One Over The Other
Chapter Thirty: Goodbye For Now
August 12th
I opened the door to Yates standing there with a bouquet of white tulips and a reasonably medium sized box neatly wrapped in red and white paper and a big white bow on top. He had a soft smile, an apology smile.
"Come on in." I said, turning away and shutting the door behind him.
"These are for you." He held out the white tulips. I took them and we walked into the kitchen were I took out a vase, filled it with water and placed the flowers inside then put them on the worktop next to the window.
"I bought you this, please don't shake the box." He said gently pushing the box across the counter towards me.
I carefully took the lip of to reveal a sleeping puppy curled up at the edge of the box. It was tiny, light brown with some white dashed around its stomach. I automatically smiled down at it, it was so cute. The perfect apology gift.
"I'm sorry." Yates whispered in my ear as he stood next to me, wrapping his arm round my waist. I turned into his embrace and kissed him softly on the lips.
"Sorry." I whispered once the kiss ended. He smiled and returned his lips to mine. We ended up in quite a heated moment but were interrupted when Brooke trotted into the kitchen, stringing Mitch along with her.
"Elliot I can't find- Oh, sorry." She smiled meekly.
"It's okay, we weren't doing anything."
"Huh, sure. I guess that's why your lips are bruised and hair slightly messy, because you were doing nothing." She turned to Mitch. "We should do nothing more often." He nodded in agreement.
Brooke's loud chatter had woken the puppy; it yawned and sat up, putting its paws on the edge of the box and looking over the top at whoever woke it up.
"Oh my...is that a puppy?" Brooke cooed whilst picking it up and cuddling it close to her. "It's so adorable. Hello...hello...aww who's a cutie?" She continued to coo in a really high pitched voice.
"Maybe the puppy wasn't a good idea. Especially if it's going to make her talk like that." Yates observed.
"Nonsense, it's the best apology gift you could have given me."
"It's an apology gift. See when we fight why can't you buy me a puppy to make up for it?" Brooke asked Mitch who stuttered over his words slightly then just gave up.
"You had to make me look bad didn't you?" He asked.
"Yep, all in my days work." Yates said nuzzling into my neck.
"What's its name?" Brooke asked, looking at the puppy who was exploring the counter.
"Em...it doesn't have one yet." Yates said shrugging slightly. "It's your choice, but as you can clearly see it's a boy." He said to me.
"What are you going to call it?" Mitch asked, letting it bite his finger.
"I have no idea. I'll have to think about it for awhile."
"All of the leads, dog food, bowls are in a box in my car, I can give them to you later." I nodded and kissed his cheek.
"Can we talk outside?" He nodded and we made our way out back.
Meanwhile in the kitchen Mitch turned to Brooke.
"Do you think they'll make it?"
"They better, if they can't then the rest of us don't stand a chance." She sighed and frowned at him.
Yates and I walked round out to the side of the house that overlooked the gardens next to the pool. Neither of us said anything for a few minutes, just stood there, looking at each other in silence. This is either going to turn into another fight, like last night, or we come to some agreement or reasoning and just get on with it.
"What's wrong Elliot?" Yates asked pleadingly. His eyes alone made me feel guilty for the current situation.
"I think you know, we spoke about it for five hours last night in person and then another six on the phone."
"Do you really think I could go off and find someone else?" He mumbled in my ear after catching me in his arms when I tried to turn away from him.
"Yes." I whispered I could hear him sigh at my answer. "It's not that I don't think you love me it's just you're only going to see me once a week."
"But I'm going to think about you every day. Trust me Elliot, please just trust me. We'll make this work, I don't care how hard it's going to be, we'll make it work. I love you, only you; no matter what happens when I'm out there I'll always come back to you."
"That's easy to say now but what happens when I'm not around to remind you of our current situation."
"Did you really just refer to our relationship as a 'current situation'? That's like describing me as your current boyfriend, like you're looking for a better one." Yates protested.
"I didn't mean it like that I just find it hard to believe that this will work when you're there and I'm here."
"Have some faith in this 'current situation' please." He said bitterly.
"Well do you really see this relationship continuing past university?"
