I Fell For You

“This is all starting to seem like something out of a bad TV show.” I said as I sat down on one of the chairs. Shaun looked down as his clasped hands and nodded his head.
“Why would they do something like this? I mean, what do they think we need to talk about?” I asked. Shaun looked up at me.
“Well apparently, they think that our meeting last night didn’t go as smooth as it could have possibly gone and that we need to re-do that meeting.” He said. I shook my head.
“Those two are complete idiots. I mean it’s not like we saw each other and started yelling profanity and I smacked you or something. We talked for three hours! What more do these people want from us?” I asked rhetorically.
Shaun must have picked up on the rhetorical part of the question because he didn’t say anything, just sat there. After what seemed hours of silence I finally sat up.
“How are they going to know that we fixed whatever it is they want us to fix? I mean, what’s to stop them if we walked right out and said we were…better, if that’s what they want us to be?” I asked. Shaun shrugged his shoulders and nodded his head.
“You’ve got a point.” He said. I stood up and walked over to the door.
“Raine! Raine would you let us out now? We’ve fixed everything! We’re better!” I said, scrunching my eyebrows together and hoping she would open the door. After a few minutes of waiting, the door flung open.
“So you’re best friends again?” Raine asked. Shaun stood up and walked over to me, putting his arm around my shoulders.
“As much as we were twelve years ago.” He said. I wrapped my arm around his waist and smiled at Raine and Jake.
“Yup!” I said. Raine and Jake smiled at each other then looked back at us.
“Well go on, hug each other!” Jake said. I turned to Shaun as he removed his arm away from my shoulders. He held his arms open and I fell into them, lightly hugging him.
Raine’s smile quickly fell from her face and she turned to Jake, whispering something in his ear. He nodded his head and they turned away from us, walking out of the room. Shaun and I went to follow but Jake turned back around and held his hand up to us.
“Liars.” He said before shutting the door again.
Shaun sighed and I rolled my eyes.
“They do realize that we haven’t seen each for twelve years. You can’t just pick right back up after twelve years.” I said.
“Why not?” Shaun asked from behind me. I turned around and looked him in the eyes.
“What?” I asked.
“Why can’t we just pick up where we left off?” He asked. I was shocked, why was he asking this?
“B-because Shaun, that was twelve years ago! We were eleven-years-old. We were just kids. We’re fully grown adults now. We’ve both gone our own ways, living our own lives for so long, it’s hard.” I said, wondering why he wasn’t thinking all this himself.
“God, it’s like you don’t even care.” Shaun said softly.
“Care about what, Shaun?” I asked, confused. Why was he being so dramatic? We were practically strangers!
“About the fact that we’re not friends anymore. That we’re-we’re strangers.” He said.
“I’m not going to lie, these past twelve years I’ve thought a lot about you. But as more and more time seemed to past and I realized that the chances of us ever seeing each other again were slim, I moved on. It’s what people do, Shaun. They move on.” I said.
“So that’s it? You’re not even going to try and be friends with me again?” Shaun asked. I shrugged my shoulders.
“We caught up. We talked for three hours, we had a nice night. But once the Olympics are over, you’re going to move on to your other games and trails while I try and pursue my career. We’re going to go right back to the way things were.” I said. I didn’t want to believe those things would actually happen, but, they would. It was inevitable.
“You know, you’ve really changed Hanson.” Shaun said. I said nothing as I rolled my eyes and flopped down into a chair.
“This is ridiculous! I mean, it’s not like we were best friends and just had a big fight! I moved, we haven’t seen each other. We don’t talk anymore, it’s just what happens.” I said. Shaun sat on the couch across from me and looked up at me.
“So you’re saying that you don’t want to have a good time while we’re here? You-you wouldn’t even want to try and become friends again? It’s not like we’re kids anymore, like you said, we’re fully grown adults. If we want to see each other, we make plans. We don’t have parents and guardians saying they don’t want us nor can they afford for us to fly from point a to point b for weeks at a time. We can do whatever we want.” Shaun said. I looked up at him and watched him as he watched me and, after staring at each other for a while, we both started to laugh. Just laugh. And we laughed hard, so hard I could feel the tears swell up in my eyes and my cheeks start to hurt.
After five minutes of laughing, we stopped to catch our breath and I looked up at Shaun.
“I’m sorry.” I said softly.
