Talania - a Trip Down Memory Lane... (14 page)

“There is no one in this entire world but you that I could love. I was meant to ogle you and hit you with that volleyball and I will never apologize for that again. So will you marry me my crazy-ass beautiful girl? It doesn’t have to be right now; I just want this promise, the promise that one day you and I will spend the rest of our lives together.”

It goes quiet.

“You promise to love me and only me forever?” She whispers in awe.

“I promise.” My voice lets her know just how serious I am.

“Yes, I’ll marry you.” She jumps on me and takes me down to the sand with her. “I love you so much!” She says as she showers kisses over my face.

“I love you too.” I say as I slip the ring onto her finger and then kiss her lightly on the lips. “Hold on!” My voice booms loudly.

I wiggle out of her grasp and get up to grab the camera off the stand.

“She said yes!” I yell excitedly into the camera. “This is the end of the video. We’ll have more for you later.”

The television screen goes blank.

“That was the last video we made because you left a week later. You had a real bad headache and your parents thought you needed glasses. You left early to go to the eye doctor.”

Evelyn turns slowly towards me. She is silently sobbing. Her body is shaking and her hands are trembling violently as she holds her ring. “Do you still regret making that promise?” Her voice cracks.

Fuck no! I am such an idiot! “No,” I croak.

“Are you sure?” she whispers, setting her ring down slowly and carefully on the table.

“Yes,” There is no hesitation when I answer her.

“Good, because when I was at your bar and you said that,” she pauses, “it hurt right here.” She puts her hand over her heart. “I couldn’t figure out why, because I’ve only known you for a few days in my mind. Then I realized something. My brain may have forgotten you, but my heart hasn’t. It’s still yours if you want it.”

Wait! What?

“My heart is still yours. It still beats for you. It feels like it is pounding out of my chest right now. Crap, I’m not saying this very well.”

Tristan, breathe dude! Just breathe!

“What I’m trying to say is that this scares the hell out of me. I’m trying to find myself again and figure out who I am. Tristan, my heart already knows who you are. I love you. My heart is telling me I already love you and I don’t know what to do with that Tristan. I just don’t know.” Evelyn cries.

She loves me! It takes me a split second to get to her. I slam my lips to hers and pull her body against mine. God, those are the three words I have waited to hear from her again for four long years. This kiss is passionate with tears rolling down our faces. I can taste the saltiness of the tears mixed with the taste of Evelyn and I moan, grinning against her mouth. Everything I feel for her is in that kiss.

“I’m so glad you’re listening to your heart. I love you so much it hurts,” I whisper against her trembling lips. “I promised to never stop loving you. I may have been mad at you, but I promised to never stop loving you, and baby, I didn’t because I can’t.” I whisper causing her to whimper.

I whimper against his lips again when he says he never stopped loving me. His devotion to me is true. No matter how mad he was when he was seventeen, no matter how heartbroken he was, he never stopped loving me.

That night he took me to all the places we loved going to when we were younger, and we made love under the stars before heading back to the house. We needed to get some sleep before our long journey to the campus to enroll in our college courses. Tristan also needed to get back to the club and his band.

I wake up drenched in sweat in the middle of the night. I look over at Tristan and he stirs. My breathing is heavy and I have a slight headache. That sometimes happens after I exert myself too much or too quickly. My body really requires a lot of rest while it is still healing. I definitely exerted myself tonight. I smile at that thought while looking over at this beautiful man beside me. I reach over and smooth his hair out of his eyes, accidentally waking him up.

“Evelyn,” he whispers sexily.

“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to wake you.” I grin.

“Why aren’t you sleeping baby?” He picks up his phone off the nightstand to check the time. “We have to be up in two hours, so why are you awake?” He playfully scolds me while tickling my side.

“I woke up sweating. It’s way too hot in here and way too quiet.” I usually sleep with the radio on low or a fan on high. I have neither of those things here, since they are in my dorm room now.

“Why does the quiet bother you?”

