Waiting on the Sidelines

“I love you, too, Nolan,” he said, letting out a deep breath. “And I swear, if you let me, if you give me another chance, I promise I won’t let you down.”

With his eyes closed against me, I just nodded my head, whispering yes against his lips before kissing him with all of the love I’d been holding onto, as if I’d been waiting to give it to him all at once. Wrapping my arms and legs around him, we quickly became tangled and hungry for one another, gripping each other tightly for fear of the night slipping away.

When I realized that almost an hour had passed, I stopped Reed from carrying our kissing any further and held his gaze as I smiled, a true smile, the first I’d had since that car had run us off the desert highway. He laid back and I nestled myself into his arm and tucked my hand inside the warmth of his shirt against his bare chest. “Hey, aren’t you going to be missed?” I worried, hoping he wouldn’t miss a curfew or anything.

He just chuckled a little. “Naw, I don’t have practice until tomorrow afternoon. I have to get back by four. And I figure if I’m going to be making this drive a lot, I should figure out exactly how long it takes me,” he smiled, looking down at me against him, and leaned in to kiss my head again before shutting his eyes.

I watched him fall asleep and felt soothed at the sound of his breathing. Somehow, we had found our way back to us. And we felt stronger this time. I knew that there would be bumps in our road, things to shake up the perfect I felt right now. But I also knew it was worth it, every second. The good and the bad.

Not wanting to leave his arms, I left the lights on and laid there until I heard Sienna’s keys at our door. She shut it quietly, probably expecting to see me asleep, and stilled when she took in the sight of me staring at her, my finger to my mouth to tell her to be quiet. Her eyes shot up with surprise and I just smiled and nodded, biting my lip and letting her know that my wish had somehow come true, no matter that it had taken longer than I expected. She smiled back and blew a kiss at me and flipped out the lights, crawling into her bed.

I stared at Reed in the dark for another hour before finally succumbing to the sleepiness that took me over. And for the first night in weeks I didn’t dream. Probably because I didn’t need to.

--- THE END ---