A hopeless kind of love

Chapter 2: Surprise

Chapter 2

Elle

I haven't left my apartment. I'm lying in my bed, in the darkness. It has been about four days since Mr. And Mrs. Williams told me that Cody wouldn't come home.

He promised me that he would be home to my graduation. He promised me. He wrote me a letter and told me that he would be home in time for my graduation. I don't get letters often from Cody, because he doesn't have time to write letters. I've gotten a few of them. But I haven't heard his voice in six months. I need him to be here with me.

I open my nightstand drawer and take up the last letter I got from Cody. I've read it more times than I can count. I don't even think that the number exists. But I still read it again.

"Dear Elle,

I miss you every day.

Whenever I feel homesick, I think about how soon I'm going to meet you again. I really wish I could be home, and paint you like I always used to do, or going out in the woods with you and hunt. Not that we used to have any luck, with my loud steps in the woods ;)

My mission is over soon, and I'll be home. I heard about your graduation from mom and dad, they're really proud of you, and so am I. I'm going to be home by then, I don't wanna miss the day that Elle Olsen is graduating from college, right? ;) so I promise that I'm going to be home to your graduation. I promise.

Again, I miss you so much and I'm longing to see you.

Love,

Cody".

See? He did promise me. I don't think I'm going to my graduation now. I don't want to without Cody there.

My graduation is supposed to be today, but as I said, I'm not gonna go. I'm just not.

I hear loud banging on the door. No, I'm not gonna open it. But I hear some keys and I know it's Vicky. I gave her an extra key to my apartment. Right now, I deeply regret that decision.

I hear the door open and slam. I hear some light footsteps towards my room, and Vicky walks inside.

"Elle. Out of the bed and into some clothes! You have a graduation to attend", she says.

"No", I say, sitting up.

"What do you mean 'no'?" Vicky asks.

"I can't", I say.

"Cody would want you to go", she reminds me.

That's true. But I want him here. So I guess we both don't get what we want.

"I don't care! Does it seem like I get what I want? He promised me!" I say throwing the letter at her.

She takes the letter and reads it. She gets a sad look in her eyes.

She sits down on the bed and wraps her arms around me.

"Elle... We all miss Cody, but life goes on, and you need to be on that graduation, you can’t hold him to something he wrote in a letter, things change", she says softly. "Besides, Daniel is already back, your sisters are with Mr. and Mrs. Williams and they're going together to the graduation, your graduation".

"I can't without Cody there", I whimper.

"Yes you can, because you're strong", Vicky says. "So please Elle, turn on the light and put on a beautiful dress".

I sigh. Okay. If it means so much to everyone, I can go to my graduation.

"Fine", I sigh and Vicky jumps up from the bed and runs to my closet.

She disappears into the closet and comes out a few minutes later with a dress and shoes.

"No!" I say, looking at the dress.

"Oh yes!" She says. "Bradley made this only a week ago for you to wear!"

Bradley is a friend to the Williams family, they asked him to make me a beautiful dress. But the thing is. It's too beautiful. I can never pull it off.

"Vicky..."

"No! Put it on!" She says and sticks the dress into my arms.

I sigh and take off my nightgown. Vicky has started to spread out makeup on my makeup table.

I slip into the dress and look into the mirror. The dress is flowing and reaches to the middle of my thigh. The dress is orange and the only thing I can think of is Cody. Orange is his favorite color. But into this light beautiful orange color, there is a tad of red and yellow, making the dress look like fire. The fabric is dancing around my legs, and when I walk it looks like I'm on fire. It really does look like it.

"You know ... Bradley is going to be there", Vicky says behind me, looking at me with big eyes. "Mr. Williams told me so, Bradley really likes you, why else would he make a dress".

"And he wants to see the dress afterward", I point out.

Vicky giggles. "Come and sit down here Elle", she says.

I sit down, waiting for her to start. But she just sits down on the bed. I raise an eyebrow. Suddenly I hear the door open, and three weirdly dressed people come inside the room.

"Elle this is Bradley’s friends Katya and Oscar", Vicky says. "They're going to do your makeup, hair, and nails, they went to the stylist school with Bradley”.

"Ooo you're so beautiful", Katya says, looking at me with big eyes.

And that's when I know that these people are crazy. I’m nowhere near beautiful.

"Told you so, and so did Bradley", Vicky points out.

Wait told them what? Oh, I don't get these people.

Oscar pours something good smelling in my hair and kneads it into the rots. Katya starts with my makeup.

They only want to talk to me about boys. But I'm not interested in that topic. I try to change it, and it works for about one minute, then they somehow change it back to boys.

"You don't seem so excited over this topic", Katya says suddenly. "Is that because there already is someone?"

"No", and that's partly true. There is someone I want to mine. But he isn't.

"Oooooh look she's blushing", Oscar shouts. "Who's the lucky guy?" He pokes my arm.

"They're not together and don't talk about that", it comes from Vicky, she suddenly sounds nervous. What's up with her?

"Vicky, What's wrong?" I ask. Vicky doesn't answer. "Victoria!" I say accusingly.

"No Elle, concentrate on this", she says.

"Please tell me", I say.

Vicky sighs.

She walks out of my bedroom but she comes back with a newspaper in her hands. "Don't be too scared, because we know nothing yet, okay", she says. "The William’s told me not to show you this before your graduation".

