PART I
GWEN'S POV
I wake up to my phone vibrating on the nightstand next to me. Rubbing the tired from my eyes I lift Kevin's strong arm off my waist to answer my phone. I look at the clock, 5:30 AM. Reaching up to see the caller I.D. I can see it was Ben calling. I press accept call.
"Hey,"
"Hey Gwen… I need your guy's help with this one."
"Ok, we'll be over soon. Where you goanna be?"
"I'll text you the address"
"K"
I hang up, nudging a sleeping Kevin next to me, "Kev, wake up." He turns his head to look at me. "What's up?" He asks in his husky voice. "Ben asked for help with a mission." I tell him. "Can't he take care of it?" Kevin gives me a grin, "I'm still dreamin'" I give him a glare. "Ok, fine." He smiles at me.
We quickly throw on some cloths, and head out of Kevin's house. Hopping into his car, we fallow the address Ben gave me. I look out the car window, and realize it's still dark. I yawn, Kevin reaches for my hand and gives it a gentle squeeze, smiling. I give him a quick peck on the cheek in return. We soon arrive at an abandoned factory.
"Well, this is new." Kevin says in a sarcastic tone, helping me out of the passenger seat.
"I know right, these aliens need to pick more clever places to fight."
Heading inside, we see BigChill being thrown across the metal room at full force.
"Oh, you want to play that way?" Ben says at an extremely tall, broad creature covered in metal armor. "Mercureouse will not be defeated this time, boy!"
By this time Kevin has gone to full concrete, and my neon manna is throwing blows at "Mercureouse".
"It's about time you guys showed up!" Ben complains.
"Not the time ben!" Kevin shouts back.
Ben turns the dial on his watch and turns into Humungasour, making himself somewhat close to the creatures' height. The two dinosaur-like aliens fight it out. Kevin and I back off slightly from the battle. Then, out of nowhere, I feel an intense pain on the back of my neck… I slowly collapse, unable to control myself. I see Kevin in a foggy haze doing the same. I can't remember anything else after that.
KEVIN'S POV
When my eyes become conscious and focused, I can see I'm in a new room. The position I'm sitting in is extremely uncomfortable. I look around and find I'm chained to a tall metal pole, and I remember… Where's Gwen? I call her name a few times until I her voice, she's behind me, chained to the same pole.
"Babe?" I ask
"Kevin?" She says
"Are you O.K.?"
"Yea, but this is so uncomfortable"
"I know… We'll find a way out"
"I hope so"
I could tell she was freaked out. To be honest so was I. Getting knocked out, put in a dark cold room, and chained to a pole for who knows how long isn't very comforting.
"I'm gonna try my manna to get us out of this"
"Yea, try that." I was hopeful, that was sure to get us out.
"Uhh, Kevin…?"
"Yes?"
"It's not working" She sounded slightly frantic when she told me this.
"What do you mean?" I ask concerned.
"My powers…they're not working, I can't use them."
This was too weird. I place my hand on the metal pole behind me. I tried absorbing the cool material. It didn't work.
"Kevin?" Gwen asked, her voice shaky.
"Mine don't work either." I tell her.
I could tell she was about to say something, but Gwen was cut off by what sounded like big metal doors behind me swinging open. Big heavy boots click on the floor with each step made by a large individual coming closer to us.
"Well, look at this beauty!" A heavy husky voice directed at Gwen states.
My face begins to get fiery. I look around the room to contain my retorts. I find a body length mirror to my right; I am able to see the man and Gwen behind me. This guy was at least 7 feet tall with that same armor as that of the monster that was fighting Ben. "What do you suppose we do with you?" The man asks Gwen as he grips her face in his hands… tightly. Gwen winces away.
"Hey! Don't you touch her!" I yell back at him.
"What did you say…?" The man says as he makes his way around to look down at me.
This guy was ugly. He looked as though his face was set on fire, and then ran over by a pick-up truck.
"You heard me." I say back.
"Kevin, don't." Gwen pleads.
"Yes, Kevin. Listen to the girl." With that I spit on his armor. The guy doesn't take this lightly. He gives me a strait blow to the face, right under my eye. I'm not gonna lie, it hurt. "I'll make sure your later punishment is much more severe." The guy gives me the death glare. "Can't wait!" I yell in his face. He walks away, closing the heavy metal doors.
