Final Story - 002

"It's been a while."

"Yeah… it has."

Tayla left the room, so it was just me and Kayla. Alone.

Ever since I got back, Tayla had been angry with me about this whole situation. I can't blame her for being that way either. It's all my fault.

Why didn't I ever tell Tayla about Kayla?

I mean, I know why, but I feel stupid now. Now that things have turned out this way. The reason I never told Tayla about Kayla, is because I was worried about how she would respond. How… she would react to finding out that I was head over heels in love with another girl, mere weeks before we met. No, that's a lie.

I was probably still in love with her when I met Tayla.

Kayla speaks first, snapping me out of my thoughts, "how have you been?"

"Good, it's been good. And you?"

"I'm good now. It was quite a shock when you left. Y'know, people talk about running away from home and stuff like that, but you never expect them to actually go ahead with it."

"Yeah, well… I didn't really want anyone to think I was serious about it."

If I did ever let it slip, which I did on a few occasions, I would immediately make a joke out of it. If anyone thought that I actually wanted to run away, it just would've made it harder to do so.

I think about asking Kayla how my friends are, but she wasn't actually that close with any of my other friends. She probably wouldn't know.

Instead, Kayla speaks up before I can think of something better to say.

"Me and Tayla talked about you quite a bit, y'know."

"Really? From what I heard it sounded like she didn't talk to you a lot. She said that she found it hard being in the same room with you."

"Yeah, I thought that's what happened," Kayla really looked a little sad, "she was fine the first day I was here, but after that I think everything just got to her."

Kayla often doesn't mean what she says, but I think that she's being serious right now. I can tell. I was in love with her for a long time, after all.

"I don't blame her for that, though," she continued, "I know I wouldn't like learning my boyfriend was seriously in love with another girl when we first started going out. And on top of that, you were on the other side of the world."

On the other side of the world?

It sounds like she doesn't know that I was on the moon. What did Tayla tell her? She didn't mention it while we were walking over here. I'll just have to be careful with what I say regarding that.

"I know, I should've told her. I wish I had. No matter how that would've gone at the time, there's no way it could be worse than this."

"Yeah, you should've told her."

You're the last person I want to hear that from!

"Well, whatever. I guess it's not my business."

"What did she say about me?"

"Now, now," Kayla shook her head, "I can't tell you that, that's a secret. Without getting too specific, the way she described you… you seemed like a completely different person than the one I know."

"Well, I'd like to think that I'm a different person now. I don't know if I'm really a different person, but at least I try to be."

"How do you mean?"

"Well… I try not to ignore the things that I can see."

…

…

"What's that mean?"

"Sorry, I'm not sure how to explain it well. I guess, I don't want to lie to myself. If I see something happening that I don't like, I don't want to just ignore it. I want to be the kind of person who will do something about it. I think."

"I think? Putting that on the end makes it sound half-hearted," Kayla laughed.

"Well, it's not like I'm entirely sure what it is I want to be, so I can only be half-hearted."

"That's hilarious."

She kept laughing. What exactly I'd said that made her laugh, I couldn't tell you, but well… whatever it was, Kayla found it hilarious.

"Well, if you really are someone different now, I'll learn all about you soon enough."

"Huh?"

"Hadn't you worked it out? I'm here to bring you back home, Alex."