Dear Diary 3: Unwritten
Chapter 15- Apologize
Nearly two hours later, I finally received a text from Aqua that she was ready. When I arrived, she had the biggest smile on her face. She climbed into the passenger seat. "You look awfully pleased with yourself," I said pulling away from the cafe.
"Things will be better now," she sighed happily as we continued on our way back home. I wasn't going to make her elaborate now only because I knew she would have a lot of explaining to do once we arrived back at the Hikaru's.
Upon pulling up to the house, Terra must have seen us because he bolted out the front door followed by Ven, Roxas, and Sora. "Aqua!" he exclaimed as he pulled her into a hug as she got out of the car. "What in the world made you want to talk to Shawn?"
"How did you know I talked to him?" she asked.
"Kairi texted me that she was exploring downtown because you two ran into Shawn at the coffee shop. I couldn't not tell Terra," Sora rubbed the back of his head. I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around him. "I would hope someone would do the same if Kairi and Shawn were talking."
Aqua looked at the two of us, then the twins, then back at Terra. She smiled her sweet smile. "It's okay now. I promise. He won't be causing any of us grief, especially you two." Her eyes met mine and Sora's.
"How do you know?" I asked.
She hummed to herself, pleased. "Because I just had to talk some sense into him. Things will be different for you at work and your personal lives. He made his vow to not bother you anymore."
"But how can you be so sure he'll keep it?" Roxas asked crossing his arms. "You don't know the Shawn we know."
"True," she replied. "I may not know the same person you know, but I know the Shawn I knew from years ago. He was harmless. I know he's the same person deep down."
"Maybe to you," Terra insisted. "He was an ass when you weren't around."
"Because he feared you," she smiled putting her hand on his cheek. "He was worried you'd sweep me off my feet when I wasn't looking. He figured we would end up together sooner or later. Shawn didn't want to lose me and now, well he's lost me…. and he was never sure what would come of us if we ever recrossed paths."
"Nothing will happen. Your paths are cut off," Terra huffed.
Aqua laughed. "Nothing will ever change what has happened but we finally had our closure. He's going to have closure with the rest of you, too."
"That's a hell of a lot of people he'll need closure with," Roxas nodded. Sora and I agreed.
Aqua walked up to me and held my hands. "Kairi, thank you."
"For what?"
"For giving me the chance to finally say goodbye and helping all of us reconnect," she pointed to Ventus and Roxas. "You brought all of us closer as a family and as for me, I was able to tell Shawn how happy I am with Terra and how grateful I was to have known him. I would never have had the opportunity without you."
I never would have thought to receive thanks for something that involved reconnecting Shawn with someone. He has caused so much destruction in his path that I never would have guessed someone was at the end waiting to clear it all up, especially his ex-girlfriend. I hugged Aqua tightly. "Thank you, too."
The following morning, Aqua, Terra, Yuri and Ryuu Hikaru, and Ventus took Sora, Roxas, Evany and Masuyo Hikaru, and myself to the loading docks to head back home to Destiny Island.
"You better come visit us soon," Roxas said to his brother who he finally made a connection to.
"In four months," Ventus grinned.
Sora's mom hugged me tightly. "I can't wait to see you in your beautiful wedding dress, Kairi. If you need help with anything, let me know."
"Thank you," I answered hugging her again. I looked at everyone we were leaving behind. "You'll be getting your wedding invites within a couple weeks."
"Looking forward to it," Terra nodded as he wrapped his arm around Aqua affectionately. We said our official goodbyes for the time being and headed toward the ship to take us home. It was going to be a long ride but this was the final trip before our big day and I knew it was going to fly from here on out.
"Kairi!" Namine squealed excitedly as she pulled me into a hug as soon as I stepped off the docks. She was anxiously waiting for us to arrive and take us home.
"Hello, am I chop liver or something?" Roxas frowned standing next to me.
Namine smirked and pulled him into a tight hug. "I saved this for you," she whispered before giving him a big kiss.
"Thank goodness you saved that for him," I joked causing Sora to laugh.
"Me too," Roxas agreed once they separated.
"Let's go to our car and let these kids reunite," Masuyo, Roxas's dad, said to his wife. Namine instantly turned red, obviously forgetting they were there. I held in my chuckle.
