The young blond didn't know what to do now. Why had he rejected her? She had gone to him and poured her heart out confessing her love for him. A few weeks ago he had said he still had feelings for her, so she couldn't see why he had said no. He had never said no to her before.
It wasn't untill she was halfway through her inbox that she fully realized what she had said about not wanting to hurt her now ex-boyfriend. "That's what makes this so hard, I don't want to hurt him."
Cappie had told her, "Then don't."
"You don't even want to try?" Casey had asked him.
"This is just a fleeting thought caused by a post traumatic reaction and when it ears off, you'll regret having come to see me."
When he had said that she turned around and walked out of the closet. She saw Max, her boyfriend at the time, and walked up to him.
When Casey was close enough to him he said, "I was at the house but they said you were already here." Then he sau Cappie come out of the closet too.
"Max, I can explain." Casey was about to make up an excuse but Cappie started speaking before she could even say what ever it was that she had decided on.
"I was hitting on your girlfriend and of course she shot me down. You see, I'm not completely over Casey and I thought since you were gone I might possibly have a chance with her. I guess I was wrong. I know, when will I ver learn." With that Cappie turnded and walked away.
"Has he been hitting on you the entire time I've been in England? You know what, one day this guys charm is gonna wear thin. He can't just coast through life like this," Max said this and just by the look on his face Casey could tell he was pissed.
"He's not so stupid to think he can do this for the rest of his life, he's just going to do it as long as he can because he loves it. He loves all these guys. And he's a lot smarter than people know."
"Why are you defending him? Do you still have feelings for this guy?"
"Max..."
Before she could even finish though, Max cut in, "Did something happen?"
"No," she hesitated before she continued because she knew it would break his heart what she was about to say, "unfortunately I don't think anything is gonna happen between us either, Max." When she said this she almost started crying. After giving herself a second she continued "You're the perfect guy, Max, just not perfect for me."
After she broke up with Max she had gone to finde Ashleigh to let her know that she was going to go home.
Remembering the chain of events that had happened that night only made her cry harder than she already was. She had really thought that Cappie would take her back.
Back at the party Cappie was sitting on the roof of the Kt house thinking about Casey, what she had said and how much it killed him to reject her. He had never thought he was strong enough to say no to her and now that he had he regretted it and wanted to take back everything that he had said to her to hurt her. "What if this was the real thing and not just some fleeting thought that she had?" Part of him was telling him to go to the ZBZ house and tell her how much it killed him to have rejected her tonight when she finally admitted that she loved him. He was in the middle of this thought when he heard somebody climb out of the window and sit next to him. He couldn't help but be curious so to get the mystery of who it was out of his mind he turned his head and saw Ashleigh, Casey's best friend.
They sat there in silence for a while then Ashleigh said, "so, Casey broke up with Max."
Cappie just sat there not sure what to do. Then he realized that she was waiting for him to say something so he said, "I see."
Asheigh went on, "Because of you. She'll break up with the next guy because of you and the guy after that, because for some odd reason you're the one she's suposed to be with."
Down below he heard Beaver shout, "It's almost midnight, let the countdown to the end of the world begin!"
Everybody else down there started counting down from ten, "10, 9, 8, 7, 6"
Ashleigh then said, "It's the end of the world, Cap. What are you gonna do?"
"5, 4, 3, 2, 1"
He sat there listening to people countdown. When they finally reached one he knew what he had to do.
"Ash, thanks. I know you're only doing this for her, but thanks anyway."
"I'm not doing this just for her, I'm doing this for you too. I can see the way you guys look at each other, not to mention the way you act around each other. Everybody knows you belong together."
"Thanks again." With that he climbed back in the house through the window.
He had his motivation, he knew what he had to do and where he had to go. He hoped she would still taked him back even after he had acted like sucxh a jerk. She had said she wanted to be with him and hopefully that still held true.
Back at the ZBZ house Casey was now trying to get to sleep without thinking about how much it hurt to know he didn't want to be with her.
