Here's my apology: writer's block has been insanely real this time around. Along with that, I've had a close family member in and out of the hospital recovering from surgeries for over a month now. All is better though so thank you for your patience.
There's a big time jump here. You'll find out exactly when it takes place though. Enjoy!
SIX MONTHS LATER
Jimmy's POV
"Jimmy, I love you and all but I'm telling you now: I am never doing this again," Cindy huffed out, finally managing to catch up to me. It came as a surprise that I was ahead of her seeing how much more physically fit she is than me.
Guess that means the invention is working.
"I don't recall hearing about you complaining the last time."
"Well, the last time was a very different scenario," she snapped. "Ugh, what the hell Jimmy? Aren't you tired?" Seeing as we were both carrying the same amount of heavy equipment and yet I wasn't breaking a sweat, it was a valid question.
"No," I spoke, tuning her out a bit and peeking over the hill we ended up standing on. I grinned when I saw our intended destination.
"What are you….?" She walked over to where I stood and looked down as well. "We're not going down yet. We just got up here. Let's take a break."
"We should go down there so we don't miss it." I spoke loud enough for her to hear as I properly attached my snowboard.
"Miss what?"
At that, I removed the large, metallic clip I had attached to my jacket and placed it on the front of hers. I pressed the button on the side and watched as her eyes widened at all the weight that she no longer felt.
"Wha-?" She gave me a look that told me now was the perfect time to make my getaway.
"Gotta blast!" With a small leap, I headed downhill, hoping Cindy wasn't immediately following behind.
Though I kept getting farther away from her each second, I could have sworn I heard her yell out my name in an old, yet oddly familiar way.
I knew then that until that moment, our vacation was going really well.
As expected, Cindy was over the moon when I told her that we would be going to Switzerland over our holiday break. A lot of effort and use of the connections I made during my NASA internship came into play to make this possible but I knew it would be worth it.
Not having seen each other all of this past semester made this trip especially necessary.
As much as I didn't want to admit it, and I'm sure she didn't either, this past semester has been more difficult than the previous ones. It's safe to say that the reason for that is largely because of how grueling our schedules and academic workload have gotten. I knew that spending as much time as possible now that we are both out of school was exactly what we needed.
The unfortunate fact that the snow themed activities here include skiing, something she had been doing exactly during this time two years ago with someone I would rather not mention by name. was not at all intended, let alone meant to be spiteful.
But on the bright side, being on this winter wonderland of a getaway was useful for me as well. It was the best use of killing two birds with one stone that I've done recently.
I swiftly landed at the bottom of the hill, close to where there was a large crowd gathering. Deciding not to get her more upset than she likely already was, I waited for Cindy, who wasn't too far behind on her own board.
"Okay," she spoke once she arrived and hastily removed her snow goggles. "What is going on? You did not just make me climb up that hill for nothing." I opened my mouth to explain at the same time she pulled the clip off herself. The action pushed her body forward, like she exhaled a deep breath. "And what was that?!"
"It's a new invention I'm working on," I explained as I stuck my hand out for her to place it into. Luckily, she did so without putting up a fight. "How did you feel when you had it on?"
"Uh, I don't know. Like… floaty?" I could tell by her tone she wasn't all too happy with me asking questions. "Still feeling like that now, kind of."
"Huh. Must be a side effect." I mumbled to myself so she wouldn't hear. "Don't worry about it. You'll be fine," I said louder and made a mental note to record the result in my notebook when I got a chance. She had an exasperated look on her face and I knew she would want to talk about this later. Not wanting her to be a bad mood any longer, I reached for her hand and she laced her fingers in mine, now giving me a curious glare.
"What are you up to Neutron?" She said somewhat playfully.
"What do you mean?" Instead of answering, she focused her attention at the crowd in front of us, finally seeming to notice it.
"What's going on over there?" With her interest growing, we started moving through the crowd, trying to get as close to the front as possible. In a short time, we made it and found ourselves facing a large digital clock that was counting down time. It currently read a little less than forty-five minutes.
"What's going on?" With a hint of suspicion, she turned and asked me, as if I would know the answer.
And I most certainly did.
It was more than just the holiday season that lead to us coming here for vacation. By coming to Switzerland, Cindy and I are lucky enough to be standing in the line of totality for the rare occurrence of a solar eclipse. The awareness of this has been broadcast on all news networks for several weeks now. So with all the world-wide chatter about it, I'm more than thankful Cindy hadn't already realized that we were very conveniently going to have the best view for it.
"Well…we umm…. We are less than an hour away from a total solar eclipse," I said, sounding far more excited than I probably should have.
Ideally, I wouldn't have told her the truth until the last possible second. But with something like this, time really is of the essence.
With a gasp of recognition, Cindy spoke.
"You knew about this." She wasn't asking me.
Damn.
"That's why we're here? For the eclipse?"
"Cindy-."
"You- you had this all planned out, didn't you?" At this point, I couldn't tell if there was more sadness or anger on her face. "I thought this was a vacation for the two of us. To be together." With a scoff, she continued. "But you just- you brought me here so you can do your science stuff."
"Cindy don't get upset-," I spoke as I moved to embrace her.
"How do you expect me to not get upset?" She inched away from me. "You just-. God, you always do this."
I wasn't able to say another word before she ran off into the crowd. She moved so swiftly, I knew it wouldn't be easy to catch up to her.
