REUNION

They shouldn't have been in the kitchen to begin with. It was nearly three-thirty in the morning and the rest of the family was asleep. The only noise in the room, other than their rapid breathing, was the dripping faucet that no one had gotten around to fixing yet.

Cecilia stared across the table at Jace, though his eyes were turned toward the window. Moonlight flooded in and lit up his face in a grayish glow. They had made it a point to stay as far away from each other as possible the whole week, knowing the consequences of any interaction. It had come to a head that evening when they'd been forced to dance together at her cousin's wedding—the reason why everyone was in town in the first place. If she'd known that coming downstairs for a soda would mean running into him like this, she would have stayed in bed.

Cecilia gripped the aluminum can of Coke in her hands, running her fingers around its lip in slow, bored circles. Jace still hadn't looked at her, and she almost missed the sharpness of his green gaze.

"So, how are you?"

Her mouth felt dry, like someone had stuffed cotton balls in it while she wasn't paying attention. She cleared her throat, and Jace glanced over, finally exposing her to his magnificent eyes. Her heart seemed to skip a beat when he looked at her, and Cecelia felt like she was back in high school again.

"You're really going to ask me how I am, Cecilia?" he said, his lips turning up into a lazy grin. Cecilia followed a bead of sweat as it trailed down his throat and over his bare chest. "I'm fine."

The heat was constricting to the point that she felt sticky all over her body. The small tank top and basketball shorts she'd worn to bed provided no comfort whatsoever. Cecelia almost wished she were a boy, like Jace, able to get away with wearing barely any clothing at all.

The weather had been pleasant until that evening when a sudden wave of hot air had settled over the town. It was suffocating, to say the least, and had driven the whole wedding party indoors for the rest of the night. As if that wasn't bad enough, the air conditioner at home had blown out right after dinner, leaving eight very unhappy people crowded together in one house.

Cecelia couldn't understand why her parents had offered up their house for Jace's family in the first place. It wasn't their problem that Mr. and Mrs. Warner had moved out of their small town ages ago, since Cecelia and Jace's first year of college, and as such had had nowhere to stay for the wedding. In her opinion, they would have been better off at a hotel, but her parents were still close enough to Jace's family that it had seemed almost rude not to offer the guestrooms. Or at least, that's how her mother had reasoned with her when Cecelia confronted her about it.

Jace shifted in his seat, obviously uncomfortable with her staring, and Cecilia looked away. The moon cast an eerie glow on the table and odd shadows around the corners of the kitchen, reflecting off the silver band on her left hand. She twisted it around, sliding it up and down the length of her ring finger, marveling at its looseness for the umpteenth time since Ethan had given it to her.

"I… worry about you, you know?" Cecelia muttered eventually. "We used to be close."

Jace moved around again, becoming even more uncomfortable. It was apparent to Cecelia that they were breaching topics he wanted to stay away from, but this night was a long time coming. These things had to be addressed eventually.

Jace sighed and leaned forward, resting his arms on the table in front of him. There was a lock of black hair that had fallen into his eyes and Cecilia felt an overwhelming urge to move it aside. She gripped the soda can again, tighter, in an effort to keep from reaching out.

"Well, with the way we've been acting the last couple of years, I'm surprised you would say that," he replied.

Cecilia rolled her eyes, remembering finally the many reasons why she'd been avoiding him in the first place.

"I guess being left three weeks before their wedding will do that to a person," she spat, not bothering to keep the ice out of her tone.

Jace flinched, and Cecelia found herself enjoying his misery despite herself. It had been two years, almost to the day, but sitting there in front of him brought back all the memories she'd been trying to drown out. Without that ring on her finger to remind her that she had someone who cared, she might still have been blaming herself for Jace's disappearance.

Cecilia pushed her can of soda away, unopened and perspiring. She folded her arms on the table and leaned her head on them, peering over at Jace. His face was like a Rembrandt painting, his features angelic and innocent, but the silver shards of ice in his eyes betrayed the truth of his personality. So starkly different from Ethan, whose features Cecelia could picture in her mind as clear as the moon peeking in through the window. She took comfort in the thought of his grinning face.

"Tell me something," she said after a moment, the movement of her jaw causing her face to bounce up and down as she spoke.

Jace glanced at her.

"What's that?"

"Why'd you do it?"

He sighed.

"What do you want me to say, Cecelia?"

The resignation in his tone was foreign to Cecilia, but she frowned when his words registered in her mind.

What did she want him to say? For starters, she wanted him to admit he'd been scared. She wanted him to be honest and tell her he'd been afraid of never experiencing anything—or anyone—else. She wanted him to give her a reason to forgive him. They'd been together for six years, and had been friends for much longer than that. He owed her at least the truth, didn't he?