"Yes. In all honesty I see myself marrying you, you're the one for me, I don't want anyone else and I never will. But it's good to know that you don't see it like that."
"Come on Yates this is ridiculous, of course I've thought about it, dreamt about our possible life past university but I'm not getting bogged down in dreams since there is a high chance they won't come true."
"I'm not giving up on us Elliot, I spent too long fighting for you, and I'm not losing you now, at the start of our new lives. We're going to university and so what if we're going to different ones we will still be together. I'll do whatever it takes to keep us together. I'm about two and half hours away by plane, if there's a problem, I'll be back here immediately. I'll call you every day; email you every day, hell I'd even write to you everyday if that's what it'll take."
"Don't be silly. I don't want to end this, I'm not ending this, I'm just saying we should wake up to the fact you're going there and I'm staying here."
"I'm well aware of that fact. I think about it all the time and I dread leaving you. Just to think about not seeing you every day, kissing you every day, seeing you smile everyday makes me ache. I love you more than anything in my life and I'm going to make this work. We have the weekends together, once I get the information about my classes we'll see if I can increase the time I spend down here. This is going to work."
With that he kissed me to silence the situation. We spent all last night debating about this upcoming situation. We had our first official fight about it too. We walked back into the kitchen and Brooke was still playing with the puppy on the counter. He apologised and there's nothing much I can do now anyway, he leaves in four days and I plan to make the most of them.
I've never been much of a fan of airports, the noise, the chaos, people leaving, people coming back, it's like life summed up in one building. The car ride was silent all the way here. I rode in Yates' car and Ainslie, Dalton, Abby, Will and Charlie all rode in Charlie's.
This is it. He's leaving. I've never felt emptier in my life. Granted I will see him, speak to him and still be with him but it won't quite be the same. He's leaving, it's something he needs to do, if I asked him to stay he would have but that's not what he wants and I'm not going to be the selfish girlfriend and hold him back.
When I was applying to universities he spoke about how much he had his heart set on attending a certain one. Since he had already been accepted he was going. Him, Will and Dalton all were accepted and are now off to start their four year courses, away from us.
Yates begged me to apply but since I only got a B in chemistry they didn't want me, bit crap but the university in the city here accepted me and since it's better than the other offers I've had I accepted it. Ainslie, Jack, Abby, Brooke, Charlie and Mitch also decided to stay and go to the same university, which is nice, I get to keep my friends.
In two weeks Ainslie and I move into a new apartment together. It's close to our campus as we're both taking the same classes so it seemed like a smart idea to live together. She's here saying goodbye to Dalton and her friends, but mainly Dalton. I don't know for how long but she's certainly in love with him, who knows if she'll tell him.
The apartment we're moving into is two floors up from Charlie's which should be fun, he's the only guy from that group staying, he says it's because someone needs to stick around and protect their woman. Bullshit, but we don't mind, he's free entertainment. I feel slightly sorry for him, he's got no guy friends left and doesn't have a girlfriend, he's rather alone.
He'll never admit to how gutted he was when he wasn't accepted and they all were but he didn't dwell on it. He put on a mask and pretended everything was fine; he hides his feelings too much, Ainslie and I are going to work on that.
We arrived at the airport and parked the cars then headed into the main terminal. Every second that ticks by is another second I lose with him. I'm going to miss him, so much. We were the only two not talking, Charlie was doing a very animated impression of a turkey, god only knows why, and the rest were chatting away about things to come.
Yates sent me some glances every now and then, to check if I was okay, and so did Ainslie. The goodbyes would come just before the security checks. They checked their bags in and we headed over to the security area. This is it, he leaves. It would only take one word from me and he'd stay, but I can't do that, not now.
Our friends moved over a bit to give us some space, they knew of our fighting and how uncertain we both were over if this was going to work out or not. Yates kept looking straight into my eyes, not daring to look anywhere else.
"What is it?" I asked self-consciously, brushing my hair back away from my face.
"I'm memorising how you look, I'll be using my memory for awhile until I come back and see you. I'm remembering the way your hair lies, the way your eyes sparkle in the light, the way your lips move when you smile and the way you look so carefree when I'm standing here terrified." He said smirking.