She gave up and went to open the window, maybe all she needed was some fresh air. When the window was open she couldn't help but look down Greek Row. She looked towards the KT house and saw a lone figure half runnign half walking toward the ZBZ house. As the figure came closer she could tell it was her ocean blue eyed, shaggy brown haired ex-boyfriend and man that she still loved. Just seeing him made her long to be in his arms.
She watched him wlk up to the front porch of the house but just before he was to the porch he stopped and looked up at her window. Their eyes met for just a few seconds but it felt more like an hour. Finally they had to look away because one of them had to either knock on the door or open it for the other. When they did look away Casey ran out of her room and down the stairs. When she made it downstairs she opened the door and saw Cappie standing right there. They were so close to eachother that if he had bent his head down he would have kissed her.
They just stood there looking at each other in disbelief.
When Casey first opened the door Cappie saw the redness in her eyes and knew in and instant that she had been crying and that he was the one to blame for her tears. It killed him inside to see her like this.
He dicided the silence had to be broken. He didn't know what else so say so he asked her, "Are yu o.k.?"
"I don't know."
"I'm so sorry, Case."
"Who could blame you? The few times I've come back to you it was always just to make somebody else jelous."
"Ash told me you broke up with Max."
"Yeah I did."
"Why?"
"Because I can't be with him knowing that I wanna be with you."
"I can't believe I turned you down. It killed me to do it."
"Um... Do you wanna come in?"
"Thanks." He walked inside and made his way to the couch. Casey followed him and sat down next to him.
"So, why are you really here? You're not honestly here to say that you do want to be with me after all especially since you just turned me down not even two hours ago. Is it because you want to give me some closure?"
"Case, I do want to be with you. It took something that Ashleigh said tonight to make me come here tonight."
"I don't get you, Cap. First you tell me that you still have feelings for me then when I do realize that I do have feelings for you after all you shoot me down, then two hours later come here to tell me that you do want to be with me after all. Please explain to me your reasoning."
"When you came to me tonight I thought 'Why is she doing this now? She could have left either one of those guys for me anytime she wanted if she's been in love with me.' "
"Cap, I'm so sorry it took me so long to realized. I guess it took me almost dying in that manhole to wake me up to how I really feel about you." She thought she had said everything she needed to say but some part of her still had more intimate things to say to him so she said, "Cap, this is kind of a private conversation and the girls will probably be back any minute so we could go upstairs."
"O.k."
They walked up the stairs in silence hoping that nobody would walk in the front door and catch them on their way upstairs. They made it to Casey's room and closed the door behing them so they could have some privacy.
When they were in hte bedroom Casey continued, "You're right, I could've left the other guys for you if I had wanted but I was too stupid and too blinded by what I thought was love that I failed to see that you have always meant the most to me."
When she finished saying this Cappie didn't know how t react. He just sat on Casey's bed and stared at her.
Casey was waiting for him so say something but he didn't so she asked him, "Why did you think I was too good for you?"
"What? I never thought that. Ever since we broke up I've been longing for this night. But even though I'm ready to take you back I'm afraid of losing you again."
"If you gave me a chance this time yu would see that I couldn't find it in me to leave you. By the way, Cap, if you're afraid of hurting me or standing me up again chances are you won't this time. And I don't think you're childish at all. It's all your silly quirks that I love about you. I think the last time we didn't work because we were too young for anything like that to happen. However we've both grown and I think it might work this time. You especially have grown from a chilish freshman to a wise and smart and funny nearly all the time young man. The last time I was ever really truly happy was when we were dating freshman year."
"Case, shut up," Cappie said quietly, it was barely even a whisper but Casey heard it anyway. Once she was quiet he whispered softly into her ear, "I love you, Casey. I always have loved you and I always will love you, because once you start loving someone you never really stop loving them." When he had finished saying this he placed a soft sweet short kiss on her lips.
"Oh, Cap, I love you too," she whispered into his ear and kissed him back.
They continued kissing untill they couldn't take it anymore. She took off his jacketand pulled off his soft cotton t-shirt. He pulled off her ZBZ tank top and they started kissing more and more passionately. She found herself fumbling for the zipper of his jeans and he kicked off his shoes.