Surrender (Based On The Song By Billy Talent) It was Saturday afternoon and as usual I was on my way to meet my best friend, Kayla, at the café down the street from my apartment. We’d been best friends since middle school and had been going to the same café every Saturday afternoon for as long as I could remember. I got there and said hello to the people I knew before making my way to the patio where Kayla and I always sat. She was already there waiting for me, but I stood there for a moment just looking at her before letting her know I was there. Kayla had never thought of herself as beautiful, but I knew she was dead wrong. To me she was the most beautiful person in the world. She had long flowing auburn hair, the perfect body, not too curvy yet not too skinny either, and eyes that changed shades of green depending on the light. But her looks were nothing compared to her personality. She was funny, smart, caring, and my personal favorite sarcastic. Yes I was in love with my best friend. “Finally” Kayla said standing up to greet me and at the same time pulling me out of my reverie. “I’ve been waiting here for like forever.” She said hugging me. “Sorry.” I said laughing and kissing her on the cheek. She’d probably only been waiting for ten minutes, but she liked to over exaggerate things. “I hope you don’t mind.” She said as we sat down. “I took the liberty of ordering for you.” “That’s fine.” I said. I always ordered the same thing so it didn’t bother me. “So how was your date with, um…what was his name again?” I asked pretending to forget the name of the guy she was currently dating just to mess with her. “His name is Pete.” She said irritated. “God Ben it’s like you do it on purpose. I’ve only told you, oh what, like fifty thousand times.” I laughed and she scowled at me. She was so cute when she was mad. “Here you go.” The waitress said handing us our coffees. I thanked her and turned back to Kayla. “So, you gonna tell me about this date of yours or not?” I asked taking a sip of my coffee. She went quiet and slowly took a sip of her coffee before speaking. “He…he broke up with me.” She said looking like she wanted to cry. “I thought he liked me. I don’t know what happened?” “It’ll be okay.” I said taking her hand. “You’re too good for him anyways.” Pete was the first guy she’d gone out with for more than a week and she’d really started to fall for him even after she’d sworn to herself she wouldn’t. When she was fifteen her dad left her mom and after seeing her mom hurt like that she’d sworn to herself that she would never let a guy hurt her that way. It made me mad to think that someone could hurt Kayla, but right now I had to focus on her and be there for her like I always was when she needed me. I’d have to become her crutch again just like I did when her dad left. “You have to say that.” She said after a few moments sniffling “You’re my best friend.” “I’m not saying it just ‘cause I’m your best friend. Look at me.” I said placing two fingers on her chin to make her look at me. “You’re a beautiful, caring, intelligent woman and any man would be lucky to have you.” Including me, I thought, but I didn’t tell her that because she couldn’t know I loved her. It could ruin our friendship and I couldn’t lose her. “Really?” she asked unsure. “Really. Now come on you need to have a little fun.” I said standing up and throwing a few bills on the table. * * * “Where are we going?” Kayla asked exasperated after we’d been on the bus for nearly an hour. “You’ll see when we get there.” I told her grinning devilishly. I knew this must be driving her insane. She hated when I wouldn’t tell her something. Finally the bus stopped again. I got up and she followed me. “The carnival?” she asked seeing where I was headed. “Yeah, the carnival.” I said taking her hand and practically dragging her to the entrance. “You’re the one who said you always wanted to go.” “I can’t believe you remembered.” She said waiting in line next to me. “I remember everything you say.” I mumbled under my breath. “What was that?” she asked. She’d heard me and not wanting to admit what I’d just said I quickly came up with something. “I said I have a good memory.” I lied smoothly. I hated having to lie to her, but I couldn’t tell her the truth. We’d reached the ticket booth and I bought us both tickets so we could go on the rides. “Okay, you pick. What do you what to go on first?” I asked leading her towards the rides. “We can go on the Tilt-a-Whirl or the Gravitron…” I said naming rides as we passed them. “I wanna go on that one.” She said pointing to a roller coaster type ride. I looked at her nervously. The ride had two drops and that was it, but both drops went down