"Mommy." Natalie jumped off of the couch. "When is Gramma and Grampa coming?"
Kylie leaned forward with a glowing smile as she looked down, turning Natalie around until she had been looking at me. "Why don't you ask Daddy? He's smarter than Mommy is."
She knew just how much shit she had been full of. After high school, Kylie had been personally contacted and met with several of the worlds top medical universities. It was literally her choice of schools. Kylie had given the stupidest reason for rejecting all of their offers: she hadn't wanted to put us through a long distance relationship. However, Sanford had given another offer once she had told them that. They had offered to move us into an apartment complex near the school, in return for her attending.
It hadn't even been about the money, from what she had told me. We could have just as easily moved there on our own financially. All she'd said was that she was looking for something different in her education; a school that cared about her education - not just her money, and Sanford had been the one to bring it. What was supposed to have been eight years quickly turned into 4 as she tested out of her Bachelors and into her Masters. If she decided to get tested, she would've likely been a genius, but she never cared to find out if she was or not. Which, I suppose, was just like her. She never really cared about the things she was or did, but only what she could see and touch.
A ball of steam had begun to roll as we had tied the knot after she graduated. It hadn't been long after we had gotten married that she had told me she was pregnant - and nine months later, Natalie was born. It hadn't all been peaches and cream between us, though. There had been a fair few fights between us, and one that had caused a two-week breakup during the remainder of our high school years. Somehow, we had pulled through all of that bullshit and found ourselves in adulthood, still very much happy together.
Me? I had decided to put my nose to the grindstone while Kylie went to school. I taught myself how to use programs, tools, and everything I could learn from design to coding. So, while Kylie had gone about changing the world, I was selling an album cover for a fifty dollar bill in the freelance world. Of course, that paled in comparison to being a student at a top-end medical school. As usual, she was that unicorn and I was the donkey with the Ice Cream cone taped to its head.
Had I wanted to be as good as her at something? Sure, I guess, but it wouldn't have killed me if I wasn't. Kylie was a special breed of human, one that glowed and shone anywhere she was set. If we switched jobs, she would have been twice as successful as I was. That had just been the way she always was, and it was something I couldn't or wouldn't fight. It was the nature of things, so to speak.
If someone would have told me that I would have dated and married the most beautiful, intelligent girl I would ever meet, I would have laughed. Sure, I'd want it to happen, but I wouldn't have believed it as far I could throw it. Yet, there I was - with that exact woman, and our child standing right in front of her. What else could I say or do? Nothing could've taken away from the feelings she'd given to me.
"Isn't Daddy smarter?" Kylie asked. "I think so."
"Yeah." Natalie nodded, and looked back at me. "When are they coming, Daddy?"
While it'd taken some time for Kylie to heal, she had eventually accepted her father's apology and had soon began to work her family back into her life. I had to give Kylie credit for being as open as she'd been with the same people who had, for all intents and purposes, disowned her. My mother, in essence, had done less than that and I never would've forgiven her. Actions had always been stronger than the words, and it had been those things never done that created our downfall. Call it petty or whatever you will, but I no longer had a family behind me. It was just me, myself, and these two.
"They're coming soon. I think." I scratched my head, looking back into the eyes of the curious child. "Maggie is driving them here now."
While my skills as a parent had been passable, it had was a task and a half to raise her sometimes. I honestly lacked the communication skills that Kylie had, the skills to speak to anyone at any level. She was always able to speak to her on a relatively human level and still make her understand what she meant. Me? I had sounded like an oaf with bread stuck in his mouth. It must've been a mom thing, or a good parent thing. God knew I was neither.
They had both seemed more than happy to laugh at me for whatever reason, but if it put a smile on their faces, then it'd been worth it. If I was going to look and sound like an idiot for anyone, it was going to be them. If I was going to be a fool for anyone, it was going to be them. If I was going to be a clown for anyone, it was going to be for them. It was always that simple.
Ten years later and Kylie had still been the only one for me.
A slight bit of movement had caught my eye as I saw Kylie stand up and walk up to me before plopping herself down on the cushion to my right - the lightly highlighted blonde streaks of her hair had fallen onto my arm. Her eyes, glowing with a sheen of life in them, had made contact with mine. Combined with the contagious smile she carried, it had almost made me want to look away - for fear of going blind.
"You never were the best at math, though." she stroked my hair, letting her head set itself down on my shoulder. "Even if you were kinda dumb, you make up for it in other ways."
"Oh? Like what?" I took her bait, slightly leaning my head back
"Where to start? Well, you're probably way more honest with your feelings than you should be. You know how to make me smile, and you look good...really good." Kylie answered, now nearly grinning as she whispered. "You'll just have to earn the rest."
