Letters From You

The weekend went by painfully fast. Before I really knew it, Shannon was packing his stuff to leave. It had been easily the best weekend of my life and already I couldn't really picture it without him around. He promised that he'd call me as soon as he got home. I kept telling him that wasn't soon enough.

"You've got some sort of spell over me," I told him as we stood in my driveway saying goodbye to each other.

"Maybe that's it. Maybe you're a superhero and I'm a magician," he whispered, his arms wrapped tightly around me.

"Maybe," I whispered back, a tear pooling in the corner of my eye and threatening to fall. He wiped it away with his thumb before it had a chance to.

"We'll see each other soon," he told me for about the hundredth time that evening. "Two weeks," he told me, holding up two fingers. We'd already made the plans to meet up again. I was going to visit him.

"Two too many weeks," I whispered, and he nodded.

"I know."

Twenty minutes later, we were finally able to pry ourselves off of each other. I stood and watched his car pull away, trying my hardest not to cry. I didn't know what it was about him. He was so perfect to me. Everything he said and did, every look he gave me, everything. It was all more perfect than any other human being I'd ever seen. I'd had very high expectations for him going into the whole thing, and now they were so much higher. He was so sweet; he really cared about everything I said and considered it all like it was the most important information in the world. I loved to listen to him talk. He was ridiculously intelligent and it was fascinating to hear him talk about something he was passionate about. It didn't hurt anything, of course, that he was absolutely the most beautiful man I'd ever seen. The way his tattoos stretched over his muscles made me feel like I had a fever. My newest favorite pastime had become tracing every line of those tattoos and trying to tickle him. It worked almost every time.

He FaceTimed me about six hours later. He'd just gotten home and he looked tired, but his smile lit up the entire screen when he offered it to me.

"I miss you," we both said the words at the same time, making us both laugh.

"I can't believe how fucking empty my house feels without you in it," I told him, and he laughed again.

"I was only in it for three days, Ash."

"The point still stands."

We talked for almost an hour as he unpacked and then flopped onto his bed to rest. I felt like a cheesy movie. Every second I saw his face, the more smitten with him I became. Every word he said, every look he gave me. I confessed this to him, and he smiled as he told me that he felt the exact same way. I kept having these small moments where I couldn't believe any of this was actually happening. He kept reassuring me it was.

When we hung up the call, I didn't even really know what to do with myself. I was starting to wonder if I was really cut out for all this long-distance stuff if I couldn't even go an hour without talking to him. But then, I thought, maybe that's exactly what kept long-distance relationships alive.

Every day life felt so mundane without him. We still talked constantly but everything else just seemed to dull down a few notches when Shannon wasn't around. He sent me flowers every single day of those two weeks. There were so many sunflowers in my house that my neighbors probably thought I was growing them or something. Work dragged on and I wished constantly that he was there with me. I couldn't believe I was so absolutely invested in him already. Sure, we'd talked for six months before we'd even met, but still I hadn't ever been the girl before to fall so hard for someone so fast, but Shannon had done it somehow. I felt like such a lovesick puppy all the time.

After what had felt like absolutely forever, it was time for me to pack up and make the drive to see him. He told me to pack something nice because he was going to take me out to dinner. He'd also asked me if I wanted to meet his brother, to which I'd agreed hesitantly.

"He's not going to be weirded out by the fact that I was a fan of the band's first?"I asked him, and he laughed.

"Was I?"

"I... I don't actually know," I said, realizing it was true.

"I wasn't. At all. And he won't be either. He'll love you. He's my brother and I want to introduce him to this huge part of my life," he'd said, and I hadn't been able to resist just because of the sheer sweetness of it. 

He'd also told me that he was going to take me to the band's rehearsal space and play for me, which I was ridiculously excited about. I'd always dreamed of seeing him play in person; if only I'd known it would be a private show just for me.

Finally, everything was in the car and I was on my way. My knees shook the whole journey just with the anticipation of seeing him.