I can hear Gwen take a deep sigh. I reach around the pole and hold her hand to comfort her. She holds mine back.
"We'll be fine." I try my best to reassure her.
"What makes you so sure?" She asks in her usual calm tone.
"I don't know…" I just hoped I was right.
GWEN'S POV
For the next 15 minutes, we both tried to figure out away to break free from the chains. Nothing worked. Eventually we gave up, but then, a light came from the corner of the room. A man appeared in a lab coat… Professor Paradox.
"Hello, children." He greets us, walking closer.
"Were far off from children." Kevin tells Paradox.
"My apologizes, I feel as thought the last time I spoke with you two you were still so young." He gives us a smile.
"Do you think you could help us?" I ask, looking down at the chains.
"Hmm… I don't believe so." Paradox frowns.
"You didn't even try." Kevin states.
"I am not able to tamper with the balance. See, I am not from this time period. Therefore, if I were to help you, that would make me changing the law of time."
"Ugh!" There goes our chance of getting out.
"I could do something else that may be of help to you two." Paradox tells us. "You see this dial?" He pulls a small metal disk out of his coat pocket, and holds it out to Kevin.
"What does it do?" Kevin asks. "It will take you back to a time before you got trapped in you current issue. And it seems there is no other way to escape, so it may be a good thought to use it…" Paradox places it in Kevin's hand, and begins to walk back into the section of the room from where he came. "Wait, wouldn't that make you tampering the law of time giving this to us?" Gwen asks
"Not if you are the ones using it. Till we meet again, my friends" Paradox says
"Wait, what do I do?" I ask
"Just punch in the date you wish to be taken back to. See you both." And with that, Paradox was gone in a bright flash.
"Gwen?" Kevin asks.
"Yea?"
"Should we use it?"
"I think so…" I tell him.
"Ok" I can hear buttons being pushed on the dial.
"What date?" I ask him.
"A good one." He tells me
I hear is a zoom sound and everything goes dark.
PART II
GWEN'S POV
The next thing I know, I'm in a bed. I slowly open my eyes. Looking around I find im not in a place I expected to be… I'm in Grandpa Max's RV. I hop off the bed and look around. Everything looks different from when I last saw it. I go into the bathroom and what I see shocks me… I'm 10 again.
I hear a boy's voice come from behind me "Goodmorning, Beautiful"
My stomach flips. I turn around to see a familiar face. It was Kevin, but not just him, it was 11-year-old Kevin. My jaw drops and I crash into him, hugging him tightly.
"… Kevin"
"We made it out of there" He wraps his arms around my waist.
"EW!" I hear a boy yell from the RuskBucket doorway. It was 10-year-old Ben.
"Why are you hugging her?" Ben asks Kevin.
"Ben!" I go to hug my cousin, just to annoy him.
"Why are you being so weird?" Ben pushes me away.
Kevin and I can't help but hold in laughter at Ben's childish ways.
"Grandpa and I are going fishing, your coming right?" Ben asks Kevin.
"Uhh, I'm kind of tired. I'm gonna stay here."
"Whatever, We'll be back in an hour." With that Ben walks out of the RV.
KEVIN'S POV
As soon as Ben left Gwen took a seat at the booth. I fallowed and sat down in front of her. "So," She started. "What did I miss?" I chuckled at that.
"Not much. Remember when we first met, and me, you and Ben were in that arcade?" I asked
"Too clearly" She smiled. She was so pretty the way she smiled.
"Well, to Ben we 'passed out'. I woke up instantly where you didn't. I tried convincing your cousin to bring you back here, it worked." Gwen rolled her eyes at that.
"How long was I out?" She asked.
"A couple of hours." I told her
"While you were asleep, I had to become friends with Ben, and meet Max all over again." It was my turn to roll my eyes.
"It's much better then the first time you met him." Gwen says
"Tell me about it." I say sarcastically. "That's why I picked this date."
"I would have never thought about coming back this far." She tells me
"I wasn't thinking, actually."
