh my god, you are such, a freaking, dork!" He was apparently amused by this, as he inserted dramatic pauses between key words. "Man, to think Will is whipped over a girl that is whipped over cake."
Instead of responding, I snorted. Unfortunately, this caused cake to shoot ungracefully out of my nose. "Frick," I cursed, and Elise looked repulsed while Andrew nearly fell out of his chair. "Waste of a perfectly good bite of cake."
Elise shook her head in disproval, but I could tell she was amused by the slight twinkle in her eyes. "Alright, well, I'm going to use the restroom on that note." Andrew let his eyes shamelessly watch her leave.
"You say Will is whipped," I mumbled with an eye roll.
"What was that?"
"I said you're whipped."
Andrew smiled, but said nothing in defense. "Has all her psychological analyzing of your relationship actually created a mini Utopia?"
He laughed, "I guess that is one way of putting it."
I nodded and took in another tiger bite of cake, and Andrew spoke again. "He's doing okay."
"What?"
"Will, he's doing okay."
I threw my hands up in exasperation, "Really? This again? I didn't ask! Again!"
"Your eyes did."
I scoffed, again a bad move with a mouth full of chocolate, "I don't think you can pull off the deep philosopher. Elise is rubbing off on you, so help you God."
He chuckled, "Way to change the subject."
Feeling awkward, I also chuckled, "It was completely unintentional." Andrew gave me a look, so I said again "What do you expect me to say?"
He shrugged, "You don't have to say anything. I just thought you would want to know that that he misses you. He'd kill me for telling you this, but the background on his phone is a picture of you covered in spaghetti sauce. It's funny, because you're glaring in the picture, but you look really happy. It's kind of a cute moment."
Despite myself, I smiled at the thought, and all of a sudden something occurred to me. "You seemed to know who I was when I met you. Why is that?"
Andrew cracked a small grin. "Everyone on the team knows Sophia Kingston. He was always trying to work up the nerve to talk to you, since it drove him crazy knowing you lived here and he couldn't see you. He actually had your building address already when he moved here, but he was too chicken to even go over there." My face, I'm sure, was contorted to a blank stare at this point. "I'm pretty sure he even started to drive over there once or twice. Damn, he would kill me for telling you this, too. Apparently I'm signing my death wish today."
And thankfully, Elise returned. When I looked back at Andrew, I saw that he was smirking triumphantly, no doubt over the fact my face was showing exactly how I felt. I gave him a strong glare in response. She looked knowingly between us.
"What did I miss?" She questioned.
"Nothing you don't already know," Andrew lazily responded, to which I made a face.
"You have even more chocolate on your face now, though," Elise snickered. I shrugged and made no move to wipe it off.
"Yeah, she snorted it at me."
"Hey now, this is my birthday lunch! Stop ganging up on me."
"Don't get too ahead of yourself, your birthday is tomorrow," Elise chastised, Andrew struggled beside her to hold back at laugh.
"Screw you guys."
*****
"Did you get your present in the mail?" Mom asked me on the phone later that night.
"Yeah I did, I was halfway through it when you called. It's great so far. Thanks so much!" My family had sent me a care package, something they do several times of year. Since I'm the only kid that has moved out of the house, my parents feel the need to send me mail packages full of some of my favorite things. It tends to include a variety of tea bags, socks, movies, gift cards, and etcetera. This one had a cute dress in it and another piece I hadn't unwrapped yet.
"You haven't finished? Well unwrap it, sweetie!"
I chuckled, "Okay, I will." Holding the phone up to my ear to make my hands free, I tore off the wrapping paper of the small bundle.
"This was a present for you, but we all thought Will would appreciate it," I could practically imagine Mom's smug grin on the other end.
"Wow, yeah. Thanks, Mom. It's great."
In my hands, I held a Yankees jersey sporting, yours truly, William Harvey.
"Aw I'm so happy you like it, honey! I'll call you tomorrow, alright? Enjoy your last night of being twenty two!"
"Bye Mom, love you."
"Love you too, goodnight!"
"This just keeps getting better," Elise said with a wide grin as she took a seat on the barstool in front of me.
"Why do you take so much pleasure in my life's troubles," I groaned rhetorically while pulling the milk out of the fridge. It helps calm me down before bed.
"Quite being so dramatic! Your life is interesting, sue me."
I shrugged. "Maybe I will."
She stared me down for a moment, "If it wasn't your birthday I would probably tackle you."
"Tomorrow is my birthday!" Elise laughed at my outburst and I left the kitchen, waving to her over my shoulder. "Goodnight."
"Night, sweet cheeks!"
"Shut up," I laughed along with her.
