Summary: Love never truly fades away (based on 80's munks, age progressed to 18, takes place in the 1980s)
Back to Me
The boys paced the mall for some hours – literally, hours – shopping for clothes with their work money, buying tons of foods to eat at the food court and tons of extras to smash on at home while sitting back and watching low-brow movies. The high school seniors laughed and talked, except for a boy trailing behind, deciding only to listen in on their jokes and gossips.
"Al, what's up?" one of the guys, his brother Simon blurted as he nudged the stiff Alvin.
He slowly gazed up to find his brothers and a friend of his looking on, waiting for an answer to spew from his mouth. "Nothing."
His youngest brother, Theodore, chuckled hardily with a shake of his head. "Sure, we'll believe you if you tell us what we were talking about a second ago!"
Alvin bit his lip before shoving pass the boys, his cheeks swirling red underneath his tanned face. "Whatever!"
"Al, come on!" his friend, Prescott McIntire gestured with wide hazel eyes. "Don't act like an ass!"
Alvin turned his head over his shoulder and cut them with his gaze. "Can it, guys. Fuck it."
As Alvin suddenly found himself swallowed inside a crowd, he glimpsed through to find an opening… but saw something more.
He pushed and shoved his way through, disregarding the sickening glares the others produced for him. But something struck him heavily; something ignited his soul that finally lit it bright, having the feeling show through his eyes. Once he had made his way through… he saw her. That auburn-reddish hair swished against her back, the wind of the people passing her by majestically sailing behind her in wisps that could cut tension. He knew it was her, so he had to see her.
His walking turned into jogging, and once he saw the girl head for the elevator, he started to run, and sprinting ensued as he saw her seconds away from boarding it. With a hand elongated, he took her by her slender shoulder and turned her around to meet her gaze.
But it was the wrong gaze.
Once he realized his uncomfortably awkward mistake, he gasped and released his grip on the girl, who looked just as she shocked as he was.
"I'm s-s-so sorry!" he exclaimed as he covered his mouth in awe. "I swore you were somebody else!"
He simply knew the girl would through a fit and slam her purse against his face to make it redder, or maybe step on his toes with her wedges, but to his surprise, she smiled and shook it off. "You're fine! Believe it or not, this is the second time today! I guess I'm your average Joe, huh?"
Alvin had to disagree, and agree in the same token.
"Crazy!"
"Again, I'm really sorry…"
"Don't sweat it! I hope you find your gal! But in the meantime…"
She whipped out a piece of paper from her purse and a pencil along with it and began to scribble all over it.
"You're pretty cute," she complimented with batting eyelids. "Give me a call if your gal doesn't show…" and off she was, boarding the elevator with her hand making the 'call me' signal, and the door shut, leaving Alvin in numbing awe. He gazed down at the number to see her name was Chasity, and Alvin guessed she was fond of hearts and pink, glittery pens.
"Damn it, Al, what the hell?!"
His brothers and friends were running up from behind, bewilderment plastered on their faces at his sudden action.
"We saw all of that! What's your deal, man?" Prescott questioned with narrowed eyes.
Alvin bowed his head, and his friends immediately knew. That Chasity girl looked too familiar, even to the rest of the boys, but they knew who Alvin had mistaken her for.
"Dude, Brittany's gone!" another friend, Jordan persuaded as a look of exasperation filled his face, bewilderment out of the picture. "She's gone back to Australia! She's done with her foreign exchange student program."
"Yeah, so?! Sh-sh-she might come back one day!"
He had to force himself to believe such a farfetched idea to be able to push forward.
"Dude, it's okay! It's okay to move on! That chick gave you her number, so why not go for it?"
"She looks too much like Brittany!"
Brittany's luxurious hair stretched to her waist with the cutest, palest face that seemed almost flawless, her eyes a piercing ice-blue that enchanted Alvin when he was blessed with her gaze.
"I know she was something special to you, but you two weren't even dating! What's the damage?"
