College sucks. That's all I have to say, haha. I have term papers due and studying for finals is driving me crazy. This fic is the only thing that's keeping me sane. :) Enough ranting... enjoy the chap and thanks for reviewing!
Part II- Chapter 7.
Vaughn's POVOnce again, on Sunday night, I couldn't sleep. But it was different this time. It wasn't because I was restless or miserable or worried. I wasn't any of those things. I had a sense of peace and calmness over me. Maybe it's because Syd was lying right next to me in bed with her legs tangled up in mine and her head resting on the middle of my chest. Or, maybe it was because I knew that when I drop her off at the airport in 6 hours, that I'm going to be ok when she leaves.
Taking a peek at my clock, I saw that it was around 4am. I managed to get in a whole hour of sleep. I knew I wouldn't be able to get back into deep slumber again, so I carefully slid out of bed and made my way down stairs.
Grabbing the blanket off of the couch, I quietly opened the front door and plopped down on the hard wooden bench on my porch. The night sky was too filled with fog to see any of the stars or planets. I could tell the winter season was about to make its appearance by the cold, crisp air hitting my face.
Syd and I spent the previous day just holding each other and taking in every moment that we possibly could. Both of us knew we were going to have to be separated again and that it would be another month before she could come home for Semester break.
While the thought of being away from her again wasn't comforting, I knew that it wasn't going to be so bad this time.
FlashbackTears were spilling down her face as I watched her hug her father tightly near the front door. For a long time, Syd and Jack never showed much emotion towards each other. I knew Sydney loved her father and desperately wanted to build a relationship with him again. Finally, this summer, she was able to share the time with the father she always wanted and needed.
With one last kiss on the cheek, she pulled away from Jack and walked slowly to my car. I rubbed her back soothingly as I opened up the passenger's seat and helped her in.
My eyes were already red and puffy from the previous hours of crying. Syd and I stayed up all night, attempting to comfort each other and wiping each other's tears. It's not like I wasn't going to see her again or that she was going away forever. But, I couldn't help but feel almost lost knowing she wasn't going to be by my side. For the first time that we've been best friends, we were going to be separated and I couldn't bear the feeling.
The whole ride to the airport, Syd silently cried to herself, holding tightly onto my hand and staring straight out her window. I so badly wanted to tell her everything was going to be ok, comfort her, do anything to make her feel better. But, the knot in my throat seemed to prevent me from speaking. All I could do was squeeze her hand tightly and hope that was enough.
Pulling up to the curb, I hopped out of my car and took out her luggage from the trunk. I didn't care about leaving my car in the loading zone only. I couldn't have cared less if they put a ticket on my windshield.
With Syd's luggage in one arm and my other wrapped securely around her shoulders, I stayed silent while she checked in and grabbed her ticket. I absolutely dreaded the sight before me. Because of all the new security rules, I was prevented from walking her to her gate and had to say goodbye at the security check.
It seemed that all the eyes were on us as we walked hand in hand to the checkpoint, wishing we could get at least one more day together.
Just as I was about to say something, Syd dropped her purse on the floor and threw her arms around my neck. She sobbed loudly into my chest, soaking the front of my t-shirt. I tightly wrapped my arms around her waist and buried my head in her shoulder.
Despite my attempt not to cry, the tears came pouring from my eyes and there was no way of stopping it.
"I can't believe we're doing this Vaughn. We're acting like I'm never coming back." Syd joked, trying to lighten the mood.
"I know. Just think how bad it would've been if we didn't go to the same college."
Our laughter soon turned into more tears as we continued to hold each other in the middle of the Los Angeles airport, not giving a care in the world as to who was watching.
Finally pulling away from our embrace, I cupped Syd's face in my hands and wiped away her tears with the pads of my thumbs.
"I love you Syd. You tell Weiss that if he doesn't take care of you I'm going to come up to San Francisco myself and kick his ass." I told her while I put on my best smile.
"I love you too."
Leaning forward, I softly kissed her lips, tasting the salty tears that had landed there. Our kiss grew to be more passionate, just like it always did, as we both relished in each other's touch. When we no longer could escape the need for oxygen, be both pulled away, leaning our foreheads against each other.
"Call me when you get in."
"I will Vaughn. Take care of your mom, ok? I'll be back before you know it."
Syd picked up her purse off of the ground, planted one final kiss on my forehead and made her way to the gates.
END FLASBACKA sudden cold wind jolted me from my thoughts as I wrapped the blanket tightly around my body. I always liked sitting out on the porch when I was a kid. I'd sit here and read my comic books or organize my baseball cards. I used to sit on the porch everyday and wait for my dad to come home promptly at 5:00pm.