That night, I fell asleep with a slight suspicion as to what my actual birthday would hold. This used to be my favorite day of the year, but I was starting suspect it would amount to nothing this year.
*****
The nightmare started with me being attacked.
I had been sleeping on a park bench, for whatever reason, when a grease ball with scary teeth came up and starting smothering me with a blanket. Trying to thrash and kick was unsuccessful, as he was relentless. At some point, I fell to the hard ground, and that's when the panic set it. Fortunately, that was also when I woke up. On the floor.
"Shhh!" A voice hushed, one in real life. One that was actually in my room.
I was about to scream, but I was too muffled by my sheets being wrapped around me. More panic flooded over me as I realized I was wrapped up tightly in my covers.
"Oh dear heavens, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no I refuse to die this way!" I began to hyperventilate. Surprisingly, that remark was followed by a deep laugh. "Unhand me, you cruel burglar!" I demanded as I felt myself being lifted off the ground. The feeling was extremely frightening. Where the hell was I being taken? Why? What was going on? "Put me down!" I tried kicking more, but it was no use."
"Geez, Soph, stop moving so much or else I'm going to drop you."
That made me stop.
"Wait, William?"
"No shit, and don't call me that, or I will drop you."
"What are you doing?"
"That is classified."
"Shut up, what time is it?"
"Not quite three."
"Oh my god, you suck." Must to my distaste, he just laughed.
Will walked down the nine flights of stairs carrying me in his arms, since the elevator was still being serviced all these months later. Then he did was I can only assume was put me in the front seat of his car and buckle me in before going around to his side.
"William, this is ridiculous. At least uncover me."
"Maybe I would have, but you called me William. So no, thank you."
"This is pointless!"
"Now, now, no it is not. It's building suspense."
"You are one aggravating son of a gun."
He laughed, "I know."
Sometime in the moments after that, I was able to lapse back into sleep. And it wasn't until the car came to an abrupt, unsettling stop that I woke back up, with a slight yelp.
"We're here."
I let out a breath, "Well no shit. Must you do that?"
He laughed, but I heard him get out of the car and come around to open my door. Through my sheets, I was able to tell that it was now light outside rather than dark, which made me even more curious as to where we are. We had to be several hours away from New York, at least.
Will picked me up out of the car and stood me on the ground, where he helped to unravel me.
"Ta-da!" He said as the sheet came completely off.
Blinking to adjust to the light, it took me a moment to come to my senses. When I did, my eyes about bulged out of my head due to shock.
"Are we at IHOP?"
"Bet your bottom dollar we are!"
Stunned, I looked around, and was taken aback to see where we were.
"Is this the same one as—"
"When you were sixteen? Sure is!"
Holy crap. We were literally six hours away from New York. Had I really slept that long? And he drove all that way? Wow. I looked up to meet him to see that he was beaming down at me, a certain curiosity etched onto his face.
"Will."
"Come on, let's go get the birthday girl some Belgian waffles and hot chocolate!" He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, like he did that first day of high school, and tugged me alongside him into the restaurant.
Throughout breakfast, Will and I seemed to forget all problems we had, including the fact we hadn't spoken in weeks. I downed an unhealthy amount of waffles for someone of my size and Will made fun of the fact that I was wearing my Ninja Turtle pajama shorts. I was embarrassed, but thankful that he didn't comment on the fact that I was wearing one of his old shirts. Again.
Then, he laughed and shook his head.
"What?"
"You have whipped cream over your mouth, you dork."
One of those words rang some bells in my head and I was reminded what Andrew had said about Will, so naturally I could only stutter a response. "I, oh. Uh..."
"Real coherent," He smirked.
"Shut up," I grumbled before licking off the whipped cream. My face was surely tinted pink, not because of what Will said, but because I wondered what he was really thinking right now.
Will paid the bill, which was the least he could do after so rudely waking me up, and we left the restaurant in high spirits. The car ride back to New York should have felt long, but it didn't at all. There was no silences at all. Instead, it was filled with nonstop jabber about completely irrelevant things, and lots of out of tune singing.
Admittedly, I couldn't help but smile at his singing, no matter how out of key it was. Still, though, he didn't even sound all that bad. At least not to me.
"No, I swear, filling that whoopee cushion with chocolate pudding was one of the most genius moves I've had," Will laughed, repeating the punch line of his story.
Not too long ago, we had stopped to fill up on gas and grab some snacks to finish of the drive. Now we were hyped up on sugar from breakfast and from chocolate bars, so we were extra crazy and stories were extra funny.
I was doubled over in laughter in the car beside him, finding this story about Andrew to be particularly hilarious. "Did he have any spare pants?"
