Coming Home (Complete)

Reunited

She was sitting in her English class, headphones in, listening to music before class started. She was sitting in the back as she always did, scribbling doodles in her empty notebook. She briefly heard the feet of the metal chair next to her move, but paid no attention. While in the middle of a doodle, a piece of paper landed in front of her. She looked at it with confusion and looked next to her to see who threw it at her.

Josh.

She looked up at him and felt all sorts of emotions start flooding back. Happiness, anger, hurt, betrayal. Her stomach started turning in knots, just like it did when they were in 7th grade when they met for the first time. She shook her head and looked back at the note. Lindsey glared at it and looked at him and just handed it back to him without reading it. He looked sad. For the first time in over a year, he showed her some emotion.

She turned her back to him and continued to doodle until class started and then she had a reason to pay no attention to him. Once the bell rang, it was time for her to pack up and go to math and after that, it would be band. He ran up next to her, quickly gathering his things as he walked.

“Please talk to me, I can explain.” He said huffing, trying to catch up to her.

“There is nothing to talk about, Josh.” She started to walk again and that is when he saw the empty classroom and pulled her in. “HEY! I need to get to class! What are you doing?”

“If this is the only way I can talk to you, then so be it.” He closed the door. “Please, let me explain.” His eyes were pleading. She looked at him and rolled her eyes.

“Fine. Explain.”

“I’m sorry.” was all he said and then he went quiet, leaving no other explanation. That only made her glare more.

“I’m leaving.” He grabbed her hand as she started to turn around, making her look up at him. “ Let me go.”

“Please Lindz.” He pleaded, using the nickname she grew to hate.

“You have no right to call me that. You hurt me, Josh, and that is something that I cannot forgive nor forget. I am done with this, whatever this was." She said, pointing between them, "I was done last year when you looked right through me at the game. I was done when you didn't show up to camp. I was done when you never returned one phone call all summer.” She ripped her hand away from him and started to march to the door.

“I was scared.” He called out, making her pause her step. She turned around and looked at him. “I was scared, and I am sorry. What can I do to make you forgive me so we can start over?”

“Nothing. There is nothing that you can do.” And with that she took her leave and went to math class. She couldn’t help but wonder what happened and why suddenly he wanted her back in his life. Did something change over the summer? Did he quit the football team? No, that couldn't be it. Football was his life.

She pushed through math class and headed to the band room, ready to practice with her friends. As she walked through those metal double doors, she couldn’t help but notice out of the corner of her eye, Josh was standing in the office talking to the three different band directors behind closed doors. She continued walking and looked up when she heard the door click open.

“Thank you for the opportunity. I appreciate it” she heard Josh say. She looked up and he smiled at her, and he walked out. What was that about, she thought to herself?

The next day in English, he tried again to get her attention and, once again, she ignored him. He was determined though. She tried everything she could think of to avoid him that morning, before and after class. She knew that the one place where he wouldn’t be would be the band room. She walked in, ready to go and then she stopped and dropped her backpack in awe. There he was, standing at the back with the rest of the drummers, chatting away like they were old friends. Well, they were. Most of the people in the music department also had other extracurricular activities and a couple of them were on the football and baseball teams with him. He saw her and walked towards her.

“Hey.” he said, sitting down next to her while she put together her clarinet.

“Well, look at this, better late than never I guess.” She remarked with sarcasm.

“Yeah, I figured I would go for it. I missed playing.” He shrugged. She ignored him and pulled out her sheet music. “Can we please talk?”

“No.” she didn’t even bother looking at him.

“Great, I will meet you at your locker at the end of the day and we can walk to your house.” Before she could object, he walked away.

She couldn’t help but think about what he wanted to talk about. Maybe she was being a little harsh on him. She couldn’t help but want to hear him out. With a sigh, she went about her day, waiting for that last bell to ring.

There he was, waiting at her locker like he promised. She grabbed her things and packed away what she needed to bring home and they walked away together in silence.

As they were walking down the road, he couldn’t help but look at her. She had grown over the past couple of years. She grew a couple of extra inches, making her reach a height of 5’6’’. Her hair was beautiful, and her eyes were more wonderful and deeper than he remembered. When she smiled, he couldn’t help but smile. He had a feeling that she had never noticed how beautiful she really was.

She looked at him and couldn’t help but smile, remembering old times when they would do this when they were in middle school. She blushed, walking next to him, not helping herself, thinking why someone so handsome would pay any attention to her. He grew and was towering at 6 feet and his muscles were more toned and prominent. Those football workouts were really paying off.

“So, explain.” She said sharply. Regaining her composure.

“Lindz…” he started. He stopped walking, making her jolt to a stop. She turned around and looked at him, hand on hip, waiting for the excuse. “I am so sorry. I was scared. While I was camp, the guys were making fun of me for being in band. I couldn’t face the embarrassment. I figured when school started we would have at least one class together, but we didn’t. I couldn’t come up with the guts to talk to you. Every time I wanted to, you were with your friends, or some other guy and I couldn’t bring myself to talk to you.” He couldn’t look at her. She took a step back, letting him know that she was paying attention. “Then I saw you at one of my games and I saw how happy you were. Honestly, it broke my heart to see you so happy without me. I figured you were done with me, so I went about my life…”

She walked closer to him and hugged him. She knew he needed it. “I was never done. I missed my best friend.” She leaned her head on his chest, breathing him in quietly. He couldn’t help but wrap his arms around her, feeling at home once again.

“You are my family, Lindsey, and I am sorry I did that to you. I promise, I will never do that again.”

“I’m holding you to that promise.” She pulled away and laughed. “Thank you for telling me. I know it wasn’t easy but thank you.” And then she pulled away and punched him in the arm.

“OW! What was that for?” he rubbed his arm, a red mark already forming.

“For being a stupid guy.” She rolled her eyes and they laughed together for the first time in over a year.