Title: "Four Months too Late"
Author: Wish Wielder
Fandom: Hannah Montana
Pairing / Character Focus: Leslie "Jake" Ryan x Miley Stewart
Challenge: 15 Minute Fic
Theme / Prompt: #31
Word Count: 529
Rating: K / G
Summary: She can't help but think how good it is to hear his voice after so long. He can't help but think how he should have called sooner.
Notes: Set years in the future, prob'ly when they're all in their twenties somewhere.
Disclaimer: "Hannah Montana" and all respective properties are © Disney Corporation. Megan D. (Wish Wielder) does not, has never, nor will ever own "Hannah Montana".
"Four Months too Late"She can't help but think how good it is to hear his voice after so long.
He can't help but think how he should have called sooner.
She laughs and tells him about their friends and the recent hijinks they've pulled.
He doesn't and tells her about the countryside they're filming in.
She forces a smile and asks when he thinks he'll be home.
He can't and tells her he doesn't know.
She fights back a sob and asks when he'll be able to call again.
He feels the tears as – again – he tells her he doesn't know.
She tells him she loves him and hopes he'll stay safe.
He can't find the words as the director calls him back to the set.
She says she understands.
He wonders if she really does, and he hangs up.
– W –
He apologizes this time, for not calling sooner and for staying away longer.
She tells him it's fine and that she understands.
He doesn't believe her.
She asks how things are, but it's with the tone of a casual friend – not a lover.
He says the director's giving them all a week off before continuing filming.
She asks if he's coming home, but she doesn't sound hopeful.
He promises he will, and he tells her he's taking her to the restaurant they had their first real date at.
She says she'd like that, and she tells him she still loves him.
He tells her he knows, but again he's called away before he can say more.
She tries not to cry as the connection clicks off.
– W –
She waits three hours at the airport in Santa Monica on a rainy Saturday morning.
He never shows.
– W –
He misses her next call, the one responding to the one she missed when he couldn't fly back.
She's crying and screaming, and he feels like the selfish jerk he was all those years ago when they first met.
He calls her, but her best friend answers instead.
She doesn't want to talk to him.
He begs and pleads, but her friend says no.
She's been crying every night since his first call, four months too late.
He tells her to tell her he's sorry, but she makes no promises.
She never hears his apology.
– W –
She doesn't call him again.
He calls every day for three months.
She hires a new dancer, and for the first time in a year she smiles.
He continues to call, every day telling her he loves her.
She's kissed under the stars on a moonlit stroll along the beach, and she feels her heart start to heal.
He films his last scene and knows he can go home – go to her.
She says yes the day she takes off her wig for the new him.
He turns down the movie that could set his career for life because he can't bear to be apart from her.
She says 'I do' a week later, in a backyard ceremony with just her friends and family.
He misses her by five minutes, but he forces a smile as he congratulates them both.
She says she's sorry.
He says he's always been.
A.n.: Took this a minute or so over, but I'm actually kinda happy with it. Different, for me, but I liked it. Experiments are fun! (I totally blame CCRW and "Alabama" for this, though. xP) Word was "call".