I'd see his smooth, black Cadillac pull up in the driveway and I'd run to the side of his car and jump into his arms. Those were some of the best memories I had as a kid. I knew that no matter how tired my dad was, he'd still find time to watch the hockey or baseball game with me after dinner.
"Hey… what are you doing out here?" I heard Syd ask from the doorway. She had thrown on my SF State sweatshirt that was way too big for her, making her look even more adorable in my clothes.
"I couldn't sleep. Come here."
Opening up the blanket, Syd snuggled up against me as I wrapped the both of us up. I could tell she was still tired by the constant yawning every 10 seconds.
"I can't believe I'm leaving today. The weekend went by so fast." She said, tucking her head right under my chin.
"I was just thinking about that. You're not going to cry again at the airport, are you?" I teased her.
"Am I not going to cry again? What about you! You were crying just as much."
"You made me cry. Dudes don't cry Syd. I took one look at you and broke down. I couldn't help it. I felt so un-manlike."
"Oh please. Shut up Vaughn. It's ok for guys to cry." Playfully slapping me in the chest, I countered by grabbing her hand and bringing it up to my lips.
"You know, I actually miss school. I miss being on campus and having a daily routine."
"Really? You really would want to have midterms and finals and papers due right now?"
"Actually, forget I said that." I laughed. "I mostly miss the swing of things in San Francisco. I miss waking up to you everyday. I miss coming out of the shower and smelling Weiss' breakfast. I just miss hanging out with you guys."
"Well, we miss you too. It's not the same when the three of us are all hanging out. Although, maybe there's going to be four of us now since Emily might be joining the gang."
I really hoped that Weiss wasn't trying to romance Emily. It would screw everything up with Francie if he were to begin dating her roommate. I could actually see Francie slapping Weiss in the face.
"Weiss better be smart about that. Would he really risk his friendship with Francie for her roommate?" I questioned curiously.
"I don't know. I hope not. There's nothing great about her, Vaughn. I don't even think Francie likes her much anymore."
"Yeah, because she's jealous." I stated matter of factly.
"Maybe Weiss is doing this to tick Francie off. Would he do something like that? You know him better than I do."
"Who knows, Eric has a mind of his own and sometimes it doesn't work."
We sat on the porch for hours, drifting in and out of sleep, and finally watching the sun creep through the fog at sunrise. Syd was wrapped up in my lap with her arms around my waist as I rubbed soothing circles on her back. I didn't want her to leave. I didn't ever want to move from the position we were in. But, I was hopeful that there would be many more mornings like this to come.
Syd's POV"Weiss! Weiss where are you?" I shouted as I closed the front door and pulled my heavy luggage into my room.
"Syd? Hey! How was your trip? How's Mike?" Weiss answered, poking his head out of his room.
"It was great. Vaughn is good and he sends his love. What are you doing in there? You want to cook me some food? The food on the plane was disgusting and I'm craving some French toast."
Taking off my shoes, I quickly pulled on some sweats and made my way into the kitchen.
"So… tell me the truth, Mike said he missed me, huh?" Weiss joked as he pulled bread and eggs out from the fridge.
"You wish."
"Oh, I forgot, it's you two. I bet you didn't even do any talking, right? You stayed in bed for four days?"
"No!" I yelled. "We did go to that Kings game Friday night. Vaughn said thanks for helping me find the tickets, by the way. He loved it."
Looking over Weiss' shoulder, I watched as he beat the eggs in a bowl and added cinnamon, sugar, and a little bit of butter.
"So Weiss… what's up with you? Anything new?" I asked, fully knowing he'd catch to what I was hinting at.
"Francie told you, right?"
"Yeah, she called me on Friday. What's up with you and Emily? You asked her out?"
"It wasn't really a date. I just asked her if she wanted to grab a bite to eat." He explained.
"You like her?" I questioned while I pulled off the crust of one of the extra breads and nibbled on it.
"She's nice. We'll see how things go. We're just friends Syd. Nothing's going on."
A sense of relief hit me after Weiss explained everything. I was glad to know nothing serious was going on between Emily and Weiss. I could finally assure Francie that she didn't have to worry about anything.
Lots of laughs and stories about my weekend were shared with Weiss as we gobbled down his delicious French toast. It was actually good to be around Weiss cause no matter how bad I felt about missing Vaughn he could always cheer me up.
The bed was cold again that night, just like it always was when Vaughn wasn't in it. Sometimes when I was about to drift off into sleep and was in between the conscious and sleeping state, I could actually feel Vaughn spooning me from behind or planting kisses on my shoulder. It would become so real at times that I'd wake up expecting him to be there.