“It drives me crazy when it’s quiet. I can sometimes still hear the machines from the hospital beeping over and over again. Noise drowns that out in my head.” I groan. Damn it! Now I hear the machines just because I’m talking about them. I throw my hands down on the bed. “Now I am hearing them.” I flop backwards, lying down again. Rubbing my hands over my face, I try to explain. “The beeping the machines made was the only noise I heard when I was in the hospital. Sometimes, it’s all I can hear in my head now. Sometimes I doubt they will ever be quiet.”

“You hear the machines?”

I nod and feel like bursting into tears. Tristan reaches for me, pulling me into a tight embrace against him.

“We’ll just have to get rid of the quiet then, won’t we?” he mumbles into my hair before moving it away from my ear.

“What are you doing?”

“Shh baby, just lay there and listen,” he says huskily.

A single tear falls out of my right eye as he starts singing to me softly.

I can’t believe it! He is singing me to sleep! I close my eyes and wrap my arms tightly around him. Tristan’s soft voice is not keeping me awake; it’s doing the exact opposite. He is literally singing me back to sleep with a lullaby. That is the last thing I remember before his kisses wake me, and he is telling me it’s time to go.

I swat at him and he laughs. I loudly groan in protest and throw the pillow over my head. I am so tired. I don’t want to get up. When I remember that I have to drive my car back too, I kick my legs under the blanket in frustration.

“Baby, you seriously can’t be that tired since you are throwing a tantrum,” he teases.

“Oh yes I am. I do not want to drive all the way back to Talania this early. I just want to sleep.” Now I’m whining.

“Well ride with me then. Leave your Mustang here. I’ll send Drake and Kyle to come get it later.”

Wait, it’s that easy? I peek out from under the pillow, smiling at him. “Really?” I have to make sure I heard him right.

Shaking his head at me, he laughs, swatting my butt before getting up. “Yes really. Get your booty up and dressed. You can sleep the whole way back.”

“Kyle doesn’t talk much, does he?” I ask, slipping out of bed.

“No, he’s our quietest member, but he’s one very loyal friend.”

He is also very good looking, but I decide to leave that part out. There is nothing wrong with admiring.

Tristan keeps his word and lets me sleep the entire way back to Talania. We go back to his place to shower and get ready since I have my bag with me. Somehow, someway, Tristan has managed to get me to change my major to Music. I say no to him a million times before I sigh, giving up. When we finish with our enrollments, Tristan shows me the beautiful campus before taking me to lunch.

By the time we sit down in the restaurant, I am already exhausted again. I mark this down mentally as another sign. I hold back from crying in front of Tristan. No sense in having him worry; my six month checkup is in a few weeks. I will tell him when I know something for sure.

“Baby!” Fingers snap in front of my face.

I look over at him and notice he is saying something but I can’t hear him. Shaking my head and clearing my mind of my thoughts, I answer him. “I’m sorry, what?”

“I said you were spacing out babe. Is everything okay?” He furrows his brows.

“Yes, I’m fine. It’s just a lot of excitement for me this weekend.” I smile, but the smile doesn’t do what I want it to do. I want it to wipe the worried expression from his handsome face.

“Well, we will just have to put lots of rest on our schedule. Our classes don’t start until Wednesday since you changed your major so we have a couple more days for that.”

I nod while the waitress places my soup in front of me. “Thank you,” I whisper, thanking her for serving us so quickly.

“You’re welcome dear.”

“Ev, you really are tired, aren’t you?”

I look up while sipping my soup from my spoon. “Yeah, but it was a busy weekend. I am totally fine. I just need some sleep, that’s all.”

He has no idea how much I want what I am saying to be true. He has no idea that I think the cancer might be coming back or that I think another tumor may be forming.

“Before I head to the club, do you want me to take you back to your dorm? Do you want to go to my place and rest while I’m gone all afternoon? I will take you wherever you want to go.”

Back to his place to sleep? The ocean with waves crashing against the sand to lull me to sleep? Yes please! “I want to sleep at your place,” I say, slowly sipping my soup.

He laughs. “I figured that’s what you would say. You love the beach. That’s why you chose to come to Talania for school.”

That is another memory I do not recall. He must recognize the look on my face by now because his smile turns into a frown.