Indeed, the two may have been known as a power couple while she attended the school, but for some reason, some unfathomable reason to Alvin, they never even suggested it, even though it was his first thought in the morning, the first when he saw her, and the last thought before he pulled the covers over his face to call it a night.
"You airheads wanna know why I'm so attached? Will you sleep better at night if I told you?!"
Quite frankly, it would be Alvin to sleep better once he tells his friends his long-kept secret.
"Dude, what's so bad about Brittany leaving?" Simon asked with frustration heavy in his voice.
Alvin bit his lip to keep the tears rushing down his face, to keep the memories from appearing physically. To no avail, a single tear streamed down his cheek, surprising his friends, to say the least. "We kissed before she left, and I told her I loved her, and I left too fast for her to say what she felt! There! There you go!"
The boys exchanged glances, and Alvin rushed for the exit, the boys following close behind, and their bags of clothes hitting their hips with each stride.
###
The boys occupied the Seville residence, watching those low-brow movies, laughing at the corniest jokes, stuffing their faces with pizza and popcorn, and the occasional hotdog smothered in relish. Alvin wasn't having it, however, as he gazed into the hypnotic lights wrapped around the Christmas tree. The holiday suddenly sucked as his thoughts drifted to Brittany – Britt, he called her most – and the first time he and the entire gang – the boys and their girlfriends - decided to take the train to the city for the holidays.
The lights were gorgeous, and this was when Alvin first realized his feelings for Brittany were deeper than the casual, bottom of the barrel crush. As he joked and laughed with the boys and his brothers, the girls stood huddled along the railing that oversaw the crystal-clear river that night, and Alvin happened to look over at the girls as a joke was told among them. Just on the outskirt, in Alvin's plain view, Brittany leaned coolly against the railing, her forearms her support, her gaze swallowing the river whole. With her chin tilted up, a gust of wind captured her hair and threw it over her shoulders, her large sweater reaching her knees.
He remembered when they conversed about the same sweater on the train ride there.
"You like my sweater?" she had asked with a bit lip as she pulled at her sweater sleeve. "It's cashmere!"
"Cashmere, you say?" he asked with a hefty chuckle.
"It feels very nice to the touch…" she blushed and nudged him gently.
Suddenly, at the railing, her cashmere sweater seemed to embrace her as she laughed before subconsciously looking to the boys, and her and Alvin met gazes.
He knew she was the one.
As he gazed unforgivingly into the lights, Prescott roughly nudged him, snarling with a smile.
"Al, the pizza's almost gone, but we got a shit-ton of hotdogs!"
Alvin shook his head and directed his attention back to the tree. "I'm okay… Dave's gonna be home, so maybe I'll ask them to get more… he got tons of groceries tonight, so maybe…" He remembered talking to Dave about the load of groceries he had gotten, and he told the boys that he would be knocking to let him in, considering that Dave's hands would be full.
The boys looked to each other, among all of them knowing that their friend was in a distress they could not possibly pull him from.
"Al, stop with this sulking! We feel terrible about what happened!"
"Me too…"
"At least you got her number!" Theodore cheered optimistically.
Forgetting completely about the fact that the situation even happened, he pulled the number from his pocket and gazed at it thoughtfully. "Guys, it's just not Brittany…"
Jordan gave off a heavy sigh before biting into another slice of pizza. "Al, you said she stopped writing to you months ago! She obviously let go. You need to let go, too!"
Alvin didn't want to admit that she had indeed stopped writing, but continued to write to her religiously, and speaking of which, he sent out a letter before the boys ventured to the mall that day. Maybe she had forgot all about him; maybe she was simply a passing glance to him; maybe he never even mattered to her, like she mattered to him; maybe it was never meant to be.
He looked at the number long and hard. Her name was Chasity, and she loved hearts, but she looked too much like Brittany, but she did mention to give her a call if she forgot about him. She did forget.
He heaved a sigh that echoed through the large living room. "Should I call Chasity?"
The boys rooted him on as he shakily stood to his feet and made his way to the telephone that was plastered on the wall, his heart dropping with every step.