The next morning, Francie greeted me with a big hug as we entered our business class. Linking her arm through mine, we slowly walked into the crowded classroom and took our usual seats in the back.
"Tell me how your weekend was, Syd! How's Michael? Did you guys have a good time?" She asked excitedly.
"We had a blast. Vaughn looked good. He was in desperate need of a haircut and a shave when I first arrived, but he never fails to look gorgeous."
"How's his mom doing?"
"She's fine. She's so strong Fran, I don't know how she does it." I answered, thinking about Amélie's smiling face when she found out I had come home last weekend.
"I know, I couldn't even imagine. What about the hockey game? Did Michael like the seats?"
"He loved them! You should've seen how excited he was."
"Aww Syd. I'm so happy you had a good time. You were having a lot more fun than I was having here." She sighed.
Just then, our professor walked in with her brown briefcase in hand. The class immediately quieted down as the professor took her book and started writing a few notes on the board.
"I talked to Weiss last night. He says there's nothing going on with him and Emily. They're just friends." I informed her.
"Yeah, he told me that a couple of days ago. I think Emily likes him though. She kept asking me questions about him."
"Like what?" I whispered.
"Like how long I've known him and if he had a girlfriend last year."
"She has no idea Weiss has a thing for you? Wow, that must've been awkward. Sorry you had to go through that Fran."
Pulling a pen out of my backpack, I jotted down the notes on the board, paying no attention to what the professor was actually lecturing about.
"It's ok. I was jealous at first, but if they want to go out, they can. It's not like Eric is my boyfriend or anything." I could tell there was a change in her voice even though she was speaking softly.
"So you'd be ok if they started dating?"
"I guess. It's just like you said on the phone Syd. I have no reason to be jealous, right?"
"Yeah… right." Shrugging her shoulders, Francie grabbed my notebook and started copying down my notes.
A few days had passed and Weiss and I skirted around the subject of Emily. We talked about everything but her and mostly acted like she didn't even exist. Maybe Weiss felt uncomfortable talking to me about it because of Francie, but her name was never brought up unless she called the apartment phone.
On Friday evening, the three of us decided to get together to see the new Colin Farrell movie. Of course Francie and I were in on it so we could stare at the big screen. Weiss only tagged along because he had nothing better to do and didn't want to be stuck in the apartment on a Friday night.
It was already 30 minutes passed 7 o'clock when I was telling Weiss to hurry up. Apparently he doesn't like to buy any of the candy at movie theatres and was going through all the cabinets searching for skittles.
"I swear Mike has some candy in here somewhere." He announced as he open and closed the cupboards above the stove.
"Weiss, we have to go pick up Francie. C'mon."
Finally finding a bag of M&M's, we ran out the door and hopped into the car. The whole ride there I kept trying to remember the movie where the guy or girl only eats the brown M&M's. It had something to do with the color of chocolate already being brown so the brown M&M's had less artificial coloring.
Weiss and I argued back and forth which movie we thought it was until he yelled out, "It's from the Wedding Planner!"
Giving him a weird look, he slumped down in his chair and said, "I saw it on TV once when nothing else was on."
"Yeah, sure Weiss." I joked.
Francie came bouncing down the stairs a few minutes later after we pulled in front of her apartment. Weiss smiled as she threw him a bag of gummy bears.
"Here. Syd said you were complaining because you had no candy." She told him as she hopped into the car.
"Thanks Fran! I swear one of these things at the theatre is like 6 bucks."
Just as we were about to pull away, we heard someone shout Francie's name from behind. Putting my car back in park, I looked in my rear view mirror to see Emily waving at us.
"Hey guys. Where are you headed to?" She asked cheerfully as she approached Weiss' window.
"We're going to the movies." Weiss answered softly. "Where are you coming from?"
"Oh I had a late study session. Thank god I caught you guys. Would you mind if I come along? I need to get out a little and forget about school."
The car went silent for a moment. None of us wanted to answer Emily's request. I could see Fran rolling her eyes from the back seat.
"Yeah, ok." Weiss replied, his voice shaking a little.
"Great! Let me go grab a couple of things from upstairs. I'll be back in a sec." I wanted to hit my head against the steering wheel while we watched Emily run up the stairs.
The mood in the car had suddenly changed and I couldn't blame Weiss for saying yes. He didn't want to be rude or anything and it wasn't like Fran and I were going to answer anytime soon. Laying my head back on the headrest, I let out a long sigh. This was going to be a long night.
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