"Something. Just say something. I spent six months after you left torturing myself, trying to figure out what I did wrong."

"You didn't do anything—" Jace said, but then cut himself short, as if the words on his tongue were somehow toxic. "I left of my own will. Not because of you."

Though his words seemed to say otherwise, his tone made it sound like he was pushing the blame on her. Cecelia's face darkened and she sat back in her chair, appraising Jace for a moment.

The silence dragged out between them and the air constricted further as the tension increased.

"So, I hear congratulations are in order," Jace said eventually.

"For what?" Cecelia asked.

"For your engagement. You're getting married, aren't you?"

His eyes flitted down to her hands which rested on the table between them. As she followed his gaze, she could feel the cool metal of her engagement band curl around her finger. A tiny ball of warmth settled into the pit of her stomach. Such a small reminder, but it was enough to bring her out of the darkness she'd sunk into that night.

"Yeah, I am. Ethan's great."

"Always has been," Jace said. "Didn't take very long after I was out of the picture for you to figure that out, huh, Ceci?"

Cecelia's eyes flashed up to meet his. She could picture herself, two years ago, right out of college and thrilled to be marrying her best friend. Ethan had never held a candle to Jace—had always hung out in the background like a good sidekick, forever the one to help Cecelia clean up Jace's messes. But when Jace had left, Ethan had been there again to pick up the pieces, and this time, Cecelia hadn't been able to overlook his kindness.

"If Ethan hadn't held me together, I probably wouldn't be sitting here right now," Cecelia said.

Jace cringed again, his shoulders slumping over his arms on the table. The moon's glow dimmed for a moment as it was covered by moving clouds, and the kitchen was shrouded in cold darkness.

Cecilia was glad for the absence of light. She used the moment to school her features into casual detachment. By the time the moon made its reappearance, she was a picture of cool apathy.

"Ceci…" Jace said.

Cecilia watched the different expressions play out on his face, but her hazel-eyed gaze moved over to the doorway where she found her brother, Carter, standing. He looked sleepy with mussed blond hair and squinty eyes.

"What are y'all doing down here? It's nearly four o'clock." He glanced over at Jace. "Cecilia, I thought I told you to get some rest."

Cecilia smiled.

"You did, Car. I just had some unfinished business to discuss with your girlfriend's brother. But we're almost done now. You can go back to sleep, I'll be right up."

Carter looked between them, and the smile on Cecelia's lips cracked a little.

What had hurt the most about Jace leaving hadn't been the disappointment or the betrayal. It had been the way people had looked at her afterward, Carter especially. Her family had been tied to Jace's for years, but even his parents had spent days watching her like a hawk, pity clouding their expressions. And it only got worse when she started dating Ethan.

No one had told her outright, but Cecelia could see it in their eyes. They all thought she was rushing into things with him. Truth be told, she was scared out of her mind. Her only comfort was that Ethan wasn't like Jace, and she'd done her best to drive that point home to everyone around her.

"I'm fine," Cecelia said, forcing her lips back into a proper grin. "Promise."

Carter looked as uncomfortable as she felt, and a twang of guilt pierced through her. If no one else, her heart went out to her brother, who seemed to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. Jace had been a good friend to him growing up, and now he was dating Jace's younger sister. The break-up had put a strain on Carter and Jace's friendship and, by extension, Carter's relationship with Alana.

Carter shrugged, taking one last look at Jace, and then turned to go back upstairs. He paused, however, one hand on the banister.

"Jace, don't be a jerk, huh? You've done enough."

Jace's shoulders hunched further at Carter's words but he didn't reply. Cecilia could barely see her brother in the darkness of the stairway but figured he must have shook his head or something. It was only a few seconds later that she heard him plodding up the staircase.

Her eyes flickered back over to the boy across the table. She almost felt bad—the way he was leaned over made it seem like he was praying. He'd never looked so defeated before.

A sigh escaped her and Cecelia found herself wishing she'd never started this conversation in the first place. It was too late to stop now, and she eyed him carefully before posing her next question.

"If it wasn't because of me, then why did you leave? You didn't even say anything—just packed up and disappeared. I wanted to call you, but I was so mad and I couldn't find it in myself to forgive you. I still haven't. Please, give me a reason to. I don't want to hold onto all this anymore."

He didn't reply and her pleas hung in the air between them like a suspended piano. All anyone had to do was shear the rope and the whole thing would come tumbling down.

After another moment, Cecelia shook her head and stood up, frustrated at his resolute silence, but he clamped a hand around her wrist when she moved past him.

Cecilia stopped and looked down at his fingers around her arm and then glanced up at Jace inquiringly, an unnerving emptiness clouding her eyes. His expression turned pained as he realized just how far from being forgiven he really was.