"Al, if you call her, and big things happen between you two… you gotta stop thinking about Brittany… like she never existed… like I don't exist to her anymore…"
He picked up the telephone and began to dial the number slowly, his friends egging him on to dial faster.
He was on the last number, and he hit it swiftly and put the phone to his ear, his body noticeably shaking. His friends had wide grins on their faces, and the phone rang that monotonous tone in his ear.
"Hello?"
Alvin's breath trapped itself in his throat, so he struggled with his first couple of words, but he finally replied with, "Hey, i-i-it's that guy… f-from the mall…"
"Oh, hey! I never had someone call back so fast!"
"Y-y-yeah… that's me…"
"So, I didn't catch your name at the mall!"
Alvin hesitated. With each word spoken, he was one step closer to forgetting about his Brittany. "I'm Alvin, but you can call me Al…"
"Ooo, very nice!" she cooed in that average flirtatious tone.
"And your name's Chasity."
"But you can call me Chas!"
The doorbell suddenly rang, and the boys grew excited at the thought of pizza.
"Yes, Dave's home!" Theodore cheered with a pumped fist. "Endless pizza!"
Alvin slightly chuckled as he walked to answer the door, and all the while, he forgot that Chasity was on the phone, running her lips about pointless topics, disabling Alvin from replying to her. Alvin zoned out after a while. He arrived at the door with the phone pressed to his ears with his shoulder, the cord of the phone stretching beyond its limits.
"I'll help you in a minute, Dave!" he called so his parent could hear him from outside the door.
He promptly opened it. His eyes grew wide. His muscles loosened, causing the phone to fall to the floor, but her voice had disappeared. The cold rushed passed him, the snow beginning to enter the home, melting on impact of the warm floor.
"Al, hurry up and help so we can get some pizza going!" a call came from the living room.
Alvin stared blankly out the door to find the same auburn-reddish hair lashing in the wind, dancing all around her.
But… this wasn't Chasity.
"Al?"
The ice-blue eyes before him watered heavily as she shook from the cold. A familiar sweater draping at the knees was noticed as well. Alvin couldn't bring himself to believe it; he wanted to call it off as another sick hallucination.
Alvin parted his lips, wiping a single discarded tear that hadn't even reached his cheek. "Britt?"
Not another word was spoken, but actions spoke for themselves as, not Chasity, but the one and only Brittany tackled the stunned boy to the floor, wrapping her cold embrace around his body.
"Oh, Alvin!" she cheered as she jumped to her feet, hands pressed around her mouth in disbelief. "Alvin…"
He sprang to his feet as well, looking at the Australian beauty from head to toe, and nothing could stop him from hugging the girl around her small physique, returning the favor and purposely giving her warmth from the cold, and smelling that same scent of strawberry with a hint of lemon in her hair; same as before.
Tears poured down his face as he pulled away from her, taking a better look at her. "Are you real? Are you Brittany?"
"Of course, silly!" she exclaimed as she grabbed his hands. "I'm touching you! I'm real! I'm here!"
Alvin, with relief filling his soul, hugged her yet again. "Brittany…"
"Alvin…"
"Dude, what's going on in there?!" some hungry fellas called from the living room, desperation in their voices.
He looked to Brittany with the widest smile he'd ever had on his face in months and pulled her into the living room, showing her off to the boys.
"Guys, Brittany is back!"
The boys looked on in disbelief, seeing that Alvin's assumptions were correct all along. So much disbelief that Simon was mid bite in his hotdog, Jordan's jaw dropped to his chest, and Prescott and Theodore spitting their soda in surprise.
He said she would come back… and she did.
"Holy shit…" Jordan mumbled.
"Hey!" Simon suddenly exclaimed as he hopped to his feet. "There's this movie on tonight downtown. We oughta check it out!"
The others caught on quickly, and they all gathered up their food and clothes, slipped on their shoes, and headed to the door.
Simon passed on by and winked at Alvin, whispering in his ear, "Go get her…"
After a short time with rustling and struggling to leave the house, the door was shut behind them, leaving Alvin and Brittany alone; his sweet long-awaited dream coming true after well over a year.