"Really?"
"I never really think things through."
"I've noticed." She gives me a smirk. We stayed there, just looking at each other for what seemed like forever. Gwen looks so young… Well, I guess that's what happens when you go back in time 8 years. Her hair was cropped short like I remember, and her amber eyes were glowing.
That's when I thought… I couldn't process that I had a second chance at doing everything over, to make everything right again. That's when Gwen snapped out of it.
"I'm starving." She says
"Me to."
She gets up from the booth and travels to a cupboard above counter and sink. I fallow her and see her rummaging through boxes of oatmeal and cans of tuna. She turns to me and gives me a look. "Lets go out to eat."
"Do you think your Max is ok with you leaving the RV?" I ask Gwen as we make our way into a local pizza shop.
"Listen, if my Grandpa is ok with Ben walking around New York City with you, then I'm sure he'll be fine with us getting something to eat."
"You got a point." I tell her.
We order and take a seat at a booth by a window.
"So what do we do now?" I ask
"I don't know… I could try to convince Grandpa Max to let you stay with us until Ben and I start school again."
"That sounds like a good idea."
Gwen smiles, "It's a plan."
That's when I go blank. "… Oh, God."
"What?" Gwen asks, concerned
"I just remembered something…" I put my face in my hands
"And?"
"I wont get my car for another 5 years!"
Gwen laughed at that.
GWEN POV
By the time Kevin and I finished eating, Grandpa and Ben still hadn't returned home from fishing. I had only been back for at least five minutes and I was already board out of my mind. Crossing his arms and leaning on the counter Kevin says, "What should we do?"
"I have no idea." I say making my way to the bunk beds Ben and I share. I was really tired, and I imagined Kevin was to. I lay down on the bottom bunk and Kevin sits at the foot of the bed. Burying my face in the pillow I take a deep sigh.
"You ok?" Kevin asks
"Yup"
I could feel Kevin travel up the bed to lie on the opposite side of me. He wraps his arms around my waist as I lay my head in his shoulder. It was so comfortable… just lying there in his arms.
"Can I say something?" Kevin asks
"What?" I look up at him
"We need new cloths"
"You got that right!" I say, and we both chuckle
"When my Grandpa comes back I'll ask him if we can do some shopping."
"Sounds good" Kevin leans his head on mine and closes his eyes. I could hear his heart, and he brings me in closer. He always made me feel warm and cozy when we would do this at his house. I always preferred going to his because I felt like getting away from life for a little bit, every once and a while. His place was always really calm and quite, and I loved talking to his mom when I stayed for dinner. We would always watch movies and talk till couldn't anymore, or we just fell asleep in each other's arms.
"Hey" I try to get Kevin's attention
"Yea" He meets my eyes
"You want to have our first kiss" I grin at him
Kevin's eyes become soft and he rolls over so he's lying on top of me and he starts to lean in. My stomach is doing summersaults. He always had that affect on me, but eventually I grew more comfortable around him. This time I'm feeling the sensation all over again.
Our lips meet, and his are soft, they move all over mine. He feels the way he always did but different in some way… new almost. I kiss him back and wrap my arms around his neck, feeling his soft raven hair. That's when we hear the front door unlock, and Kevin jumps off me. I sit up as he sits at the edge of the bed.
"Were home!" Grandpa Max and Ben say in unison
I look over to Kevin whose usual ivory cheeks are now beet red. Mine must look the same.
"Gwen, your awake! And Kevin, I was surprised you didn't want to come with Ben and I. We had a couple of fighters on our lines." Grandpa Max says with a big smile.
"Did you save any?" Kevin asks
"Nah, we threw them back." Ben tells him
"So then what are we eating for dinner?" I ask
"I was thinking we could all take a ride to the mall in a little while" Grandpa tells us "We could do pick some new cloths out for Kevin and get something to eat at the food court"
I tell him, "You read my mind"
PART III
KEVIN'S POV
"Gwen, you go with Kevin to get some cloths while Ben and I see if we can find a game shop to see if we can find a…" Max tells Gwen
"Summo Slamers game!" Ben finishes his sentence
"Ok, we'll meet you guys at the food court" Gwen says
I took us a little while before we found a store that I liked, Hot Topic.