"No! He had to walk around looking like he crapped himself all day!"
"You're an evil mastermind, you know."
"Well you're my inspiration," he admitted accidentally. I know it was a slip up because he cleared his throat and turned up the radio, claiming it was his favorite song when neither of us had heard it before. He looked over at me with a thoughtful stare, and I could tell he wanted to say something.
Me, I was thinking about him. I can only hope he was thinking about me. I wanted him to say just one thing so bad.
Too soon, we pulled up to my apartment building. Again, to my surprise, Will hustled out of the car and around to open my door.
I got out the car laughing, "Such a gentleman."
He grinned, "Hop on, I'll walk you up," He gestured, referring to a piggy back ride again.
The walk was fairly silent, and I think we were both contemplating the day's events. After all, now things were blurry. Right? From my perspective it was, maybe it wasn't to him. What did all this mean?
He set me down in front of my door and we spent a moment just sort of looking at each other.
"So," He began.
"So."
"Sophia," the full name, "look."
He took a deep breath, seeming like he was trying to summon the guts to say something. "Okay, I know we fight a hell of a lot of the time, and given the past, things haven't exactly worked out for us. But we're five years older now, and I've matured, and I've learned quite the shitload of stuff from my high school mistakes. I don't want to lose you again, Soph."
Startled, I probably had the deer in the headlights look as he spoke, but thankfully he continued so I didn't have to form any sentences. They would have been pure gibberish.
"Ever since that night we went out on our crazy adventure and you kissed me, I have just been ten times more sure what I want and I need this to work out between us. I'm sorry I've been such a dip shit," He laughed humorlessly. "I just, well. Seeing you again made me realize I needed to prove myself to you again so you would see I'm not the same dweeb from five years ago. One thing I've learned is that some things...are just, too great not to fight for."
A smile was daring to form on my lips, given my admiration that he could say what I could not. My eyes lit up in realization that, perhaps, Grandpa had been giving Will and me the exact same speech. Who would have thought? Not a doubt in my mind he is watching this conversation unfold from up in the skies, with that mischievous, yet warm, smile on his face.
He paused to take a breath. "Sophia."
"Yes?"
He took a few shallow breaths and took my hands in his.
"You call me William more than my mother. You have punched me and kicked me more than I can count, and you have an alarming addiction to Coca-Cola and TV. Sometimes, you are so sarcastic with me that I forget for a second that we are actually friends, and you fight with me more than I ever had with my own sister."
"Gee, thanks," I rolled my eyes jokingly, a smile almost breaking free.
Will shook his head, but he was starting to smile too. "You also have this habit of interrupting," He winked, causing me to purse my lips and act like I was zipping them shut. "Sophia Kingston, you are one hard girl to forget. I couldn't even if I wanted to. Which, obviously, I don't. I think that's why all this time, I, um...I haven't fallen out of love with you."
"Wait, me? Are you sure?" The words were short and quick, stammered out, since I didn't quite believe them myself. I don't think I blinked, either. If I wasn't deer in the headlights before, I sure as heck am now.
He chuckled and tucked piece of hair behind my ears, a tangled strand too, since I had slept on it and have not brushed it. "More sure than I ever have been." Then, he lowered his voice to a whisper and looked me in the eyes. "It's always been you, Soph."
"William, you..." I began, knowing he would hate that I used his full name. Not able to find any words, I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him into a tight hug. He didn't hesitate to respond, and we just stood like that for several moments. I hadn't realized at first, but my eyes were squeezed shut, and holding on to him made me feel like I was soaking up each and every word he has just spoken.
There was no way I could respond to that in words, and I don't think he expected me to either.
When we pulled away, he smiled at me. The dazzler. The sweet, sweet dazzler. "Okay. So, what else do I have to do to consider this a date?"
At this point, it was hopeless trying to hold back, and I let an easy, genuine smile overtake my face at the déjà vu of it all. "I think we both know the answer to—"
I didn't even get to answer that question before Will placed both his hands on my face and brought me to meet him.
Best. Birthday. Ever.
Eighteen years after meeting him, seven years after starting to date him, and five years after breaking up with him, I now have what I've always truly wanted.
I have been reunited with my best friend. The boy with the mud brown eyes who stole my bike. My true soulmate. And something tells me that, this time, it is for life.
We may have been the last ones to finally catch on, but it's better late than never. The truth is that we never forget the important things in our life, the things that truly matter. Whatever is meant to be will always find a way. Despite all our stubborn troubles and the twists and turns we wound about, deep down, I always knew that somehow, we would in fact find a way.
I mean, this is William Harvey, after all.