You Can Let Go Now

Elizabeth ran out the door while she put her Nike headband on. She knew she was late; Sidney had texted her and said to meet at their usual place (his dock) at seven for a morning run. She was surprised he even was up and wanted to come. Yesterday, after he calmed down, they had chatted on his couch until he passed out from exhaustion. She quietly slipped out of his house and walked home, her own bed awaiting her return. She understood it was an emotionally tiring day for him so she was quite pleasantly surprised when she got his text.

He was there waiting for her when she ran up to him. “You're late,” he stated as he started to jog at her pace.

She rolled her eyes and responded as they sped up, “Sorry, I didn't know you were going to run. You haven't been here for a while.”

He didn't say anything and she wondered if she shouldn't have said that. But her thoughts were diminished when he said, “Thanks.”

Confused, she asked, “For what?”

“For yesterday, I probably would have drank myself until I had alcohol poisoning if you hadn't came. And for listening to me rant ,” he explained, watching his step.

“Sidney, don't worry about it. You're my friend and I could tell something was upsetting you, I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” Elizabeth reassured him. She had a feeling he kept a lot of things bottled up inside until they all spilled out at once, creating a terrible mess.

A moment of silence passed by before Sidney asked, “I'm going to my parent's house for dinner tonight. Would you like to come?”

Surprised, Elizabeth wasn't sure how to respond. “Oh...uhh, I don't want to intrude.”

“You wouldn't be, you're my guest. I see a lot of my family over the summer, it's okay. I want you to come,” Sidney explained.

“Okay, I'll come,” she agreed.

He gave her an appreciative smile before a comfortable silence fell over for the rest of the run. When they reached his house, Elizabeth said bye before she went home to the smell of pancakes. “There'd better be some for me,” she said as she walked in the kitchen.

McKenzie nodded and put a plate down for her friend. “How was the run?”

“Good, Sidney actually showed up today. You know, I don't know how he got out of bed this morning, he was a mess last night,” Elizabeth said, taking a bite.

McKenzie rose and eyebrow and responded, “I didn't ask about Sidney, Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth blushed before retorting, “Well, I was just saying that because he was there-”

“Do you love him?” McKenzie interrupted.
Elizabeth almost choked on her pancakes. With her eyes widening she asked, “What?”

“You heard me.”

“Kenz, love is a strong word. I don't know him well enough to love him,” Elizabeth told her rationally.

'There's always love at first sight,” McKenzie pushed.

“You know I don't believe in that,” Elizabeth snapped, starting to get angry.

“Look, all I'm saying is that you spend a lot of time with him and you talk about him quite a lot. I think you like him,” McKenzie said,

Elizabeth didn't have anything to say, so she threw her plate in the sink before walking upstairs, not before hearing McKenzie chuckle.

“Your family is very nice,” Elizabeth said as they arrived back at Sidney's.

“You've met them before?” Sidney asked.

“Well yeah, you briefly introduced me and your mom called me the other day because she got my number from..I don't even know. But I didn't realize how nice they really are,” Elizabeth said.

Sidney pretended to think about it for a moment before saying, “They're okay I guess.”

Elizabeth laughed. “You guys seem pretty close,” she observed.

“Yeah, we always have been. Even though I was gone most of Tay's childhood we still talk everyday and I talk to my parents all the time. I don't know, I was raised that way I guess,” Sidney said.

They walked into his house and Sid offered her a glass of wine. “No thanks,” she declined, “I'll just have a glass of water, please.”

Sidney nodded and grabbed two water bottles and stood across from her at the island. Elizabeth thanked him and Sidney asked, “Are you close with your family?”

“Yeah, I'm really close with my mom and my brother, even though they still live in Chicago. I'm actually going to visit them right before I go back to New York.”

“You must be excited,” Sidney stated.

“Mhmm. My brother goes to Princeton so I saw him once this year. My mom doesn't really get to come out that often,” Elizabeth explained, and Sidney could hear a tint of sadness in her voice.

He wanted to ask about her dad, he remembered her saying something about him but he didn't want to be rude so instead he said, “Your brother goes to Princeton and you go to Colombia. Pretty smart family.”

Elizabeth blushed and said, “I guess. My brother is naturally smart, I just worked really hard in high school to get good grades.”

“Did you do any sports?” Sidney asked.

“Not really. I was all books. I was a nerd I guess you could say,” she explained, lightly laughing.

“Well, I'd say the hard work paid off. Plus, it's not like you look like a nerd,” Sidney said.

There was an awkward moment when Elizabeth wasn't really sure what to say. Was that a compliment? “Thanks?” she said, although it was more of a question.

Sidney chuckled and said, “I didn't mean to offend you. It was a compliment.”

“You didn't offend me. I just didn't know how to respond.”

The awkward-ness just got worse as neither of them had anything to say. Finally, Elizabeth said, “Well I'm going to go home now. I'm getting tired. Meet at seven?”

“Yeah, sounds good. Goodnight,” Sidney said.

“Goodnight,” Elizabeth said before shutting the door.