"These would look good on you" Gwen hands me a pair of dark gray skinny jeans.
"I guess so"
I took them from her and she found me a plain black t-shirt. Gwen was able to pick out an outfit as well; it looked much better on her then the previous one. She tried the outfit on and stepped out of the fitting room, it was a pair of ripped jean shorts and a plain purple V neck t-shirt.
"So…"She gives me a shy smile
"Beautiful." I go over to her and wrap my arms around her, giving her a peck on the lips. She smiles at that.
We pay and make our way to the food court. We see that yet again, Max and Ben have not made there way to the court yet. So we take a seat.
"You need to help me." I tell Gwen
"With what?" She asks, confused
"Talking to Max about letting me stay with you for the summer"
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that" Gwen tells me
"Ok, good"
Eventually we spot Ben and Max heading over to our table.
"You guys find anything good?" Max asks
"Yup" Gwen says, holding up the bag of cloths.
"Well, lets eat" Max says
After everyone gets their dinner Gwen begins talking.
"So Grandpa, Kevin doesn't have a place to stay… do you think it would be ok if he stayed with us for a while until school starts?" She asks
"That depends, Kevin? Are you Ok with it?" Max asks me
"It would be a big help to me, as a matter of fact." I tell him
"Then it's fine with me" Max smiles at me
"Wait. Kevin is staying with us?" Ben asks
"Yes" Max tells him
"Awesome!" Ben says, excited
"Thanks a lot, Max. It means a lot." I thank him
"No problem helping out a friend"
When we finish dinner, we all head back to the trailer park. Ben yawns and makes his way to the back of the RV.
"I'm goin to bed, night guys!"
"'Night" Max and Gwen say in unison
Max walks over to Gwen and I
"Kevin?"
"Yes"
"Take a seat" He sits down at the booth and beckons for me to sit across from him. "I don't know if you remember this, you were still young at the time." I sit in the seat. "Yea…" I say
"But I worked with you father at one point" He looks at me with a sympathetic look on his face
"Really…?" I try my best to look surprised. I had already known this back before, when I realized he died. I try not to think about it because it gets really hard to stop.
"I haven't seen him a long time… We were a part of a group of people called Plumers."
"I know what he did" my tone came out more rough than I expected.
At this point its not easy for me think about it anymore. And apparently Gwen could tell.
"Grandpa, I don't think he wants to talk about it right now" She says
"Im sorry, Kevin" Max looks to me "I just wanted to make sure you knew." He tells me
"Don't worry about it, thank you" I say to Max
"No problem, Goodnight kids"
And with that, Max was off to bed
GWEN'S POV
Kevin took a seat on the couch that lay next to the bunk beds. He stretched out and held out his hands, indicating for me to join him. I lied down and let him embrace me in his arms. I could hear the faint snores coming from my cousin and grandpa.
"Thank you" Kevin says to me
"For what?" I ask
"Stopping Max from talking about my dad more" His voice gets low and soft
"Don't thank me, I know that's not a subject you take lightly. I don't think anyone would. I just didn't want you to be reminded of it." I tell him
"But I am thankful for you… to have you I mean"
"I know"
As comfortable as I was, and how much I wanted to stay like this, I got off the couch and made my way to my bed.
"Hey" Kevin says
"I don't want Ben having a heart attack when he finds me and you sleeping like that." I tell him
"Your right, can I just tell you something?" he asks
"What?"
"Come here."
I walk over to him.
"Closer"
I roll my eyes, and move to where he is able to whisper in my ear. He leans in and whispers, "I love you" and kisses me
"I love you to" my cheeks get flushed, as he gives me a wink. I smile and lay down on my bed to let sleep take me.
I woke up pretty early, and everyone was still asleep. To keep my boredom from getting any worse, I took my pillow and walked over to the couch where a sleeping Kevin lay. I raise the pillow and bring it down forcefully to attempt to wake Kevin up.
"What? Whose there?" He says, still barely conscious. He sits up and looks around.
It was funny; I had to stifle a giggle.