And now I know that it has something to do with Cody. I take the newspaper and read the text that I see someone has circled.

"Miraculously the troop made it out before any damage could be done. The heroes of the day are soldier Cody Williams and soldier Trent Wild who started to warn everyone so they could get out. Now we can only pray that even soldiers Wild and Williams got out safe but no one has seen them".

I feel like life has been sucked out of me. This can't be happening.

"Cody..." I mumble.

"Cody is your boyfriend? The Cody Williams?!" Oscar asks.

"You know that Bradley is friends with his family right?" Vicky asks but their faces tell us that they didn't.

"When did this happen?" I demand to know.

"We don't know", Vicky says. "But it must have been after he sent that letter to his parents. They didn't want me to tell you. They wanted you to enjoy this day, besides ..." But there she interrupts herself.

"Besides what?" I ask.

"Nothing", she says.

"Vickey?!"

"No!" She says, sitting down in the bed.

I know that I can't get anything else out of her. I sigh and shake it off. But I only keep thinking of Cody. Oh my, Cody. Cody is okay. Please. You can't leave me. I need you to be alive.

"Done!" Katya and Oscar say.

I walk up to the mirror again and gasp at what I see. That can't possibly be me. It just can't be me. The woman in the mirror is beautiful. But when I stretch my hand out, I see that the woman does the exact same thing as me.

That is me. They've curled my hair into elegant locks and put up my hair onto the right side of my head and the locks rest over my shoulder and bounce when I walk. My makeup... Well, in some way, they have painted my eyelids in different colors of red, yellow, and orange an, d made it look like fire, and when I blink it looks like the flames move. Oh, how beautiful. And my nails are also painted like flames.

"You guys really like flames huh?" I ask.

"Oh, we do, but flames really dress you well, that's why Bradley made the dress like that", Katya says.

"You're the girl on fire", Oscar says with a wide smile.

"Hey, the shoes!" Vicky says and throws me the shoes. I put the orange stilettos on my feet. They really match the dress and the makeup really well. "So you ready to go?" Vicky asks and I nod. Not like I have any other choice.

•

I didn't meet anyone on my way to the graduation. And now I'm in the line with my graduation clothes on top of my beautiful dress.

I'm last in the line. They didn't care about the alphabetical order they told us, I don't really care. But anyhow they put me last in line. Or maybe I put myself last in line because I didn't exactly hurry to get there first.

Whatever, this is over soon, and then it's just the dinner and after that, I can go home and back to the darkness. That's what I really want.

I look out over the crowd and see the whole Williams family with Bradley and my two sisters. Oh, my sisters are so beautiful and they’ve grown so much. God, I’ve missed them so much. I also see Rye with his wife Gabriella and two-year-old daughter Summer. She's so cute, but she's alike her mother and not the Williams family. Daniel and his wife are also there smiling. Julia is pregnant and is going to pop anytime. Mr. and Mrs. Williams smiles big and Bradley is standing beside them. Vickey is also standing with them of course.

The graduation goes by pretty fast actually. Soon it's my turn and I'm the last one. We just get our diploma, can say a few words if we want to, we shake hands with the principal and after that, we're done. Simple as that. But it's good.

"And lastly... Elle Olsen!"

I hear the Williams, Bradley, Vicky and my sisters shout the loudest and I look at them. They're jumping up and down cheering at me and I can't do anything about the small smile that sneaks up on my face. But I still feel like crying. There, in the middle of the Williams, Cody should be standing. It's not the same without him.

I walk up to the middle of the stage and the principal hands me my diploma.

"Would you like to say something Elle?" He asks smiling.

I nod.

"I would like to thank the Williams family for all the support they always give me and encourage me to keep going even in my darkest days", I say and tries to keep control over my voice. "There is someone that should be here, but he's not. I really wish he was because this doesn't feel the same without him. He has also always supported me and I wish I could hear his voice right this minute..."

"Elle".

Okay. People must really think that I'm crazy when I interrupt myself because of a voice in my head. But people are looking around. Did they also hear it?

Everyone's eyes land on the end of the stage, where I'm supposed to get down. I turn and look. I lose my breath. This can't be right. Am I hallucinating? I must be. My brain has started to play tricks on me.

A man in a military suit stands there looking at me. The blonde hair is like I remember it, stirred in a mess. But those eyes, they are what make me realize that it is Cody. He's really standing there. And now he starts walking towards me.

"Cody..." I whisper but everyone can hear that because I'm still standing by the microphone.

I can see a smile sneak up on Cody's lips. I've forgotten how hot and handsome he is. I haven't seen him in six months. He has changed, but at the same time, he hasn't.

"Cody!" I yell as I start to run toward him and I feel tears running down my face. It's a good thing that Bradley’s friends used waterproofed makeup.

When I arrive up to him, I jump onto him and he picks me up from the stage floor and I lock my legs around his waist, without caring about all the people that are watching us right now.

I lock my arms around his neck and hug him so tight. I'm never letting go!

"Elle, I've missed you so much", he whispers in my ear.

I pull away from the hug to look at him. I took him deep into his eyes.

And suddenly I don't feel like telling Cody about my feelings. I feel like showing him. So that's exactly what I do. I crash my lips onto his and kisses him with deep passion. And to my surprise, he kisses me back. Maybe he does like me after all.