**
Finally, Maggie and her parents had come and we had found ourselves alone together late in the afternoon. What had started as a simple little date had turned into a walk of sorts, leaving us talking about things - anything, everything that had come to mind. Soon, we had found ourselves standing before the place where it all started. The Raps. Just between the falling of the sun and the rising of the stars, we had been able to see both - the sunlit blue skies and the star-filled dusk sky. It had been as though the sky was split down the middle, and wanted to show the best of both worlds.
Kylie had nearly bounced forward with every short stride, only stopping when she reached the water. Kicking her heels off, she took a few steps into the clear water and turned. For just that moment, it had been like she was sent back to the day where we had first spent time together - where out relationship started, and a day that I could have said was one of my best. So much had changed since then, but some hadn't. What hadn't changed was right before me, and that was her. She was the one thing I had never wanted to change.
"I still remember that night here with Hurricane. We passed out right there by the fire." Kylie pointed at the patch of grass that had never fully grown back. "I woke up that night with your arm around me, and I couldn't get back to sleep because my heart kept trying to beat out of my chest. That spot was where I figured out what it was I felt towards you, and I was lucky enough to have it with you."
Hurricane, about two years ago, had passed away. After cleaning up his drug and alcohol problem, Hurricane had left his gang, and moved to Harlaine, Texas for a job and change of scenery. Once there, he was hired to work security at a high school, and had truly seemed to find his place within the real world. He seemed to really enjoy telling kids of his own stories, but also told them the consequences that came along with his lifestyle and actions - jail, fights, and even injuries that would never fully go away.
However, as much as the leaf had changed for Hurricane, death decided to follow him. The same month he had gotten the job, he was killed trying to protect two students in what had been yet another school shooting. He was a person who, no matter how bad he'd been, would attract people to him - he had always been awake and alive, living life like a child with ADHD on fast-forward.
"You also finally said that I was your girlfriend here, and then I almost had sex with you." she became slightly flushed. "..I had no idea what I was doing. I just kind of repeated what I saw Maggie do when she brought her boyfriends over. My god, it's so cringy thinking about all of that now. How did I even do that with a straight face?"
"Maybe because you meant it?" I pulled her hair back, taking the band from my wrist and putting her hair up into a loose ponytail. "It sure seemed like you meant all of that. Shit, it seems like everything you said here kinda came true."
"I would regret it in five years, he said. Ten years later, I'm still looking at you and still feel like I'm obsessed with you in every way. Ten years later, we're still together and have the most beautiful little girl on the planet." Kylie spun, her flushed color had disappeared and was replaced with a long, fulfilled smile. "Ten years later, we've both fought for everything we've wanted and now we've gotten it. The best part is that it's still not over."
Kylie had continued to glow more brightly with every word she spoke, just like all of the stars in the sky. She had radiated, smile and all. Throughout our relationship, there had been times that I had questioned if she was actually even human. The way she had moved, and even the way she had just taken over a room was like nothing else. Just like our wedding, she had taken over the entire room's attention before it had even started. She had been able to do that anywhere she went, from her major medical conventions to just walking in a park.
"Hey, are you pregnant again?" I asked. Kylie had acted exactly like this the first time around, reminiscing like a geezer and acting all jittery, like she had just done a line.
Sitting down on the grass, Kylie looked up at me wide-eyed and biting her thumbnail as a crooked smile took over her lips. She had looked almost surprised, as though she hadn't been expecting a question like that. I couldn't have blamed her, it came out of nowhere and was nothing more than a thought that had slipped from my mind to my mouth.
"I'm not pregnant, but we can change that now, if you want." she reached up and pulled me down, still smiling even as I fell with her. With a hefty thud, my forearms had hit the ground and landed on both sides of Kylie. She had taken advantage of my shock and attacked my mouth with her own, splitting it up with a small bite of my lips as I slowly pulled away. "Is that what you want?
I lived two years of a different life. Drugs, sex, and pain had ruled my life over and over again. Time and time again, I was taken down a peg and thrown to the gutter. Even if that place wasn't real, it taught me a lot. It had given me strength, the knowing that I had the will to keep getting up and keep fighting, to keep taking those finishing rights and being able to get back up. The darkness came to an end, and I found my way out. Even if it was fake, that world taught me so much. I grew up, mentally and emotionally as I strengthened myself against a cruel reality that would be consistently brought in that life, that world.
All of the darkness and all of the pain, it was worth it. The only thing I truly ever lost was precious time with the girl that lied underneath me right at that very moment.
While I was more than likely seeing things, It was within that split second that I had seen something sprout from her back - white and glorious, fitting for the beauty she had been. In that split second, I had seen what looked like a pair of wings extending from her back - lying still with her own body. All it had taken was the blinking of the eyes for them to disappear, just like it had left with the wind, never to be seen again. It was all too clear, who and what Kylie had been for me. She was my guiding light, my strength, and the reason that I kept fighting in that other life.
She was, above everything, my Angel.
A/N:
Will have the epilogue up later this week or weekend. This book is otherwise done, though. :)
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