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Status: Complete.

After All This Time

Kate’s head throbbed the next morning when she returned to her apartment from Jesse and Jay’s. She didn’t remember half of the night before. While getting drunk had been fun, she did not enjoy the hangover it led to. She noticed the blinking red light on the phone, and walked over curiously. She hit the play button and gasped as a familiar, raspy voice filled the living room.

“Hey Kate, it’s, uh, me. You probably know that though… Listen, I know you said it was over, but seeing you tonight made me realize so much. We both said a lot of things that day. But, um, that’s not the point.

“I miss you Kate. It’s been killing me, us not being together. I’m a wreck. I don’t know why I’m telling you this. You probably don’t care. I’m so bad at this!

“The point is, I’m stupid, and I don’t deserve you; you’re way too good to for me. I really screwed up, lying to you. But I do love you. I won’t ever stop loving you. It’s one of my biggest regrets, letting you walk away. I just want us to be us again.

“I really hope you listen to this Kate. Either way I just needed to tell you. I love you, Katherine Williams, please just come back to me.”

The whole night came flooding back to her, and she rubbed her temples with her index finger. What was she going to do?
  1. Decision
    "You have to find how much pain you’re willing to endure for that person. If they’re worth it, you’ll know"
  2. Meeting
    “Just tell me, yes or no, do you still love me and want to be with me.”
  3. Serenity
    “I wish we could just stay like this forever,”
  4. Teenage Dream
    “I told you, it’s the whole hot teacher thing.”
  5. Reunited
    “You’re right, I love you too much to be scary.”
  6. Surprises
    “You’ve exceeded your questions for the night; really the rest of the year.”
  7. Introductions
    “There are people I think you should meet,”
  8. Good Tidings
    “Everything’s better with snow.”
  9. Fresh Start
    “I knew we would. I mean, the whole calendar marking the end is ridiculous. The poor people probably just got tired of making it, and figured we got the point and could take over,”
  10. Stand-off
    “Okay, first, un-Kate-like? I’m not even going to approach how awful your grammar is.”
  11. Rock and a Hard Place
    “When you were being a space cadet? Not a lot. We were just being good friends and stopping you before you went comatose permanently,”
  12. Life
    “No, but being young and in love is so much more fun and spontaneous when you aren’t the size of a bus.”
  13. Valentines
    “You’re absolutely infuriating.” “I know.”
  14. Revelations
    “Yeah, that worked well,” she muttered, squeezing her hazy eyes shut.
  15. Priorities
    “Do you think I’m a complete idiot?” he snapped, before his eyes narrowed further as Carlos opened his mouth. “Don’t answer that.”
  16. Girl's Night
    “Whatever,” she grumbled, sticking her head out of the bathroom. “Is it so wrong for me to sit in the dark and listen to depressing music? Don’t answer that.”
  17. Unexpected
    “Now you’re talking to yourself. Arguing with yourself! Now there’s that stupid referring to myself in third person. They lock people up for stuff like this,”
  18. Beginnings
    “Jesse’s terrified, you know. He’s too ‘manly’ to admit it to you, but he is,”
  19. Epilogue: Nine Years Later
    “Yeah,” Kate nodded, smiling as she went on her tiptoes, kissing his nose. “This, right here, it’s perfect.”