I pulled him into a hug, wrapping my arms round his neck, keeping him close to me. He held onto me like he never wanted to let go, even though we would probably see each other in a few weeks it still felt like he was leaving for a lifetime.
"Say it." He whispered.
I shook my head and looked into his eyes.
"Say it Elliot and none of this has to happen." I shook my head again; he kissed my forehead and kept me in his embrace.
"I love you." I whispered against his chest.
"I love you too." Then he kissed me, soft and gently to begin with, like he was savouring the moment, then he gradually increased the pressure and pace of the kiss. I've never been a huge fan of public displays of affection but right now I don't care. He slid his tongue into my mouth and pulled back after a second or two.
"Say it." My eyes were shut but I could feel his intense gaze on me.
"I can't." He kissed me gently again then pulled out of the embrace to say goodbye to his friends. I stood there watching him, terrified of the future. Ainslie came over to stand next to me.
"Are you going to tell him?" I asked as we watched Abby pounce on Dalton, Yates and Will.
"Who?"
"Dalton."
"Tell him what?"
"That you love him." I said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. She bit her lip and shook her head.
"I can't, he'd not know what to do and it would put our friendship in a rather awkward situation." I've been there, that's how I ended up here.
After all the goodbyes Yates traipsed over to me again and kissed me on the cheek.
"I'm going to miss you."
"I'll miss you too, more than you realise."
"I'll call you in three hours when I land, I'll email you in five hours when I'm bored, I'll call you in six when I miss your voice, I'll email you in seven when I'm bored again and I'll call you in eight to hear your voice before I go to sleep." I smiled and kissed him again. "Is your phone on?"
"Yep." I said holding it up for him to see.
"Okay them, I guess I should...I love you, and I'll make this work." I just nodded and hugged him then let him walk away.
Ainslie wandered over to me as we watched Dalton, Yates and Will walk through into the security checks, out of sight.
"So did you tell him?" I asked.
"Nope." She sighed. "What's a girl to do? He lives there and I life here, how would it ever work."
"That's what I said to Yates but he's convinced that it will work."
"That's because he loves you more than anything, he'd die before he let anything happen to you."
"Dalton would do the same for you."
"You don't know that."
"You just keep thinking that. It'll work out between you two, you'll see." She shook her head smiling and we walked back over to Abby and Charlie who were in deep conversation over who could kick whose butt in a fight, superman or batman, I really don't know how I'm friends with these two.
As we headed downstairs to head out my cell phone started ringing, I fished around in my pocket and pulled it out, not looking at the caller ID.
"Hello?"
"I miss you already." I smiled down at the phone; he's too good at this.
"I miss you too, now have a good flight."
"I'll try...say it and I'll come back."
"You know I can't...I love you, speak to you later."
"I love you too." He hung up and I looked down at the flashing phone.
"Stay." I whispered, more to myself than anyone else.
We walked out to the cars, Ainslie and I drove in one whilst Abby and Charlie drove in the other. That's it, our new lives begin, he's there and I'm here. It'll work, I'm sure of it; I'm not ready to give up on him yet.
In the car Ainslie didn't like the silence so turned on the CD player, to our surprise Yates' voice came through the speakers.
"Thanks Ainslie." I glanced over at her confused to see her smirking away. "Now Elliot I now you're probably sick of hearing my voice, I've called you already haven't I? Well anyway this is my way of saying goodbye. I knew I wouldn't be able to tell you all the things I wanted to at the airport so I did this on the night we had our fight- if you here yapping that's because I have the puppy here and he doesn't seem to like me very much- anyway...what was I saying?" He paused for a second or two.
"Oh yeah, my proper goodbye. Sorry in advanced Ainslie, this is going to get really mushy and lovey-dovey. So let's begin. Leaving you is the hardest thing I've had to do yet. I'm going mad with worry about what's going to happen, what if you find someone else? What if we don't have time for one another? What if this doesn't work out like we hoped it would? What if our relationship changes and we don't know how to act around each other? Basically a lot of 'what ifs'. But then I realised none of that really matters because I know we can do this."
