I've decided to end this story. It's stuck with me for over a year now, and has helped me through a lot with this little fantasy. But it's time for me to move on. I was going to write everything, about the aliens and Delilah and Casey and everyone's senior wills, but there's no point. Everything comes down to this, and the brief epilogue I'm posting next. This is the ending of this fic that I've had written since almost the very beginning. This isn't a cheap cop-out. This is it. This is what happens with Kit and Casey.
It takes place after graduation, near the end of July.
--- --- ---
Casey stood in front of Kit and looked at her bags, all neatly packed away and ready to go. One trunk, a duffel and a box. Somehow that seemed horrible to him. It didn't seem right that all of Kit could fit into so little a place. Silence hung between them, almost tangible. Casey blinked back bitter tears.
"So...so...this is it?" his voice cracked with emotion. "After everything? You're just going to leave?"
Kit nodded. "I'm going off to college, Casey."
Casey wiped the back of his hand across his eyes. "Where?"
Kit shrugged. "I can't tell you."
"Why? Why can't you?" cried Casey desperately. "It's not fair! After everything you've done for me, how can you just stand there and tell me I'll never see you again? That you won't even tell me where you're going? And you...don't you care at all?"
He made a move like he was going to reach for her, but stopped and wiped off his tears again. Kit cast her eyes down.
"If fate says that we should meet again, then we will," she said, for lack of a better explanation.
"But I-" began Casey. I love you, he finished mentally. I love you. I've been in love with you for so long I didn't even know it. Stay. Please stay. Casey let his shoulders slump in defeat. He looked up at Kit through his eyelashes. She was wearing one of her atypical wild outfits, as per the usual. A camouflage tank, tight jeans and a beige scarf twisted around her hair. She reached over and put her hand under his chin, tilting his face up to look at her. He felt his bravado slip, and his chin trembled. Her eyes softened somewhat, and she stepped forward, wrapping her arms lightly around his shoulders. He felt her warm breath on his neck and the tears started to spill down his cheeks. A small drop of warm salty tear fell on his shoulder, and he realized it wasn't his tear. She pulled back and smiled at him shakily. Leaning back over, she planted a soft kiss on his mouth.
"Farewell, Casey."
And then she turned away and was gone.
--- --- ---
Casey slammed his door shut and leaned against it, his breath coming in short gasps.
"Casey?" called his dad. "everything alright up there?"
Casey barely choked out, "Yeah."
"Good."
Casey locked the door and then ran forward and fell face first onto his bed, letting his shoulders shake with sobs. His tears soaked through the comforter as his fingers clenched and unclenched the fabric of his bed. He was sobbing wildly, like a child. After everything, she was gone. Left him like she hadn't even cared. But he had! Hadn't she seen that? That he finally realized how much everything had meant?
"Dammit!" he sobbed into his pillow brokenly. "I love you, Kit! I love you! I love you!"
He spiraled into oblivion, sobbing those three words over and over again into his pillow until sleep took him away, and let forgetfulness take the pain. A sheet of paper fluttered down off of a sketchbook laying on his desk and drifted lazily to the floor, as if it didn't realize its own importance. Written on it was the following.
Dear Casey,
I'm sorry I had to do what I did. I'm sure by now I've completely shattered your heart. But I can't keep doing this. Everyone needs to go out and find what they need. And I need to get out there and live. I can't be stuck here forever. I know you're hating me, and cursing the day you ever met me, or you are if I did what I intend to do when I write this now. I don't know. I might give in and not break your heart. But whatever I do, you should know that I am forever on your side. I will live now! I cry, I laugh, I break hearts, I bleed and I live.
I love you,
Kit
--- --- ---
Kit knew from her drivers handbook that driving while emotionally distraught was a bad idea. But she knew if she stopped she would go back. She couldn't go back. She'd backed down. Her original plan had been to tell Casey that all she'd ever done was all a lie. Tears streaked down her cheeks and flew back into the wind. The breeze whipped her hair back around her face and made her cheeks sting. What would she have done? Should she have done something different? She could have had him. Ripped away all his defenses. A wondering thought flitted through her mind. Would it have been safer to just have taken her chance? Right after Delilah dumped him. She could have. He would have. And she suspected it would be safest to give everything to him, because he trusted her completely, and he her.
She shook her head and tried on a wide, friendly smile. The kind she won him over with. The kind she could always pull off. But it crumpled and fell from her face as she broke into tears.
There was no way she could rationalize breaking his heart. There were no words to explain her actions to herself, except that she knew she would never deserve him and would have broken his heart eventually. But even that paled when she thought of the tears clinging to his eyelashes and gleaming in his blue eyes.
As Kit roared off down the highway, passing a blue Chevy on her right, she could only bring two words to her mind.
Goodbye, Casey.
--- --- ---