at nearly ninety degree angles and I was a tiny bit afraid of heights. To top it all off the entire circuit was filled with water so you weren’t attached to anything. There weren’t even any straps or seatbelts. Reluctantly I agreed because I was hopelessly in love with Kayla and I would do anything she asked me to do, even if it meant risking my life on a carnival ride. Maybe I was being a little overdramatic, but that’s how it felt to me. She started running towards the ride and already she seemed happier. I grinned stupidly and followed after her. I watched her as she ran. She looked beautiful and vulnerable, almost like a child. I felt the need to protect her and shield her from the evils of the world. Already I knew I’d failed by letting Pete hurt her the way he did. Right then I made a promise to myself to always be there for her, even if it was just as a friend. As long as she was happy it didn’t matter to me. We were in line now and I clenched my hands into fists to stop them from shaking. Kayla was standing next to me and she took my hand in an attempt to calm me. She knew I had a fear of heights, but I was trying very hard to hide it because she wanted to go on this ride and I didn’t want her to have to go alone. The line moved faster than I would have liked and soon it was our turn. Kayla dragged me into the log. I sat down in back and she sat in front of me. It made it a little easier because it didn’t feel like I was going to fly forward. We both grabbed on to the metal bars on each side of the log and we began climbing steadily upward. Once we reached the top we looped around towards the drop and I squeezed my eyes shut. I felt when we started to go down and I screamed bloody murder all the way down. At the bottom Kayla ducked so that all the water splashed onto me. I opened my eyes and I was soaked, but she was practically dry. She turned around and laughed at my startled expression. I was angry, but when I heard her laugh it vanished. Like everything else about her, her laugh was beautiful. “I’m gonna get you for this.” I said snapping out of my slight trance and pretending to be mad. This just made her laugh more and I smiled. We were now almost at the second drop and this time instead of gripping on to the metal bars I wrapped my arms around Kayla so she couldn’t duck again. She squirmed trying to free herself, but I would not let go. She squealed when we reached the bottom and the water splashed all over her. I let go of her and as soon as we reached the platform she darted away from me. I raced after her giving her the impression that she was beating me for a little while. I had longer legs so I could’ve caught up easily, but I decided to let her have her fun. She deserved it. We were in the middle of the carnival and both still dripping wet when I caught up with her. It was starting to get dark and I was a bit cold, but I didn’t care. I picked her up in my arms and twirled her around. “Put me down.” She yelled laughing at the same time. I twirled her a few more times and put her slowly down on her feat so she was facing me, but I kept my hands on her waist. We both stopped laughing and became serious. “I surrender.” She whispered. This made no sense at all and all I could do was stare at her confused. “Ben, I’ve been lying to myself and to you.” “What…?” I began to ask her what she was talking about before she cut me off. “Please just let me finish.” She said and I nodded. “I keep telling myself that I don’t like you, but that’s a lie, Ben. The truth is I love you so I surrender. No more games and no more lying.” I didn’t know what to say and she just kept on rambling. “If you don’t like me in the same way I’ll understand. I’m not saying it won’t hurt, but I’ll understand. I just…” I didn’t let her finish. I put my hand on the back of her head and pulled her face close to mine so that our lips were almost touching. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited for you to say that.” I said before kissing her passionately. As soon as our lips touched fireworks went off. I thought it was only in my head, but when I pulled away I saw that they were sending up actual fireworks. Kayla saw this too and we both started laughing. “Talk about timing.” I said my forehead still pressed against hers. We both turned to watch the fireworks and I took my hand out of her wet hair, taking her hand instead. We stayed until the fireworks ended and as we were leaving Kayla turned to me and asked. “Can we come back tomorrow?” she reminded me of a child asking her parents to buy her the shiny new toy. I laughed and agreed. I loved Kayla and now that I had her I wasn’t going to let her go.
Copyright © 2009 Isabelle Comeau |