"Good morning!" I tell him and give him a big grin
"You…!" He grabs me and pulls me down with him. We both end up laughing
"What's so funny?" Ben asks, rubbing his eyes now awake.
"Your cousins a bully" Kevin grins, and I give him a look.
"I know right?" Ben agrees
I cross my arms and make a pout face.
"No ones a bully" Grandpa says as he walks in the room
"Thank you" I tell him
"How did everyone sleep?" He asks us
"The couch was actually very comfortable" Kevin tells him
"That's good. It must have been much better then sleeping in the subway" Grandpa says, a hint of humor in his voice
"Much!" Kevin says
Ben stretches and hops off the top bunk "So what are we doing today?" He asks
"Its going to get up into the 90s today, so I was thinking we could ride down to a lake nearby, and cool off there.
I was in favor of that, and apparently so was Kevin, we say together "Good idea"
KEVIN'S POV
It doesn't take long to stop where a big clear lake becomes visible. There are other RVs in sight as well. Since the only clothes I have are the outfit I had on previously, and the new cloths I'm wearing, I had to barrow a bathing suit from Ben.
When we stop, Ben rushes out of the door and jumps in the water. I look to Gwen, shrug and do the same. Gwen comes near the water, and lays a towel down and starts reading a book.
"You're not coming in?" I ask
"Nope." She says, consumed in her reading
I shake my head "Tsk, Tsk"
"I'll come in later." She tells me
"Or… you could come in now" I give her a sly grin and start to come up out of the water, toward her
"Don't touch me, your soaking wet!" She tells me
"So?"
"So, I don't want to get wet"
"Too bad" I take the book from her and toss it to the side, and take her hands to try to get her to stand up
"Kevin, stop." She pleads with me
"Nah" She doesn't budge from the ground
"Hey Kevin!" Ben says in the water behind me. I turn around to see Ben swimming closer to us.
"Yea?" I let go of his cousin's hands
"Don't talk to the bully. Come with me, I want to show you something I found" I turn to Gwen and look at her, she has a victorious look on her face
"You win this time, little girl" I tell her
"Have fuuunnnnn" She tells me, grinning
I jump in the water to fallow Ben. We swam for a while before we reached the end of the lake. Then Ben says,
"You hear that?" I could make out the faint sound of water running.
"What is it?" I ask
"You'll see…"He tells me
We swim around the bank, the water getting shallower and shallower. I could see around the corner there was a small dam, waterfall type thing.
"That's cool." I say
"That's what I thought to"
We reached the area and stopped at the concrete panel, it was a man made dam. I step up and stand on the rock plank; it was covered in soft algae. Schools of fish came rushing passed my feet and jumped over to get on the other side. Ben joined me and sat down next to me. He started talking,
"I heard you and Gwen talking last night," He tells me
"What did you hear?" I ask, I could feel my face getting heated
"Not a lot. You don't really like her, do you?" He asks
"Kind of" I run my hand through my hair
"That girl is crazy. Just warning you right now" We both laugh
"I know, she's not that bad though." I tell him
"Well, when you live with her for the summer, she starts to get on your nerves" He looks out on the lake
'I have lived with her' I think to myself
"I'm sure I'll deal with it." I tell him
"We'll see how long that lasts before she drives you insane" He smirks. I give him a joking smile and push him in the water
"Hey!" he yells, laughing.
"What's that over there?" I ask. I can see a piece of land casting off to the side of the bank, it goes deeper into the woods.
"I don't know, you wanna check it out?" Ben asks.
"Sure"
I hope off the dam and swim to land, Ben does the same. The grass is rough and dense. Wild flowers are growing on either side of the trail. Ben and I make our way deeper into the forest.
"This kind of creepy…" Ben says
"I guess so"
The trees cave in, creating a canopy effect. Usually I would hear the sound of birds around us, but there was no sound… there was only the flow of water coming from the dam behind us. That's when Ben spots the destruction up ahead.
GWEN'S POV
The sun was getting increasingly hot as the morning moved on. I noticed Ben and Kevin had been gone for a while. Putting my book down, I walk back to the RustBucket.
"Grandpa?" I look around for him
"Yea" He says preparing what looks like breakfast.