"Brittany… you're here!"
"Yes!" she replied as she placed her hands in his lap. He placed his on top. "Alvin, it's been so long. How have you been?"
"I've been… a wreck…"
Brittany's expression fell to despair, the twinkle disappearing for the moment, which startled Alvin quite a bit.
"Britt, when you left that day… I was so sick… I've never lost a friend like that before, and I didn't know how to cope with it."
"I was going crazy," she admitted as she bowed her head. "I know you must be mad with me because I stopped writing…"
Alvin sat patiently, waiting for an explanation, gripping her hands tight.
"I-I-I… was really busy… that's why I didn't write you… and I feel bad…"
"Brittany…" Alvin cooed with a heavy sigh. "I know that was difficult, but those little letters kept me going. You were so far away, it made me feel closer."
Brittany looked to the bag at her feet and began to rummage through, pulling out makeup and other miscellaneous objects. It was then she pulled out a little familiar friend; Alvin's prized possession, his golden-echo harmonica Alvin had given to her as a parting gift. The memories of playing songs that Brittany loved with all of her beating heart came rushing in for the two, and Alvin wanted to make sure that a piece of him would always be with Brittany.
"I have your little friend."
Alvin grabbed for it without hesitation and pressed it to his chest, his eyes closing momentarily.
"I have something to ask."
Alvin opened his eyes to meet the question written in hers.
"Before I left…"
Alvin's heart dropped. He should have known that was coming.
"You said you loved me?"
He took a deep breath in and nodded quickly, tears continuing to rush down his face. "I know everything about that situation was stupid. I'm sorry I told you like that. But nothing will take away from the fact that I loved you then…"
He anxiously paused with a bit lip, the hesitation putting fear in Brittany's heart.
"… and I love you now…"
Brittany gripped his hands tighter as well, her hard stare stabbing into his soul. "Al, there was so many things I wanted to say that day. I just didn't because I didn't think you'd feel the same way."
"What did you have to say?"
She sniffled as she took her hands away and stood to her feet. "I wanted to say that I was going to make my way back to you, even if it killed me!" She took a piece of paper from her pants pocket and unfolded it and spread it across Alvin's lap, sitting in her spot yet again. It was a picture of a tiny home, pretty average, to say the least.
"Do you recognize it?" Brittany asked with anticipation, her lip bit in excitement.
Alvin nodded. "Yeah! It looks like that old house just a couple of blocks from here. The abandoned one we used to hang out at. Why, what's up?"
She giggled to her hearts content as she pointed at herself, her head nodding so excitedly, it was becoming dizzying. Her giggling caused her face to turn the brightest red imaginable. "It's not abandoned anymore…"
Alvin, with a dropped jaw, looked to Brittany with a look that read beyond disbelief. "Shut up…"
"That's why I didn't write! I was too busy setting things up and making the money and convincing Jeanette and Eleanor… to live here… right down the block from you."
"So…"
"I live here, now, Al! I get to be with you! Believe it or not, but… I've lived there for over a week! I was simply conjuring up the courage to come see you!"
Alvin took the paper and discarded it to God knows where and hugged her tighter than before, weeping softly.
"And Al," she began as she pulled away from him, her arms still dangled around his shoulders.
Alvin smiled so wide, exposing his teeth to its fullest capacity, his eyes never leaving her gaze. "What's up?"
She stood to her tip toes and gestured for him to stand and kissed him softly on the lips, his eyes wide, his body jolting at the sudden gesture, his hands leaving her waist for the moment. She pulled away and wiped the tears from his eyes, and did the same for herself. She pulled away to find Alvin's priceless expression, giggling aloud. "I love you, too…"
The two went in for another sweet kiss, their embrace tighter than their attention, their love brighter than the lights upon the Christmas tree that preciously illuminated their atmosphere, but not once overpowering by their love.
I love and appreciate all of the support!
Quick question;
How would you all feel if I turned this One-Shot into a full story?
Love you all!
-PrincessLeeLee7