How I Missed You.

James

“Sorry,” I said, wiping the remaining tears that still resided on my cheeks away, “I don’t know what came over me.” To be honest I didn’t, crying wasn’t something that came to me easily after Isabella left. “I just,” I tried to continue, but she stopped me by holding a finger to my lips.

“James,” she began looking into my eyes, “what would I do without you?”

It all happened to fast after that. Her head rose up to mine and in one quick, fluid motion her lips touched mine. It lasted but a second, but to me it felt like an eternity. Then she sat up and it was all over. Talk about surprises.

We sat in silence until our mother’s returned, which wasn’t very long. As they sat down I looked over at Isabella and her eyes were telling me what I already knew. Pretend it never happened. Do people usually kiss after they’ve been separated for a long time? I thought back to all the movies I’d see. People usually only kissed like that if they were already together. But me and Isabella weren’t a couple. Heck we hadn’t even seen each other for nine years. Nine years without any communication or knowledge of how the other person was, my bottom lip started to tremble.

We ordered our food and ate in silence aside from my mother trying to make conversation. What did they expect? That everything would just go back to normal? Real life didn’t work like that. What was I suppose to say to Isabella after nine years that hadn’t already been said? “So how have you been?” No, I was never good at small talk.

“How about we all head back to our place,” my mum suggested after we had paid the bill.

“I have homework,” Isabella mumbled.

Ouch, nine years and she didn’t even want to come over. We use to be inseparable. Or maybe she was just trying to avoid more awkward situations, if so I was with her. But I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen after this. Julie and Isabella lived over two hours away. If they left now when would I see her again? Never? Was this just a once in a life time opportunity? Over before it really began? Just to see how we were doing? I should have taken more advantage of the situation.

“Don’t be silly Isa,” Julie laughed. “Don’t you want to catch up with James?”

“Of course I do!” Isabella snapped.

“Well okay then, after all you have all weekend to do homework.”

So we all hopped in our cars and Julie followed behind us all the way to our house.

“Why don’t you take Isabella up to your room James?” My mother suggested once we were all inside.

“Yeah alright,” I agreed. As we walked up the stairs I heard the sound of laughter as my mother showed Julie around the house. I let Isabella in first then closed the door behind us.

She sat awkwardly on the end of my bed, looking around the room. I followed her and sat at the end my head went.

“So?” she began.

“Um...” I struggled for words to say, “How’s school?”

She laughed, “After nine years the only thing you have to say is ‘how’s school?’”

“Well you think of something then,” I grumbled, resting my chin on my knee.

She sighed,” School’s fine I guess. I mean. It was hard at first. It took me ages to get use to it. But people were nice. You?”

“Well, you were my only real friend back then. If my friends knew I had been best friends with a girl they’d kick the crap out of me.”

“You mean you never told them out me?” she asked angry.

“Just Cooper. He was the first friend I made after you left.”

“Cooper? I don’t remember any Copper.”

“He moved here after you left.

“Oh right. So who are your other friends then?” She asked curiously.

“Well aside from Cooper. There’s Craig, Reese and Jacob.”

“Are they nice?”

I snorted, “the can be. Just don’t get on their bad sides.”

“Oh.”

“What about your friends?” I asked her. The moment I asked her another question popped into my mind. Did she have a boyfriend?

“Well my first friend was Mitchie. It’s pretty much just us two most of the time. Most of the girls don’t like Mitchie very much.”

“No?”

“Well she had a tendency to steal their boyfriends, date them for a week then move on.”

I laughed; there was a girl like that in every school.

“Right now she’s dating this guy Josh. So I mostly hang around his friends, when Mitchie has a boyfriend she doesn’t really have time for anyone else.”

“Oh right. Do you have a boyfriend?” Damn, it just came out. I really need to start thinking before I talk.

She blushed and I could tell I had made things more awkward for her. “No. There’s just me.”

“Oh, same,” I said, “Just me.”

She smiled then. We talked about what else we had been doing for the nine years we were apart. Laughing at all the old times and trying to explain something funny that had happened before bursting out laughing. We didn’t once mention the kiss. It was nothing anyway. Just a kiss, kisses didn’t mean anything. Unless it happened to be your first kiss, which this was. I wondered how many boys Isabella had kissed. I felt really pathetic then.

“You guys want ice cream?” My mum popped her head in the room.

“Yeah,” we said. I smiled. We used to love ice cream. Althought it appears we both still do.

“Do you remember?” I started after we had come back upstairs with our ice cream. “When we were little and we use to steal the ice cream out of our freezers in the summer and would hide behind the bushes and eat it?”

Isabella laughed, “Yes! Your mum caught us that one time and we got into so much trouble. And then later we both got sick and were throwing up like crazy.”

“Yeah and then after that we always checked the use-by-date before we ate anything.”

We were laughing so much now and I tried to catch my breath before shoving another spoonful of ice cream into my mouth.

“When do you reckon the use-by-date for this ice cream is?”

We looked at each other and laughed, “Who cares?” we asked in unison, shoving more ice cream into our mouths. If I got sick tonight, it would be worth it.