I Had It All

-Present Day-

Scrolling through my contact list, I stopped when Kelsey’s name was highlighted. And I stared. I just stared at her name for about five minutes straight. Should I click it? I went back and forth in my mind, weighing the pros and cons of calling her. Just when I was about to hit Send…

“Alex! What the hell are you doing? You’ve been staring at your phone for like, the past five minutes. What’s up with you?!” Jack asked, looking at me like I was crazy. Which, I probably was.

“Huh? Oh, nothing. Just - nothing,” I shook my head.

“So how did your lunch date with Kelsey go?” he wondered with a smirk, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

“It wasn’t a date,” I rolled my eyes.

“Sure it wasn’t,” he chuckled.

“She has a boyfriend,” I stated bluntly.

“Oh,” he replied, obviously taken aback. “Never mind then; sorry I brought it up.”

“No, it’s okay, dude. I couldn’t have expected her to have been waiting for me for three years like I did,” I whispered sadly.

“Alex, bro, you’re my best friend, and I hate seeing you like this. Are you sure she’s really worth putting yourself through all this?” he asked seriously.

I stopped and thought about it. “Yeah. She’s worth every minute.”

-------

Ring, ring, ring, ri-

“Hello?” a voice answered, sounding confused.

When I heard her speak, I thought my vocal chords had snapped. I immediately stopped pacing like I had been, standing right in the middle of the hotel room we‘d rented. Pressing the phone harder to my ear, I gulped, and finally replied. “Ke-Kelsey?”

“Um, yes, this is she; who am I speakingto?” Oh, her angelic voice…

I waited another moment before speaking, just savoring the mere concept that I was talking to her again. I may have just talked to her the previous day, but in my eyes, every time I saw or heard her was a blessing.

“This is Alex,” I said quietly. “I, um…was just wondering what you were up to…”

I heard shuffling and a muffled voice in the background, but chose to ignore it. “I’m with my boyfriend right now, actually.” There was something in her voice; I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it sounded possibly like…sadness? Edginess? Loneliness?

“Oh, and how’s that going?”

Kelsey sighed. “Pretty good… Do you want to go do something later?”

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. Why would she want to hang out with me when she was with her boyfriend? Especially after our three year absence in each other’s lives? But of course, I wasn’t a fool; I wasn’t going to try and change her mind.

“Yeah, sounds great. How about I pick you up in an hour?”

“No!” she exclaimed instantly. “Just, um, no. How about we just meet up at the mall or something around two?”

“Sure, I can do that.”

“Alright, see you then.” And with that, she hung up.

-------

Scanning the food court, I searched every face for the one I’d been waiting for. None of them had the matching wavy, chocolate brown hair I was looking for. None of them had the striking crystal blue eyes I longed for.

Finally, after what felt like hours of waiting - which was, in reality, only a matter of about ten minutes - I saw her. My breath caught in my throat; she was wearing a plaid, turquoise and black tunic that hugged her curves perfectly, and her hair hung in loose waves down her back. She was beautiful.

She smiled when she spotted me, and walked gracefully - almost as if she were gliding - to my table and sat across from me. Her ivory skin glowed in the yellow illumination of the lights overhead, and her eyes sparkled as she showed off her pearly, white teeth. “Hey there, Alex. Long time, no see,” she joked.

“Yeah, what has it been? A day?”

She laughed, and my heart starting pounding in my chest. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she could see it jumping through my shirt on every beat.

“You look really pretty today,” I mused quietly, trying to sound casual.

Her cheeks tinted to a shade reminiscent of a cherry. "Thanks,” she said awkwardly, smoothing out her shirt.

“You look like you don’t hear that much,” I laughed. “Seems like you’d be used to hearing how beautiful you look.”

Kelsey shrugged with a small smile. “Not really. I actually don’t hear it often.”

“Some boyfriend,” I muttered under my breath, hoping she hadn’t heard me. Apparently she didn’t, because she was busy squinting her eyes to the corridors behind my head, looking at what stores were open.

“Maybe we should get you a tank top,” I teased. “You must be burning hot wearing that thing.” I gestured to her tunic, which looked to be made from a thick material that covered all the way up to her neck. “It’s like, eighty degrees out.”

She immediately snapped her gaze back to me and narrowed her eyes. “I think this is just fine.”

Lifting my hands up in defeat, I shook my head. “I’m not complaining! I’m just saying; I’d be sweating like crazy in that thing.”

She sighed and nodded. “Let’s go…that way.”

“Change of subject much?” I chuckled, causing her to shrug quietly in response and grab my hand.

She just rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's go."