“For what?” Shaun asked, looking up at me.
“For not keeping my promise.” I said. Shaun looked at me confused.
“What promise?” Shaun asked. I looked away for a second, then back at Shaun.
“No matter where we go, no matter what happens-”
“We’ll always be best friends.” Shaun said, finishing my sentence, the same one I had said twelve years ago. He nodded his head and smiled at me.
“Well, to be fair, when you said that we thought we were talking about college, not you moving to a completely different country.” Shaun said making me laugh.
“I really did miss you.” I said looking at him softly, he smiled and kept his stare on me.
“Ditto.” He said, repeating the same thing I had said to him last night.
Shaun stood up and I followed him. He stood just a few feet in front of me and looked down into my eyes.
“Can I get a hug or are you going to kick my ass first?” He asked. I laughed and shoved him playfully before reaching my arms out to him. He pulled me toward himself and wrapped his arms around me.
“The last time we really hugged each other like this was just before you left.” Shaun said. I laid my head against his chest and smiled.
“That was the worst hug of my life.” I said. Shaun lifted his head and looked down at me, very confused. I laughed and shook my head.
“I only say that because it meant that I was saying goodbye to my best friend.” I said looking up into his eyes. His smile dropped a bit and he looked into my eyes.
“That I can understand.” He said. He let go of me and made a fist.
“Do you remember?” He asked. I looked down at the fist he was holding in front of me.
“But of course!” I said as I made my hand into a fist. We did our “secret” handshake that we hadn’t done in years. After snapping, the final bit of the secret handshake, we both started laughing again.
“Teena, would you do me the honor of attempting to be my best friend again?” Shaun asked. I smiled brightly at him.
“It would be my pleasure, Shaun.” I said softly. We both walked over to the door, laughing and joking, then knocked on it. Instantly, Raine and Jake opened the door.
“Jesus, took you long enough!” Raine said looking at me.
“Hug!” Jake said. Shaun and I hugged each other tightly then looked back at the two supposed best friends who were keeping us captive.
“They’re best friends!” Raine shouted. Her and Jake jumped up and down and hugged each other before looking back at us.
“Next time, warn a person before you lock them in a room. I could have brought my DS or something.” I said as Shaun and I walked past Raine and Jake and onto the roof.
“Oh shut-up Teena. You’re glad that we locked you two in there and you know it.” Raine said, shoving me. I shoved her back and Shaun laughed as he hurried to stand beside me.
“Now what?” I asked, looking at Raine and Jake.
“I know of a party.” Jake said. Raine and I both shook our heads.
“No, no, no, no, no. Not another one of those nights. I’ve had enough. Why don’t we go catch a movie or something?” Raine said. Jake nodded his head as I smiled.
“Sounds good to me. OH but let’s go see the new Zachary Quinto movie! He is SO gorgeous!” I said. Shaun laughed.
“Zachary Quinto? Really? Please don’t tell me you’re attracted to his caterpillar eyebrows.” Shaun said.
“I LOVE his eyebrows!” I said, smirking. Jake laughed at me and we walked down to the elevators. We walked around the city for a bit, Jake and Shaun pointing out places to Raine and I, before heading to the movies. Fortunately, for me at least, we ended up seeing the Zachary Quinto movie. After almost two hours of those delicious eyebrows, as I so had to put it when Shaun asked, it was almost midnight. Raine went back to the hotel and Jake decided to go to that party he knew of, that boy partied harder than anyone I knew, while Shaun and I decided to take a walk. He and I went down to the park that I had found just the previous night and sat down on the bench in front of the frozen pond.
“You found this place?” Shaun asked. I nodded my head as I looked out at the pond.
“Last night, I went for a walk, and somehow managed to end up here.” I said. Shaun looked around and smiled.
“It’s amazing, how beautiful this country is.” He said. I nodded my head.
“I know. I’ve always found Canada beautiful in general, but Vancouver. I mean, wow!” I said waving my hand at the nature surrounding us. Shaun smirked.
“What?” I asked as I looked up at him. He shook his head.
“Just trying to realize that I’m actually sitting in Vancouver with you.” He said. I scooted closer to him and laid my head against his arm. He moved his arm, wrapping it around me, and allowing me to rest my head against his chest. I smiled.
“Me too.” I said as he and I stared out at the beautiful frozen pond.