54. Last day of summer

Chapter 54: Last day of summer

Ethan's POV

*****

"Come on Eth, school's tomorrow. Let's go and have a bit of fun on our last day of summer," Jake begged, trying as best as he could to get me out of the house.

It had been the same story for days. Jake was trying his utmost to make me forget about Kelsey for just one second and allow myself to go out and have fun with him like we used to before she left.

"Jake, I have to take care of my siblings," I said, using it as an excuse to be able to say no.

I did not feel like going out to any party. Kelsey leaving was still a fresh wound for me, and I didn't feel like going to a place full of loud, happy people when I was so miserable. If she were there things would have been a lot different. I would have asked her to come with us, or I would have simply decided to spend a night in with her, watching movies and laughing about anything and everything. Things were much darker for me once she walked out of my life, and no party was going to bring back that light in my life.

"Come on bro, you can't keep moping around for Kelsey. I know you love her, and she sure as heck loves you, but right now she's all the way across the world, while I'm right here. Your best friend is right here," he said, placing a hand on my shoulder. "We don't have to go to a party, we could go anywhere you want, just please get up and let's go out."

I appreciated everything that he was trying to do. Jake's plan was much more than getting me to go to a party. It was to try and get me back to the Ethan I was before. He and I hadn't spent much time together ever since Kelsey left, and part of that was because of my basketball practice, but the rest of the reason was simply the fact that the only thing I actually found myself wanting to do was lay in bed.

Jake sighed as he noticed that I wasn't budging and sat down next to me on the bed, looking at me with a worried expression. "There's a lot more than you're telling me, is there? Come on, what's wrong?"

"Fine, if you want to know the truth, here it is. I'm afraid, Jake. Nothing changed between Kelsey and I except for the fact that we're not together together anymore, but I know that someday she'll find someone else, and our relationship will change. Maybe we'd still be friends, but it wouldn't be the same. I'm so selfish for wanting her to be happy with me, but I can't help it. She's my Kelsey, my princess. I don't want anyone else to take her away from me," I sighed as I moved my hands through my hair in frustration before plopping back on the bed.

Saying it out loud made me sound like a selfishly possessive person, but that was not the case. I didn't see anything wrong with loving somebody so much that you'd want them to be around you all the time. Spending my days waking up and wondering if she may have crossed her paths with the one who would someday steal her heart was killing me, and even if it hadn't happened yet, I knew that it would be inevitable.

I found myself wondering whether she had already heard the song I wrote for her, and the voice message that I left at the end of it. She promised me that she would, but I didn't hear anything else from her after that. I was afraid that she thought that I was coming off too strong, and I suddenly felt like an idiot for ever saying things like that to her, making her see me as possessive and clingy.

"Eth, what you and Kelsey have is so strong. She's not going to find another guy just after a week. If she does, then I'm sorry but she never loved you. When you love someone you don't just forget about them after a week. Besides, Meg told me that Kelsey talks about you nonstop. She's in love with you, anyone with half a brain can see that," Jake said.

"She talks about me with Meg?" I said as I perked up, a smile slowly forming on my face at the thought.

"You have no idea," he replied as I sat up and he hit me lightly on the back.

The thought of Kelsey talking about me with Meg lifted up my spirit slightly, allowing me to feel a lot better about taking up Jake's offer.

"So how about that outing?" He asked once more, hoping he had managed to persuade me.

"Well, I guess I do have to go out eventually," I said, slowly giving in.

"That's my man," he grinned. "I'll wait for you downstairs."

I nodded at his words and watched him retreat out of my room, closing the door behind him. Seeing that he was fully out of sight, I grabbed my phone and dialed Kelsey's number, hoping that she would pick up her phone. My heart sank as it turned to voicemail, but the desperation to hear her voice was greater than anything, and so I found myself trying again.

The longer she took to pick up, the more agitated I got, and I couldn't help but worry that something must have happened to her. A sigh of relief quickly escaped my mouth as soon as I heard her beautiful voice, making me shake away all of those horrible thoughts that had gone through my head.

"Hey Ethan," she chirped, her voice radiating happiness, the thought of her being in a good mood making me smile.

"Hey princess," I replied, hearing her voice making me feel as if I had regenerated.

"I don't have much time, I only have five minutes," she said, the happiness never ebbing from her voice.