"You had your doubts, you made that really clear but I'm not going to let this end. You're the love of my life and I'd do anything for you. All you have- well had- to do was ask me to stay and I would have in a heartbeat. I want to be with more than anything, I don't care what university I go to as long as I'm with you. Yes I'm excited on some level about attending here but without you it's not going to be as much fun. If you change your mind at any point don't hesitate to call, even if it's three in the morning or something ridiculous like that, I'll come running straight back to you."
"By the end of this week you're going to be sick of the incessant phone calls, emails, text messages etc. so sorry in advance about that. Elliot you may not believe that this can work since there will be times when we will only see each other once a month but I promise this will. Here's my vow to you, if we make it out of university and we're still together I'll marry you. Big words I know but I can't see my life with anyone else."
"I wake up next to you, I dream about you, I can smell you on my pillow, I can feel your lips against mine every second of the day. You've intoxicated me with your very being and I'll never get enough of you. You're my addiction. I love you- these words don't seem enough, it's like they don't mean what I'm trying to say. I started off liking you then lusting after you then loving you and now I'm beyond that, you're everything to me and that'll never change."
"You've captivated me completely and I will forever be yours, Yates." He stopped for a few seconds and you could here the puppy scrambling around.
"Well that was certainly intense; I meant every word of it though. I'm going to see when my classes are when I arrive and if I can I'll fly down and see you on Saturday. Look after the puppy; give it a name since I'd like to stop referring to it as the puppy. I hope to speak to you soon and I can't wait until I see you next. Love Yates."
That was it, the CD stopped. Ainslie turned off the CD player and looked at me expectantly, well that was a lot to digest, it made me feel giddy throughout. I'm now one hundred percent positive that we can make this work.
"You okay?" She asked.
"Yep, I'm perfect." No matter what happens I'll always love him, my Yates.
A.N.
Well that's it for One Over The Other (and I still can't quite believe it). I have gone back and read some chapters and am appalled at how dreadful some of it is, I'm surprised you kept reading, when I have time in Summer I will go back and edit the story completely.
I'm still not sure I'm happy with this, might go back and change it, found it really hard to write. The reason I pushed it forward to after they graduated and when they were going off to university is because now that they were together all the chapters would have been the same surrounding their relationship. I didn't want to make them appear perfect and I wanted to give them some uncertainty into their relationship since they don't know how things are going to turn out. Hopefully this showed a slightly different side to their relationship and the doubts that surrounded this current event.
Also you can expect the sequel to start in summer; I need the next few months for exams etc. I'm thinking about writing around Jack since he didn't really get his 'happy ending'. I think there is more to him than what I have written here so I'd like to continue with that. Even though it'll be about Jack, Elliot, Yates, Brooke, Mitch, Will, Charlie etc. will all be in it, I can't not write them, I'm not really ready to say goodbye to them, they were too much fun to write. As for a plot of the sequel, I have no idea- still in the planning stages, so in actual fact I could change my mind later on and decide to write about someone else- I really don't know. What do you think considering some of you may read it, who do you think it should be about?
Thanks to all of those who stuck around to read this and to those that reviewed: Alicia Ink, PandasAreCute, hopeless-flame, helplessly in love, in bed all day, lilswtmai, sassnsweet, SammiSammiLynn, SummerBaby94, Hopelessly Clueless, Maykie, LozZie, Fairytales Arent 4 Everyone, WolfLikeMe, fatedheart, Out-Spoken-Runaway, xxily4everxx, atreyu love, RockstarBallerina, bobbychu, Apiavva, I found nemo, cherry617, MusicTiempoCyn, Alexandra90, darkgurl92, fantasy4luvr, Inkhearts and Inkstains, mllysmart, Dayna463, euphorictragedy, SuperCUTEJensen, RebelxHeart, Lochi, icequeen401, loverofeverything247, ObliviousLady, tini5585, laspoonsduh, nicolexnoxious, Aqua Revolver, PrincessEmmeh, SexyCinderella, Nerdette, sweet.becky, RockMusicFreak, peachsnapple, Shadowform, and lighty-creamy. Also thanks to everyone who added this as an alert or a favourite.
So that's it done.
Michelle