Cindy's POV
A wave of anger rushed through me as I pushed my way through the mass of people, hoping to get out of there as quickly as possible.
While this is so typical of him, in retrospect, I really should have seen something like this coming.
When Jimmy first told me about going on vacation over holiday break in Switzerland, I was thrilled. I never would have expected anything as extravagant as that. I also knew that it would inevitably come with a large price tag. I like to think that this trip was made possible in part by some of the friends he made at NASA, even though he might be too proud to admit it. If that were the case, surely there must have been some sort of catch that only he could really contribute to.
So the more I think about it, I'm not surprised in the slightest that science is the main reason we're here.
Truthfully, Jimmy didn't give me too much time to prepare for the trip, so it brought about a big change to my plans for the break.
As I did last year, I was planning on going home to see my family. Even with me putting in a few extra hours here and there at my on-campus job, it was going to be a bit of a struggle purchasing Christmas presents and buying a plane ticket home, particularly in this time of year. So when Jimmy told me that all major expenses on this vacation would be taken care of, it was immensely relieving. Even though we left a few days after Christmas, I didn't think it would be wise to make two long journeys in such a short period of time. My parents thankfully understood and I ended up staying on campus, giving me a few additional days to get ready.
This all meant that I haven't been home since the summer, something I was painfully reminded of once I realized Jimmy's motive.
To make matters worse, as if today wasn't already full of joyous occasions, it's also New Year's Eve.
Another reason I was excited about our vacation was the timing of it.
Jimmy and I have been dating for almost a year and a half and we have yet to spend the holiday season together. At the rate we're going, I can't say for sure when, or even if, it would even happen. Although that wasn't something we outwardly spoke about, we both knew it was true. So for us to actually spend New Year's together was something I was really looking forward to.
After his little stunt though, I want nothing more than to just go home.
Unsurprisingly, when I turned back around, now fifty or so feet away from the growing crowd, he was nowhere in sight.
Even though I would have loved to get on the next flight back home, I knew that that was an over-dramatic move, even for me.
Instead, I went back to our hotel room and distracted myself in any way I could think of, figuring I would probably be alone for a while. It was somewhere between flipping through the Swiss TV channels and thinking about taking a shower that Jimmy finally showed up.
"Hey," he spoke cautiously, not at all shocked to see me here.
With a scowl on my face, I pressed the 'mute' button on the remote, silencing a language I didn't understand. As he walked into the room and got closer to me, I moved to sit cross-legged on the bed, changing my position from lying on my stomach.
"Hi," I responded and although I didn't want to be the one to engage in conversation first, I continued. "How was the eclipse?"
By the time I made it back to our room, there were less than five minutes left to reach full solar totality. If it weren't for how dark it already got, I could tell something was happening based on how empty the hotel appeared to be as I was making my way up here. Our room had a great view of the mountains, which meant we could see the sky clearly as well. I knew better than to look directly at an eclipse but based on the time the room was submerged in complete darkness along with the distant cheering and hollers of all the spectators outside, I knew when the highly-anticipated moment had arrived.
The only thing I thought about at that time was Jimmy.
"It was…," I could tell by the look on his face that would have difficulty finding the right word for how incredible it truly was.
"Cool," I nodded, knowing it wasn't the word he was searching for.
Neither of us said anything for a bit, although it seemed like hours. I turned to stare at the TV, not really watching it but doing anything to avoid Jimmy's gaze.
"Cindy, can we talk?"
I really did try to fight the urge to say something that would speed up our inevitable fight.
"About what?"
"Look, I- I know that you're mad at me and I get it so-."
"Do you?" I managed to finally look at him. "Do you actually 'get it'? Do you get that I gave up going home to see my parents for this? That I haven't seen my best friend since the summer? And I did all this for you."
"Oh, for me?"
"Yes, for you." I moved to stand up. "I changed my plans, practically last minute, to come here with you."
"It's not like I begged you to come. You could have said no if you wanted to."
"And on top of that, you don't even seem to appreciate it!"
"Well, I'm not the one that walked out back there, am I?!"
"Which might not have happened if you showed a shred of interest in something other than yourself for once!"
"What the hell are you talking about?!"
"I'm talking about how even though we're thousands of miles from home, finally spending the holidays together, you have to go ahead and ruin it for your benefit!" My voice grew to an uncomfortable volume and I knew I had to settle down. "You proved today that we only came here because the eclipse was going on." I hated myself for letting my voice get so shaky. "And I bet if we hadn't, we wouldn't have seen each other for another few months yet again." I crossed my arms and looked down, wanted to hide myself even though I was standing right in front of him. "Not that it even matters anyway." I said that last part softly, and a part of me hoped that he heard it.
"You don't mean that."
The worst part about his answer is that he didn't deny my accusation of why we came here.
"You know what?" I looked into his eyes. "I do mean it." By the tremble in my voice, I knew I was barely holding it together. "I'm already learning how to live without you Jimmy." No matter how long I have known him, there will be times, such as this, where I can't tell what he's thinking. "And if I have to, I will."
Oooh, I didn't really want to end it there, but we have to save something for the next chapter.
So because this update took forever, I thought I'd treat you guys by giving you some info on the future of this story. I have outlined what I have planned to write and I can tell you that….this story is going to be LONGER than the original. As you can naturally assume, it will take us a while to get there, but it will definitely surpass the amount of chapters. Hope you guys can tune in.
Reviews?