"Don't… Don't do that, Ceci. Please?"

He sounded so terribly pathetic that Cecelia's coldness began to thaw a little. She sighed again.

"Then just tell me the truth."

Jace pulled her down until she sat on the edge of the table in front of him. He folded his hands together in his lap, biting his bottom lip. Cecelia looked away when a pang of familiarity curled into her stomach. He looked just as he had in high school, like a child who'd been punished for drawing on the walls. Always in trouble, always doing something he shouldn't be—that was Jace.

Her heart began to sift through two years of disdain until all that remained was a gaping hole that had once been filled with love for Jace himself. Ethan's constant presence had done well to cover the emotional scars, but now, in his absence, she was left exposed to the feelings she'd spent so much time trying to hide from.

"I—I got scared," Jace said eventually. He looked up at her, but she resolutely stared out the window, refusing to give into the swirling tornado in her heart. "You and Ethan and this town were literally all I knew. College was the furthest we ever got from home, Ceci, and then we decided to get married, and I wanted the chance to live and experience new things…"

His voice trailed off, and Cecelia glanced at him from the corner of her eye.

"We could have done it together," she mumbled.

Jace scoffed. He caught her left hand and fingered the too-loose diamond ring, pushing it back and forth.

"We did everything together, Ceci. Actually, we didn't know how to do anything on our own. I wanted to get a chance to do that."

Cecelia pulled her hand away. "And did you? Did it make you happy?"

Jace smirked. "All I wanted after I left was to come back and apologize and marry you."

Cecelia's breath caught in her throat and she stood up, moving away from the table. Jace leaned back in his chair, looking no less attractive than he'd always been. She swallowed, hard.

"Why didn't you?"

"I was too stubborn… I wanted to prove a point to myself. But I felt completely miserable. It took two years and a wedding invitation for me to pull my shit together and face you again."

Cecelia took another step back and found herself leaning against the kitchen counter. Moonlight streamed in around her, creating long shadows on the floor between them, bathing her in its ethereal glow.

"You came to the wedding talk to me?" Cecelia asked.

Jace nodded.

"I wanted to fix things," he said. He looked at her from across the kitchen, gauging her reaction as he spoke his next words. "Maybe start over again."

Cecelia's eyes widened and she gripped the counter behind her until her knuckles turned white. Her heart hammered in her chest like a Congo drum, beat by beat draining her of the ability to think straight.

Jace stood up from his place at the table and made his way over to where she stood. She watched him as he moved closer, fighting the urge to meet him halfway. Her grasp on the kitchen counter steadied her and she waited for him to stop.

"What—What do you mean, start over again?" she asked.

Jace reached up and cupped her cheek in his hand. Cecelia closed her eyes, reveling in the familiarity of the touch as her arms buckled and her own hands moved back across the smooth surface of the counter.

"I don't want to lose you again, Ceci. You and Ethan aren't any good together, everyone knows that," Jace said.

Cecelia opened her eyes and found him staring down at her, waiting for her to answer. She couldn't think past the pounding of her heart long enough to string together a coherent sentence, and the silence held for a long moment, until a metal clang rang out from behind her.

Cecelia started, turning around to find out what the noise was. The moon glared down on them through the window, and caught on a sparkle in the sink. Her engagement ring.

That was all it took for Cecelia to come to her senses. Replacing the ring on her finger, she spun back around to face Jace, who was eyeing her curiously.

"No," she said.

"What?"

Cecelia moved past him, back to the table in the middle of the room. "No. You can't just waltz in and out of my life whenever you feel like it, Jace."

"Ceci, that was—"

She continued on toward the staircase. "Just stop. I thought we could get past all this and you'd be happy for me and Ethan, but you're still the same old Jace. You're still only concerned about your own wellbeing. Well, you leaving taught me a little of that selfishness."

Cecelia stopped at the foot of the stairs and glanced back at him. He was still standing at the counter with a shell-shocked expression on his face. She sighed, shaking her head.

Jace would always be a part of her life—that was something she couldn't change—but Ethan represented a brighter future, one not clouded by fear of abandonment.

"Cecelia—"

She raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry," Jace said, and he seemed to deflate under the weight of his words.

"Me too," Cecelia said.

She readjusted her ring, promising herself to go the jeweler for a resizing in the morning, and then continued on up the stairs, smiling as the pressure lifted from her heart and shoulders.

A/N: Soooo... it's been so long since I've posted anything to Fiction Press that I didn't know where anything was in the control panel. Yikes. Anyhow, this was my term paper for a creative writing class last semester. Not my best work, but I wanted to share it because I like the character interactions. Let me know what you think of it!

Oh, I don't know if the formatting was correct when I uploaded it to the site, so let me know if there's anything weird going on. Thanks in advance!