And our first kiss…was the last kiss I ever needed.
-Clare Angelica
It had been two years since I’d last seen her. Two years, but I still remembered everything.
I remembered her ripped up jeans with the worn converses pocking out beneath the denim. I remembered the classic band t-shirts she wore. I remembered the smile that tickled my heart and the piercing blue eyes that I wasn’t afraid to let see my bare soul.
I remembered everything as I dropped my bags on my mom’s living room floor, embraced my family, and immediately asked my sister to call her.
She laughed in my face, pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed.
“Hey!” Evangeline’s voice echoed through the speaker.
“Hey, Eve. I have someone here who wants to talk to you,” my sister stated.
“What?” Eve questioned her.
“Ya,” my sister laughed. “It was the first request he’s made so far, other than a burger from MK’s.” Their joined laughter echoed around me.
Eve said something I couldn’t hear and, again, they both laughed as my sister passed me her phone.
“You’re such a dork,” my sister teased as she walked away after handing me the phone.
“Shut up!” I joked as I playfully swatted at her.
Two years had passed since I last saw her, but as she walked towards me in her frayed denim skirt, a t-shirt that hung off one shoulder, blonde hair with purple streaks, and those converse sneakers, what I had suspected was confirmed.
Evangeline had been keeping my heart safe all this time, and I hadn’t even missed it. I didn’t realize my heart hadn’t been beating until she smiled and then it began pounding in my chest.
She “melted the iceman” as my mother used to say.
“Hey, Gabe.” Her voice was just as I remembered it, but you could hear a change in its tone.
She was completely calm as she walked up to me in the park. She was more confident in her stride, less the girl I left and more the woman she was to become.
“Hey, Evie,” I smiled as she stopped before me.
She laughed, “You are the only one who calls me that.”
“Good.”
She blushed and I smiled.
“Hungry?” I asked.
“Ya!” Eve responded. “MK’s?”
“Ugh, you read my mind!”
The awkwardness faded as we took our first steps up the street towards the restaurant. We began to speak as if no time had passed.
It was hard to tell if she was as nervously excited as I was because she was so relaxed. She made me feel comfortable, which was rare. And I felt okay being myself, even more rare. She just felt like home.
She accepted and appreciated all of me, quirks and all.
I got to be there for a milestone, which was the main reason for my visit, Evie and my sister were graduating and man did we celebrate!
But that wasn’t the best part, we had our first date. I still think of her every time I watch the movie I first held her hand to.
And our first kiss…was the last kiss I ever needed.
When it came time to leave, I couldn’t without knowing she was mine. The distance didn’t matter. What mattered was that we were together.
I still remember the first time I heard her say, “I love you.” It slipped out when she was leaving me a voicemail and I played it over and over again.
Things were going great, but I had already made a choice. One that impacted both of us, even before there was an “us”, and then I made the biggest mistake of my life.
There was no looking back.
That summer was amazing and we were still going strong as we headed into fall, but I still hadn’t told her. I don’t know how it hadn’t slipped from my sister’s lips, but the secret was still a secret. I didn’t have the guts to tell her…not just yet. I didn’t want to be the reason her smile faded, but, inevitably, I was.
I had enlisted and was set to leave for Bootcamp in a matter of days. I couldn’t put it off any longer, I picked up the phone and called her, the words spilling out of my mouth in garbled English as she greeted me.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” I could hear the hurt in her words, but I mistook them.
“I was scared, I didn’t know how you would react.”
Silence and then, “Do you have an address so I can mail you letters?”
I smiled, she was all in. She always had been.
Bootcamp wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t the hardest thing I’d ever done. What came after was. I had my orders and I was scared. I didn’t want to lose what we had, but a part of me doubted that she would wait for me. She was eighteen after all, I was six years older than her, why would she wait?
So, I did it. I ended the relationship, but I couldn’t get her out of my head.
She wrote to me, even after I was deployed. I called her every chance I got. Her voice was my solitude in the craze of war.
“Hey!” Eve answered.
“Hi, Evie.” As our small talk slowed, I stated, “Breaking up with you was the biggest mistake I’ve made so far. Everyone over here has someone back home and I don’t. I thought breaking up would be saving you from this, but…”
“But you never asked me what I wanted,” she interrupted me.
Damn, she was right, I only assumed what she would want and what would be best, but I never asked her…my partner.
Months passed and then I got to see her. I got approved for leave for a family event and booked the soonest flight home. I walked into the party in my uniform, hugged my family, and scanned the room. There she was, smiling at me.
“Hey, Evie,” I whispered as I embraced her and felt that feeling of home wash over me.
I couldn’t let her go, but I had to.
That was it. I had set the cycle of our story long before I knew I had and that was how it always ended.
Read the rest of the story…
Evangeline and Gabriel: Introduction
Evangeline and Gabriel: Dedication
Evangeline and Gabriel: At 1st Sight
Evangeline and Gabriel: Sitting by the Campfire