Behind the Sea

From the moment that the big heavy raindrops fell from the sky, the water never stopped coming down from the heavens. For the first time in two months there was no blue sky or summer warmth to welcome me out of my bed, yet it was something that did not really bother me as I knew that today was going to be far from my usual routine. The rain was obviously a sign signalling the end of the summer and an end to the life that I had been carelessly living over the past two months.

This was it.

I had to make my decision.

So I found myself stood on the pier in a pair of skinny jeans and UGG boots, waiting. Waiting and praying to god that he would turn up. My blue American Apparel hoodie had long been soaked through and my hair looked as if I had stepped directly out of the shower. I held little hope though. There had not been a set time for the meeting, but somehow I knew that if I turned up at the time when I usually made my appearance at the beach I would be sure to catch him.

Yet I seemed to wait in vain.

Ten minutes passed.

Twenty minutes passed.

After almost forty-five minutes of waiting in the pouring rain I decided to turn around, and drown my disappointment in re runs of Smallville and ice cream, trying to ignore the sinking feeling of disappointment in my stomach, when I heard to voice I had been waiting for.

"I'm surprised you're even here."

Alex was stood behind me, his appearance being the mirror image of mine. His clothes were soaked and his jeans had turned almost black with the amount of water they had absorbed. He had the hood of his jacket up in a vain attempt to at least keep some part of him dry but it hadn't work in the slightest.

One hundred emotions seemed to rush through me but I could not name a single one of them. The avalanche of feelings stormed through me and left me unable to produce a single sentence in response to Alex.

We were stood awkwardly in front of each other as the rain poured down on us. It looked like a scene from the Notebook, except Alex didn't have a beard like Ryan Golsing and I was in UGGs to warm my feet, and not ridiculous high heels like Rachel McAdams.

It was Alex who broke the silence.

"Are you here because you want to be or are you here because you feel obliged to see me off?" Alex asked openly, a slight tone of anger lining his voice, which I prayed he was only using to disguise his real emotions, which I hoped to be relief and a sense of gratefulness.

"I came here to see you."

I managed to bring some words out over the noise of the rain hitting the wooden pier. But they were the only words I could clearly vocalise; I was too scared of what else could drop out of my mouth if I let my heart speak before my head got the chance,

"So what do you want Katlin?"

I almost wished that I hadn't heard what Alex had asked me. I wished that the angry waves below the pier would carry on beating against the old and water damaged wood so hard that no sound expect the angry water would reach my ears.

Yet I heard every syllable that dropped from Alex's mouth, and had little choice but to answer his question.

"I don't know Alex!" I cried throwing my arms in the air as more rain fell on my face, causing some of my mascara to run and leave small black tracks down my cheeks as if I had been crying.

"Of course you know Katlin, you're just to scared to admit it!" Alex shouted at me over the bellowing wind that had suddenly picked up and was causing the spray from the sea to hit us harshly on our exposed cheeks.

Something inside of me snapped.

"And so what if I am scared?" I screeched at Alex.

"You're only scared because of the decisions you have to make and you're afraid of making the wrong one. But you can't make the wrong decision if you do what makes you happy." Alex said taking a step towards me so he was standing directly in front of me, thus not needing to shout over the thunder of the waves.

"It's not that easy Alex," I said with a struggle trying to bring out the right words.

"Of course it is," Alex said before connecting his lips to mine, as if that was meant to be to answer to all my problems. In some ways it was, because before I knew it my arms were around his neck and I was just as desperate for body warmth and contact as he was.

To say that everything fell into place would be to revert back to cliques. My life didn't suddenly snap into the way I thought it was meant to be, but I had seen sense. The fact that a boy was willing to meet me in the pouring rain to wash away my self doubts and then to kiss the life out of my when I looked like a drowned rat, had confirmed the belief of Alex's dedication towards me. He made me happy. He made me smile and feel like the only girl on the planet. It was not an emotion that decided to course through me often enough and I couldn't not help but feel that if I spent all my time with Alex, this would be the case. I would be permanently happy with him.

I managed to wrestle my lips from his for a moment to say the sentence that Alex had probably been dying to hear ever since the day he asked me to join him on tour.

"When are you leaving? Because I need to pack my bags."

I received an answer in the form of a smile that lit up the world and the lips of that smile crashed back down to mine again with joy and elation, as the rain carried on pouring and the waves continued to crash against the pier and attack the beach where our story had only just begun.

And it wasn't over yet.