Roxas laughed and rubbed the back of his head. "Thank you for telling me everything. Sorry I was so hard headed about it," he said to his mom.
Evany smiled sweetly. "I love you, Roxas. Now I just have double to love." The Hikaru's hugged us before they headed to their car.
"So what's this news you insisted I heard once you got back? I've been dying to know," Namine said holding onto Roxas's hand as we began our walk to the parking lot.
"You don't know?" Sora asked surprised.
"Tell me," she urged Roxas anxiously.
"Well," he said looking at her. Sora and I followed closely behind her to see what she would say. "I'm a twin brother."
She stopped in front of us causing us to almost run into them. "You have a twin?"
"Identical," Sora added. She looked at him then back at her boyfriend.
"You never told me!"
"I didn't know!" he answered. "Trust me, I was just as surprised as you."
"Slight understatement," I said under my breath.
"Where is he?" she asked looking around expecting him to be here.
"He'll be here for our wedding," I said. "Guess what else we found out."
"What?" she looked back at us.
"We met Shawn's ex-girlfriend. And to top it off, they ran into each other when Shawn came to the island to look at a location for expanding D.I.F." Namine's eyes widened. "A lot has happened in just a week."
"And I missed it all!" Namine gasped. "You better fill me in, Kairi."
I laughed, "of course. Let's get the group together for dinner and I'll explain it all." We arrived to Namine's car and loaded our luggage in the trunk. On the way home, we texted the small group of friends that still lived near by to come hear about what happened while we were away. It wasn't until later in the evening that we decided to meet up at the Flowering Tree Cafe, the same one One Destiny sang in when we temporarily were split up back in our senior year. We walked in to the semi-busy coffee shop and saw Riku, Amanda, and Cloud waving our way.
"I missed you," I said hugging Amanda tightly.
"It's good to have you guys back," Riku said patting Sora on the back profusely. It nearly knocked the wind out of him.
"You're going to knock him into the table at that rate, Riku," Cloud laughed.
"Please don't knock out my fiancé. I'd really hate for him to lose his memory before our wedding," I stuck my tongue out.
"Sorry," Riku chuckled.
"Tell us what happened!" Amanda urged us. We all glanced at each other and slowly we unraveled our stories fully to the four of them who stayed behind. We explained meeting Ventus and how Aqua and Terra were connected to Shawn this whole time.
"I don't trust that Shawn has changed," Cloud replied, crossing his arms. "That's cool that you have a brother, Roxas."
"It was like looking into a mirror," Roxas eyes widened. I shook my head.
"I can't help but believe Aqua, though," I sighed. "She seems too genuine to be telling us a fib."
"She might actually believe him. Maybe he told her he'll come and apologize to us but if he actually will do it is a totally different story," Namine added.
"Guess we will have to see it to believe it," Sora said.
I looked up to see that the line had gone down from the register. "Do you guys want drinks?" I asked sliding out. They nodded and gave me their orders. I walked up to the register and looked over the menu for a second before reading a sign off to the side saying they were hiring. I looked at the barista, "excuse me, do you happen to have any applications?" I asked pointing to the sign.
"Yeah," she slid me one. "If you want to fill it out now, I can leave it on my boss's desk."
I smiled anxiously, "that'd be great." She handed me a pen and I began to fill out the application. I had never worked as a barista before but I figured I would be able to (hopefully) pick up on it fast enough. After signing the bottom, I handed the paper back to the barista who smiled at me.
"What can I get started for you?" she asked. I ordered my friends their espresso drinks and waited at the hand off plane for them to be done.
"Geez, what took you so long?" Amanda asked taking her iced caramel latte from me.
"I put in my application," I grinned.
"You did?" Sora asked surprised. "You never told me you wanted to work here."
"I didn't know I wanted to until I saw the hiring sign. I figured I wouldn't be able to sit at home all day thinking about what I could do with my life while you worked away at D.I.F. I need to keep busy and this will be a perfect little job for me while I write."
"I can see you working here," Namine nodded as she glanced around.
"Plus," Cloud said taking a sip of his soy chai. "think of all the free drinks you can get."
