Where I Belong

Another two weeks passed, and then another two… soon, a whole month had passed without a phone call or text message from Harry. At first, Ellie was angry with herself. She knew she shouldn’t have put down Harry the way she did and she had to accept the consequence that she put herself in. Harry wasn’t coming back.

Without the major distraction in her life, Ellie finally had time to actually study and focus in her classes. She was halfway through the semester and she was relieved, yet upset. After the semester at Cardiff, she was planning on traveling down to Uganda to help with vaccinations. It had always been Ellie’s dream to help malaria victims.

She took the semester at Cardiff to focus on her medical degree, while she gave attention to business as well. Ellie’s fascination with medicine and books was always unusual to her; it never matched up and she ended up choosing books over medicine. She remembered telling Harry a story on why she decided to study at Cardiff University School of Medicine. She told him how inspired she was by the good deeds famous people did when they traveled to Africa. She always wanted to do that. She wanted to help people. Thus, the reason as to why school is important to Ellie.

But books were another thing. She wanted a huge library with books on every subject. Like she told Harry, books were the only thing that reminded her of her mother. Ellie swore that if she never got her library, then she wouldn’t pursue her medical career. It was a win-or-lose type of thing.

Ellie sat in her Chemistry class and played around with her goggles. Her mind wandered off and she soon found herself thinking about her future. She never enjoyed doing that since she knew she was going to end up alone, probably living in Cardiff with her grandparents and working at a hospital.

She saw her herself finishing up her MD at University of Cambridge, after coming back from Uganda of course. Ellie also visioned her future being a very successful one. Her wishes were soon to be fulfilled in less than 5 years.

“Ellinor? Do you mind showing the class how to properly write a lab?” asked Professor Gilreath. At that was the start of a new month for Ellie. A clean slate. No more distractions. She figured he wouldn’t come back so she decided to move on.

After her 3 hour chem. Lab, Ellie took a stroll around the university. Since she was only studying in and near the school of medicine, she hardly to see the whole campus of Cardiff University. It was a beautiful day; the sun was out, blue skies and not a cloud in sight. Ellie looked up at the grown oak tree that was planted next to the main building. She walked towards it and as she got closer, she saw a guy sitting underneath the tree with his back facing her. The hat that rested on his head was a white one; much similar to Harry’s but every guy on campus had at least one. She looked down at the grass as she took small steps towards the oak. Her eyes looked away and saw students were grouped underneath every tree, with books placed out in front of them, studying in hopes of succeeding just like Ellie.

Ellie removed her book back from her shoulder and let it drop to the floor. She looked at the guy and saw bits of red hair peeking out from beneath the hat. Her heart began racing at an unreasonable pace. She wanted to turn around and walk away but she knew if she didn’t try, she would never know…

“How come you never called?” she asked, in almost a whisper.

Slowly, the guy turned around and faced her. Harry’s face was now refreshed in Ellie’s memory. She stood there in front of him and waited for an answer.

“How did you know it was me?”

She licked her lips and stared at him. “I know you. I can recognize you from a million miles away,” Ellie paused, “I missed you.”

Harry sighed as he looked down at the grass, plucking out pieces and tossing them to the side. He averted his eyes from Ellie and stayed silent. The prince stood up and brushed his jeans, casually. Then he positioned himself in front of Ellie and looked at her.

A million things were running through both of their minds as they stood up before each other, their eyes locked and not a word being said. She wondered if he still liked her and she wondered, herself, if she really did like him. On the other hand, Harry was thinking of the right words to say. Being away from Ellie, all he wanted to do was pull her into his arms and finally kiss her, but since their bit of a sad fall out, he knew he couldn’t.

“Say something…” she said, breaking the silence.

He shut his eyes for a moment and when he opened them, he rolled his shoulders. “You won’t give me a chance will you?”

“I’ve thought about it…” she replied. “And I’m willing to give you a chance if…”

“If what?” Harry asked, leaning forward.

Ellie smirked, pushing his shoulder lightly. “Stop doing that!”

“Doing what?” He laughed.

“You know… you always lean in and I’m thinking that you’re going to kiss me but you never do.”

She giggled as Harry stood there, nodding his head and smirking all over the place. Ellie crossed her arms across her chest and tilted her head back to look at him. His eyes were squinting slightly from the bright sunlight and he leaned forward once again.

“You want me to kiss you?”

They shared another moment when they didn’t say a word. The only thing that was occurring was eye contact and smiles that lasted forever. She had come to realization: Ellie was falling for him and she wanted him to know.

“I missed you so much and I want you to know that.” Ellie rocked back and forth and continued to smirk at him. “I also want you to know that while you were away, I realized that I was stupid. I don’t not like you; I do like you and I think I may be falling for you every time we see each other…”

“You do?” He asked, smirking back at her. His face leaned in closer to her as his hands grabbed onto her little waist. “You know what I want?”

Ellie stared deep into his blue eyes. “What do you want?” She asked, in a whisper.

Harry pressed his forehead against hers. Their gazes had become such a serious thing that he admired them fully. Everything was falling into place for the both of them and to express it, he said to her, “I want to kiss you.”

A rush of happiness, excitement, and nervousness, all mixed together, came over Ellie as she leaned close enough for the tips of their noses to brush. The feeling of butterflies, a feeling she’s never felt before, burst in her stomach as their lips were nearly centimeters away. She said to him, “I’m not stopping you.”

He smiled as he leaned all the way in, finally pressing his lips against hers. The two of them stood there underneath the oak tree, kissing. With his arms wrapped around her waist, Ellie’s hands trailed up his arms and snaked around to the back of his neck. Harry gave her waist a gentle squeeze as he felt her smiling whilst they kissed.

Their eyes shut and their arms around each other… it was perfect. Ending the kiss with back and forth pecks they rested their foreheads together again.

“You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do that.” He said.

“Well I’m glad you did,” Ellie replied. “And I’ll give you that chance as well.”

Smirking, the ginger joked, “About damn time beautiful.”

He leaned in once again, feeling her lips against his, tasting her lips as well. To the both of them, it was like a giant weight had lifted off their shoulders; they both felt relieved. It was definitely the start of something beautiful and Ellie, as well as Harry, couldn’t wait to see where this friendship would go.