1Bright stood anxiously at the terminal, holding his sign. He looked around at all of the other people, waiting for their friends and family. He wished he'd written more than just 'Welcome Home, Hannah!' in black marker. The woman next to him held a sign bearing striking resemblance to billboard, and it was covered with sparkles and glitter.
He sighed and crumbled the pitiful sign into a ball, and shooting it like a basketball into the nearest trash can. Hannah deserved more than just a wimpy sign. He hadn't seen her in 3 months, and the best he could do was that?
He held onto the single rose in his left hand tighter and waited for Hannah's plane to arrive. He'd been there for an hour already. He hadn't meant to get there that early. But he wanted to beat traffic (There wasn't any) and didn't want to get lost (He didn't). He had already frequented the gift shop three times, bought a soda for way more than it was worth, and returned at least thirty of the luggage carts into their holders, earning him nearly 6 dollars in quarters.
He had waited for her for three months. Three long, boring months. He had the urge to call her the second she boarded the plane. Every time something slightly funny happened in his life, he would feel the need to pick up the phone and call her. His cell phone bill was getting so bad, he had taken to writing her letters.
The best idea I he had ever had. The letters she wrote back to him were beautiful. They were written on light purple notebook paper, with her name scrawled across and cursive. He could tell she spent hours wondering what to write to him. And that always made him smile. The letters even seemed to smell like her. He hadn't realized she smelled so good until she left. It was like a mixture of vanilla and rain.
Every time it rained now, he thought about her. He thought about all of the things he wanted to do with her in the rain. Okay, so his fantasies tended to get a little off topic, but they always ended with Hannah falling asleep in his arms. She was beautiful when she was asleep.
He didn't want to admit it, but Bright use to go into Amy's room, after they had fallen asleep and sneak a peek of her while she was sleeping. A little smile played on her lips, and he wondered what she was dreaming about. He liked to think it was him, but he guessed it had probably been Topher.
Oh man, that Topher kid really got on his nerves. How dare he hang around the hospital while he's mother was dying? His mother was DYING, and the kid wanted to hit on Hannah. His Hannah.
He bumped into him on purpose that day. When Hannah had to break up with him, Bright leaned towards him and slammed his shoulder into Topher, causing him to lose his balance. Bright smiled when he thought about it.
But now Hannah was coming home. His Hannah. And they could finally be together. Bright was glad he had come alone. Amy and Ephram were both at home, busy getting ready to head to Colorado A&M. Maybe he and Hannah would kiss when she...
And that's when he saw her. Her hair was a bit longer, and her clothes looked rumpled from the long plane ride, but she was beautiful. Rose in hand, he walked, no actually he ran towards her. Scooping her up into his arms, her swung her around, kissing the top of her head. When he set her down, he handed her the rose, and gave her his goofy side smile.
Hannah yawned as the flight attendant told them they would be entering Denver soon. She removed the book she had been reading (Well, actually she had fallen asleep on it, but that didn't matter) and began to pack up her things. She was excited to becoming back to Everwood for another year. But she would really miss being at home. Being with her family.
It had been a hard decision. Once she had been home, been with her Mom, seen her father, it was so hard to come back to Everwood. Her Dad had seemed so.. She didn't know how to describe it. Heart broken? She knew he was there. Somehow she just knew he had known she was gone. And that made her cry herself to sleep the first few nights she had gone to Everwood.
She was coming back to Everwood though. Everything at home at seemed so different. Her mother had moved on. She was going to the local community college, and her Mom had told her she wanted to become a teacher. And her brother, oh he was so grown up. She wasn't sure what to do at home anymore. Nothing seemed to be the way it was before.
So, she had made the decision to come back to Everwood. She had made so many friends. And Bright. She had Bright. Though, she wasn't exactly sure what she had with him. Of course, there was the sweaty part. She actually felt like... like she could kiss him for hours. Not like Topher. She dreaded kissing Topher. But she loved kissing Bright.
They had only kissed once before she left But she thought about him all the time. She kept all of his letters. The dirty ones, covered in chocolate. The ones written on the back of hospital paper. The ones talking about the funeral.
She had wanted to come back. There was nothing anyone could say to her that didn't make her feel UNguilty about not coming back for Rose's funeral. Everyone told her it was okay, they knew she had wanted to be there. But she cried even hardeer when Bright told her about it. The descriptions of the speeches Amy, and Dr. Brown had given. The way Bright had told her that he was scared. That he was truly scared of life without his Mom.
Bright's letters were enough to make her feel guilty. And she didn't know how she would be able to come back to the town where everything was different. They ahd elected a mayor to serve in her place, until the next election that November. And Bright had said that the town was naming the library for her. The Rose Abbot Reading Center, he joked.
Everything was different. And Hannah didn't know what to do. She didn't seem to fit in at home anymore, with her family moving on. She certainly didn't belong in Everwood anymore. She was thinking about all this when Bright lifted her up and swung her around. And that's when she realized where she belonged.
She belonged right here, in his arms.