"Mmm," I grinned taking a drink of my iced caramel macchiato.
"So this wedding of yours. Have you two decided an official date yet?" Riku asked. "Last we heard it was June 6th, is that still the plan?"
"Well," I shrugged. "We talked about it. We want it to be June 17th."
"Why the 17th?" Roxas asked.
"Too many early June weddings. Plus, the 6th falls on a Sunday making it pricer for vendors like the DJ and catering," Sora said. "June 17th falls on a Thursday which makes things cheaper."
"Make sense," they all agreed.
"So June 17th at the beach house that Elizabeth left you guys," Amanda nodded. "You know, you guys are really bad at this whole planning thing when it's only four months away and you don't have anything officially set in place. You may want to step on it."
"Well," I looked at Sora. "We know the colors are going to be a golden yellow and a burgundy red. It'll be in the late morning on the beach outside and the reception inside. We only want immediate friends and family there."
Sora nodded. "We also know we don't want to make it too expensive. Kairi already agreed to make her own flowers and we don't want you guys spending too much money on your outfits that you'll only wear once."
"Okay so we know we're all in it," Namine said. "I'm the maid of honor followed by Amanda, Selphie, Alexa, and Yuna."
"I'm the best man," Roxas continued. "Then Riku, Cloud, Tidus, and Wakka."
"When are we going to go look at dresses, Kai?" Amanda asked eagerly.
I laughed, "tomorrow?"
"Yay!" Namine cheered. "It's going to be so much fun." The six of us finished our drinks and decided to go our separate ways for the rest of the evening.
I sat in our bed and wrote down all eventful information from the prior week with Sora's family later that night. Princess, our golden retriever, was curled up at the end of the bed while Precious, my white persian cat, was nestled on her cat post across the room. It was so nice to be home and be in my warm bed. It was nice to get away but to be home was priceless. I couldn't wait until we were married and we find a house to call our own.
"What are you thinking about, Miss Hikari?" Sora asked using his towel to dry his crazy hair after the shower he just came back from.
I looked up and smiled, "our future."
He sat down next to me and kissed me. "What about our future my lovely fiancee?"
"How I can't wait until we have a house of our own."
He looked around. "You don't like our little apartment?"
I laughed. "Of course I do, I just want to have a house so we can have a place for our children to grow up in and have Princess be able to run around a beautiful yard."
Sora cupped my chin and leaned his forehead to mine. "I'll give you everything and anything you want, Kai. I promise."
I smiled to myself. "I know you will." And times like this proved why I was marrying my best friend. No matter all of the awful circumstances we shared over the course of nearly five years, we were making it work. I couldn't wait to spend the rest of my life with the man in front of me.
The following day, I took my writing to the Flowering Cafe while Sora went to work. I figured I would catch up on some writing while I waited for the girls to get off of work to go dress shopping for both me and my bridesmaids.
"Kairi?" a voice said behind me.
I nearly jumped out of my skin since I was so focused in my writing. I turned to see Shawn standing behind me. "Shawn, when did you get back?"
"This morning." He had his hands in his pockets and looked around the cafe. "Mind if I join you?"
"Um," I looked at the vacant seat in front of me. There was no way to say no and provide a reason why. "Sure…"
"It won't be long," he assured me as he sat down. "I just wanted to talk to you about what happened when we were away."
"About how you were such an asshole and how that'll never seem to change?" I knew I was pushing it but no matter what, he seemed to manage to make my blood boil.
"I deserve that," he admitted.
"What do you need to say to me?" I asked setting my hands down on my notebook and leaning in.
"I'm sorry." He actually said it just like Aqua had predicted.
"How can I know you truly are? We've been through an apology before." I thought of when Shawn came by my house to apologize for forcing me into a black mailed relationship with him senior year.
Flashback
"So, what did you need to talk to me about?"
"About this last month," Shawn said as we swung slowly back and forth. "I'm sorry for everything. I'm sorry for making you date me. I've always been amazed by you and you never cease to amaze me. So I've heard from my friends, they told you that I am interested in someone else. The reason I had you date me was because I wanted to make her jealous. She obviously wasn't jealous of Sarah or Cindy and I had a feeling that since you were really well known because of your choice of friends, she'd get envious of you. I don't think that plan worked out though."