"Ben and Kevin haven't been back in a while"
"You want to take a ride and see if we can find them? They might have gone to the general store down the road"
"Ok, I just want to make sure they didn't get into any trouble"
I sat down in the passenger seat, and Grandpa took the drivers seat, and he pulled out of the camp. We were on the road for only about 5 minutes when we see trees off the side of the road are torn apart and broken down. Grandpa stops and pulls over.
"I hope that's not them." I say
"Me to"
We get out of the car and look out into the forest. The trees look as though they were crushed by something that fell. Whatever it was, it was deep in the woods.
"Should we check it out?" I ask
"I think we should"
We find a narrow trail forking off from the main road, leading toward the scene of the crash.
"Whatever happened, by the look of these trees, it happened a while ago." Grandpa tells me
"I'm surprised no one said anything." I say
"Maybe no one noticed"
"True"
We take the trail until we hear voices, it was Ben and Kevin. Grandpa and I run until we come to see them, they were leaning over what looked like a small metal pod.
"What is that?" I ask. The boys turn back, not expecting to see us.
"What are you guys doing here?" He asks
"Looking for you two" Grandpa says, "What did you guys find?"
"We don't know, its really weird looking. Come see" Kevin say to us
We all move to where they were standing and look at the object. It looked like a pointed silver cannon with many lines running every which way on it. It was buried under the ground slightly
"Ben, pick it up" Kevin teases him
"No, you!" Ben says back
"Fine"
"Wait" Grandpa says, "It could be dangerous"
"We've face many dangerous situations before" I tell him
"That doesn't mean we shouldn't be careful"
"Your right"
We decide to dig around the object. It didn't take long before we were able to get it out of the ground. Grandpa held in hands, out of nowhere, the lines start moving and the thing starts getting bigger. He drops the transforming object on the ground.
"Whoa!" We all say, as we jump back
The shapes and lines turn into a robot and starts shooting light beams at us. It keeps growing larger and larger till it gets to be about a normal persons height. I look to Ben who has already started turning the dial on his watch.
"Dimondhead!" He yells as he turns into the alien
Ben throws his diamond spears at the robot, as the thing continues shooting at us. I look over to Kevin who just doges a beam. He looks at me and put his hands down on the ground and absorbs the rock.
Ben's jaw drops, "How do you do th IIIIat?"
KEVIN'S POV
Ben looks with amazement at my transformation
"I'll explain later!" I say back, as we throw punches at the 'bot. The thing looks like it's getting weaker and weaker. While on the ground from one of my blows, it gives one final blast at me. I do the stupid thing where I don't think things through, and hold out my hand. I absorb the light beam, and force it back at the robot. The thing explodes, that sends Ben and I flying backwards.
Bens watch times out and he is turned back into his human self. I lay my head down on the ground, wiped out. I see Ben hovering over me, offering a hand to help me up.
"That was… AWSOME!" He says, eyes wide. "You gotta start explaining!"
"Ok fine… first, I was born with this" I tell his as he helps me up.
"Then why haven't you told me?" Ben asks
"I've never had a reason to use my powers"
"What exactly can you do?"
"I can absorb energy, whether it's material, or an energy source." I tell him
"That's cool…." He listens with awe
"Where are Gwen and Max?" I ask
"I don't know, lets find them." Ben says as we walk down the trail
When we make it to the main road, we spot the RV. Once inside, we see Max and Gwen sitting casually at the booth.
"You guys just left us there?" Ben asks the two
"We got hungry" Gwen tells him. Ben faceplams.
"You want some?" Gwen offers me her Tuna sandwich, I take a bite and give it back.
"How did you guys do?" Max asks us, as I take a seat next to Gwen.
"How did we do? It was so cool! Did you know Kevin can absorb energy?" Ben asks Max
"I figured, Devin being an Osmosian and all" Max looks at me
"Yea" I say
"Wait, you're an Osmosian? And you know his dad?" Ben asks. Wow, I never thought someone could be so lost before.
"Yes" Max says
"This day just keeps getting cooler and cooler!"
I thought the same.
