Love You So: PART FIFTEEN

We broke the kiss, and he started to talk:
"So, I said I had something to show you, and I do. Do you remember that summer when we were 13, and we went to the Hamptons and we realised our houses were almost next door?"
"Sure I do" I added. I remembered that summer well, it was when I first realised I loved Nate. Four years later, I still do.
"Well, being the incredibly cool boy that I was I wrote a journal. Don't ask why, I like reading back the things I write. And I'm sounding more and more sad so I'm going to move on. The night you kissed me after catching Mollie and I, I called my mother and asked her to send me that journal, because I know it had something in that I wanted to show you... Here, read this. But not out loud or I'll get embarrassed." he pecked me on the cheek before giving me a black leather book with a single page turned down. I read the extract, and I couldn't help but smile and kiss him at regular intervals. It made me happier than I'd ever felt with him:
"Today, I left the Hamptons on the Jitney. I sat with my new friend Tiffany. I'd met her at school, and she was living next door to me for the whole trip. Her house is bigger than mine, but her family is richer. We'd spent the whole summer together, and it was kind of sad that we had to part now.
Nonetheless, I sat next to her, and as the journey went by, I felt myself talking to her, and before I knew it I felt myself talking just to fill the time we were together on this bus. I wanted to tell her how I feel about her. She's beautiful, funny and when I'm saying things dumb for a laugh, she's willing to say something two or three times as dumb to make me laugh; but she's also wise in a way I could never be. I think I love her. And it's not one of those 13 year old crushes that everyone our age has.
When I went out to the Hamptons this summer, I imagined it would be me and some other dudes I hadn't met yet, running around and getting into trouble. But instead I spent it with Tiffany. It had been perfect and I don't want to have to leave this vacation behind.
But now I knew I had to say something. If I never saw her again I would never forgive myself for not telling her how I feel.
The sun went down, and the bus was quiet. We were whispering to each other about events that had taken place over the past week, and I'm like "Can I tell you something?" and all of a sudden I'm telling her, but I'm treading around the three words I know I should be saying: I Love You. I told her about how much I've enjoyed the vacation and so on, and her face is expressionless, as I could see it under the lights that line the side of the highway. Her face was there and gone and there and gone, and before I knew it, and before I've had a chance to tell her what I really want to say, she asks me if she can sleep. So I say yes, and she does. I can't help but feel that I've missed an opportunity, one that I'll probably never get back. So I pretended to be asleep too, and before I knew it I actually was. When I woke up she'd gone, and like my dreams of being with her, there was nothing left but a memory."
I stopped reading. I remembered that summer too well. "If you'd told me that, we could have been together... I felt exactly the same way."
"I know. And I wish I could tell you that that story was about me getting on the bus a boy and getting off a man, but that's not true. I got on the bus a boy, and I never got off the bus. I still haven't. I'm still as in love with you now as I was then. And I don't think I'll ever get off that bus." he said, as he looked deep into my eyes.
"I love you" I whispered, resting my forehead on his. He kissed my lips, and whispered the same thing back. My heart leapt, and we kissed again. I allowed my hands to trace his muscles, and his hands traced my neck and my collarbone. His lips moved away from my lips, and he trailed a line of kisses from my chin to my neck, following the invisible line he'd just drawn with his finger. I leaned into him, and sat in his lap so he could put his arms around me. Our lips met again, and his tongue pushed between mine, opening them and allowing our tongues to entwine. He slowed the tempo of our kisses, so he could repeat over and over the three words that I'd longed to hear for such a long time. The 8 letters that had changed my life forever: I Love You.

(Note: The Jitney is the bus that takes people from New York to the Hamptons, for those of you that are a little confused!)