"Wow, is having only five minutes to talk to me giving you that much happiness?" I joked, the longing to hold her in my arms overcoming me.

"No, of course not," she said, her voice turning serious.

I could tell that my words shocked her, and that she was feeling bad for making me think that. That was the way Kelsey was, never wanting to be happy at the expense of others. It was one of the things which made me so crazy about her.

"I was just joking," I chuckled, wanting to hear her happy voice once more.

"Oh, Okay. Either way, you should know that I love talking to you and listening to your voice. It makes me feel at home," she said, causing my smile to grow wider. I loved that at least she still felt the same way I did.

"And I just love hearing your voice, just because it's yours," I replied, cringing at my words.

Stop being so cheesy Ethan, gosh you're such an idiot.

"That sounded cheesy, I'm sorry," I chuckled, hoping to be able to play it off cool.

"No, it's fine. It was cute," she replied.

I could hear the smile in her tone, and I couldn't keep myself from smiling at the thought of her doing so. My smile quickly ebbed, however, when I remembered the reason why I called her. I wanted to find the answer to my question, knowing that I would just keep thinking about it if I didn't.

"So, Kels, have you listened to that last song?" I nervously asked, preparing myself for any possible answer.

"Yeah, I listened to it yesterday night," she replied sweetly, her answer making my heart stop in suspense.

"And?" I asked, my palms suddenly starting to feel sweaty as I awaited her answer.

I exposed my feelings in every way in that song, and even if it was embarrassing for me to record for her, with Noah standing there listening to me, I knew that I wanted her to know how I felt. The possibility of me being able to tell her those things directly was close to zero, and I wanted her to know my feelings before it was too late.

"Thank you," she whispered. "Shoot, I have to go. Thank you for being in my life Eth. I love you" she continued, clearly in a rush.

"I love you too princess."

*****

The night with Jake went better than I had expected, and I was glad that I accepted to go out with him. As soon as he realised that I truly didn't want to go to a party, we decided to spend a guys' night, just like we used to do when we were younger, before we both got sucked in the life of parties. We went swimming in the lake for a bit and then hung out in the tree house, and talked, something which we hadn't been able to do for a while.

Jake's relationship with Meg was going amazingly well. He talked about her nonstop, and it wasn't that hard for me to see that he was in love with her. Neither one of them had mustered up the courage to say 'I love you' to one another, and I knew that Jake was just scared of her rejecting him. After knowing Meg for years, however, I knew that there was no way how she was going to reject him.

"So are you ready for school tomorrow?" Jake asked, wanting to change the conversation from him and Meg.

"I'm never ready for school, specially now that Kelsey won't be there," I sighed.

"Yeah, I remember that every year, on the first day of school, you used to go next to Kelsey's locker and wait there. You always pretended to be talking to someone just so no one notices, just so you could have Kelsey talk to you. More like get mad that you were blocking her locker," he chuckled.

The way he said it made it sound creepy, but I couldn't help myself. I truly liked her, and I wanted her to notice me, even if it was just to get mad at me. It was better than the silent treatment which she used to give me. I felt a weight on my heart as I thought about the fact that she won't be there to wait for next to her locker the next day, and I couldn't help but wonder whether somebody else got her locker.

"It's getting late. I should go. Don't think about her too much," he winked.

And even if in that moment I laughed his words off, I knew that not thinking about her was something which I just couldn't do.

*****

A/N: Hey guyssss. So the initial thought was for me to make this the last chapter, but I noticed that a lot of you wanted me to keep continuing the story, and since sadly I have my mind set on the ending and have no thoughts on going past that, I decided to just make a kind of 'filler' chapter, that shows you Ethan's thoughts and Kelsey's thoughts before she actually shows everyone she's back.

The next chapter is probably going to be the last one, however I already have the bonus chapters in my heads, what they're gonna be and the story in them.

I hope you can find it in you to forgive me for bringing the book to an end, but there's no book that lasts a lifetime. Besides, it's better for me to just make a closure rather then keep stretching it, lose interest, not know what to write and end up stopping with the updates, leaving you all hanging.

Plus, there are still my other books which I will continue updating regularly after this book is finished.

Anyways, that's all I had to say. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Stay perfect,

Love,

~M