PART IIII
GWEN'S POV
The rest of the summer had gone by quickly. Kevin, Ben and I continued to fight aliens every so often. We all faced more then a few near death experiences on the road. Before I knew it, the time came where we had to figure out where Kevin was going to stay when Ben and I to return to school.
"This is where we get off Ben" Grandpa stopped the RV in front of Ben's house. We all get out and exchange our goodbyes.
"I'll talk to you later, bro" Kevin tells my cousin
'Totally" Ben smiles
Kevin, Grandpa and I head back to the RV. We all take a seat at the booth, and try to figure out what Kevin was going to do.
"I have an idea…" Kevin says, and I thought it was a perfect one.
Kevin takes a deep breath before he knocks three times on the door. I put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.
"What if she doesn't take me back?" He asks me
"She will… she loves you."
"I hope so."
Just then we hear quick footsteps come from inside, and I can tell Kevin tenses up. The door unlocks, and a tall skinny woman, with raven hair is at the door.
"Yes?" She looks up, and as soon as she does, her eyes go wide. "…Kevin?"
"Hey Mom" He says, a big smile on his face
"Oh my gosh…" She says as she grabs him up in a tight hug. Kevin hugs her back and buries his face in her hair. I could tell he was really happy to see her. When Kevin's mom lets go she takes us both by the hands and leads us inside, and to the kitchen. Kevin starts talking as we all take a seat at the dinning table,
"Mom, I just wanted to say… I'm so sorry about what happened when I stormed out" He explains.
"Honey, don't be" she stops him "I should have gave you my attention, especially when you needed it most."
"We both needed each other." Kevin tells her
"I know that now." She says as she gives him another tight hug "I'm just so glad to have you home" She stops and looks to me.
"I'm sorry. Mom, this is Gwen Tennyson." Kevin tells his mother
"My goodness, I haven't seen you in so long!" She tells me, a big smile on her face
"Wait, what…?" Kevin and I say
"I remember you grandpa telling me when you and your cousin were born." Kevin's mom tells me
"Oh…" That makes more sense.
The front door unlocks and we hear it swing open, a man walks in as he says, "Eve, I'm home" Harvey looks up and freezes when his eyes fall on Kevin. Kevin's step-dad rushes over to grab him up, just like his mother did, and tell him how happy he it to have him back home.
I ended up staying for dinner, and I had many interesting conversations with Kevin's parents. It was really nice to see Kevin start everything over, and make up for the past. And Kevin had a lot of things to share with his mother as well,
"And let me tell you, Gwen's cousin, Ben, can be the most annoying person I've ever met, but were getting to be really clo-" Kevin was interrupted by a knock at the door.
"Come in!" Kevin's mom calls out. The door opens and Grandpa walks in.
"Max! I haven't seen you in forever" Eve says, as she gets up from the table to give him a hug
"Same, its so good to see you" He tells her
"Come on in and sit."
Everyone talks for another half an hour, and then Grandpa gets up from the table. "You ready to go?" He asks me
"Yea" I tell him
We all say our goodbyes. My grandpa waits in the car while Kevin's mom and Harvey are back inside, while Kevin is talking to me at his door.
"The summer wasn't long enough" Kevin tells me with a soft smile
"I know right?"
"I'll see you then" His eyes get sad
"I hope so" I go in to hug him, and he grabs me tight
"I don't want to let you go." He tells me as he brings me in close
"Don't worry, I'll make sure we see each other" I try to reassure him. He leans in to my year, and whispers, "I love you."
"I love you to" I say as we have our final kiss of the summer.
5 YEARS LATER
"Hey Kev, did you get the History homework?" Ben asks his friend
"Yea, pages 56 to 68 in the text book"
"Got it." He tells Ben as he opens the book
The two classmates are studying at Mr. Smothies' when they hear the doorbell chime. Gwen makes her way to their table, and sits down next to Kevin.
"How's the snow?" Ben asks the red head
"Cold" She says as she takes off her jacket
"I figured" Ben says as he looks outside at the slowly falling flakes
"My mom asked if you guys want to come over for dinner tonight." Gwen asks the young men
"Ok"
"Sure"
That's when the trio hear a news report on a near by radio about an alien attack in downtown Bellwood. They all look at each other.
Kevin automatically says "We'll take my car"