"Who's the girl?" I decided to ask.
"I'd rather not say," he replied.
"Well you know, some jealousy between girls leads to hatred of other girls and guys. You may be have just made her not like you," I said. He looked down at Princess.
"I guess you're right. She probably hates me like no other now." Shawn stood up. "Well, I just wanted to apologize for everything that's happened." I stood up as well.
"That takes guts to apologize," I responded.
"Yeah, well," he shrugged. "I better go. See you later, Kairi."
"Bye Shawn." The green-eyed teen left with his hands in his pockets.
End Flashback
"We have been through this before," he sighed. "But I'm not trying to trick you or make you believe I've changed. What Aqua said to me made me realize I need to let everything go and start new which was the perfect opportunity to do so now."
"What did Aqua tell you anyway?" I asked curiously.
"That no matter what I want or how I want to handle things, I need to do it without getting everyone else involved. If I can't make something work out in my favor, I shouldn't take our my frustration on everyone else. I lost Aqua to Terra but they are ultimately meant to be. Christy, well, she's just not someone I need to be with."
"That's an understatement," I huffed to myself. "Shawn, do you really mean this?"
"Of course," he nodded. "I know I'm not someone you can easily trust. I've done a lot of shit to make me untrustworthy."
"So now what?"
"I'm going to be leaving Destiny Island," he finally declared.
I couldn't stop my surprise from showing. "You're leaving?"
"Yeah, probably in the middle of March I'll be moved. I'm headed to D.I.F. to put in my two weeks."
"Where will you go?"
"I don't know yet," he answered looking out the window behind me before meeting my eyes again and smiling. "Somewhere better I hope."
I was conflicted with all the information he was giving me. Aqua was right about him apologizing but I wonder if she knew it would lead to him leaving. Maybe it was everything he needed to do to move on from the awful things he's put us through. Shawn was a big part of our group being pulled and pushed in different directions but then again because of him, our friendships were stronger. More importantly to anything else was if I could really trust this apology. It would be the last time we would run into each other if he really was moving, so the possibilities of his genuine apology was a higher chance then those times in the past.
"So you actually mean it," I asked one final time.
"Yes, I really am sorry for everything I've done to you, Sora, and everyone else. I've been a real ass since I've met you guys. I have no real reason for everything I've done except my sour attitude about love. You and Sora have always had it and I guess maybe it was my green monster deep inside that made me resent you because once upon a time, I had love with someone so precious to me."
"Aqua," I smiled.
"Yes," he smiled back. "I'll always love her but she's happy and I can see that. Terra and her are meant to be and I know I made you and Sora closer in a sense."
"More than you know," I nodded. "Thank you for your apology, Shawn. I hope you find whatever you're looking for out there."
"Me too," Shawn sighed. "I wish you and Sora the best of luck in your marriage."
"Thank you." He stood up and so did I. I don't know what exactly possessed me to do it, but I hugged Shawn one final time. He was caught off guard.
"Well, off to go break the news to Sora," he laughed. "I'm sure he'll be oh so devastated."
"So heartbroken," I smiled. "Bye, Shawn."
"Bye, Kairi." Shawn walked out of the cafe and I knew it was more than likely the last time I would ever see or hear from him again. Part of my felt sad but most of me felt relieved. Maybe we'd finally get some peace back in our lives. I sat back down and looked over my writing. I only had three more entries, if all went well, until the winner was announced. With Shawn leaving, I was given a little more inspiration for the story I was writing.
A/N: (Start: 6/9/14- End: 6/13/14) I know this chapter wasn't super long but at least I'm writing it like I promised, yeah? I figured this story would be a process with me writing it through out the last (hate to say it) seven years. Reviews are fantastic and I'm grateful for each one so thank you for the private messages and reviews that I've received since I've been back. It's definitely inspiring! I hope those of you who have gone back to re-read the chapters to catch up are able to do so easily. Anywho, if you enjoyed, please let me know what you think about the whole Shawn thing!
A/N: prt 2 The Dear Diary website on my profile is slightly updated with info on each chapter if you need a little refreshers on what's happened throughout the story (trust me, it's helped even me out!)