Leap of Fate

I expected Angela and Jessica to show up, they had been looking forward to it, and they did, with their respective partners in tow, whom I had already had the pleasure of meeting each of them. Great guys, both of them. What I did not expect was to see Samantha show up. She hadn’t let me know that she would be coming, and she told me later that it had been a last-minute decision. She arrived at the party alone, which did not surprise me, after all, Simon would not have come even if she had asked him, plus I hadn’t included him on the invitation. That, in my opinion, would have been asking for trouble. I saw her enter, but I had no idea what to say, so I turned my back, because once again, tears were threatening to fall, and there was no way I was going to cry in front of anyone other than myself, and especially not at my own birthday party. Samantha socialised with Angela, Caleb, Jessica and Matthew for a while, which also meant some of my old friends from Burnie.

The inevitable, however, can only be postponed, and never avoided. Eventually Angela came over to see me.

"Samantha’s here."

"I noticed." I replied, glancing ever so briefly over her shoulder and making eye contact with Samantha before looking away.

"She wants to talk to you."

"I guessed that she might, the question being do I want to hear what she has to say?"

"I don’t know, you’ll have to make that decision when you hear it." Angela had always been good at dodging the questions which need answers that she can’t give.

So, I strengthened my resolve as much as I could and made my way to a more quiet place, also known as ‘out for a cigarette.’ After the standard greetings of those who were also outside having a smoke, I moved around the corner, with Samantha about three paces behind me. I’ll never forget this conversation, as long as I live.

"Hey." I started with.

"Hey, happy birthday."

"Thanks."

"So, twenty-one huh? Big day."

I closed my eyes for a moment and then looked at her. "What can I do for you, Samantha?"

"I just wanted to say you were right."

"Right about what?"

"About Simon and I."

"I never gave you any opinion about you and Simon."

"I knew what you thought though, you were worried that it would happen again, that I’d end up hurting again, both physically and emotionally. Well, you were right."

It was about now that I noticed the fading bruise on her cheek. Anger, combined with pity welled up within me. "Oh, Samantha."

Tears started running down her cheeks. "I’m sorry."

I pulled her to me, and gently stroked her hair. "Sorry for what?"

"For all the pain and frustration that you’ve had to go through the past few months. I should have realised where I belonged in the first place."

Now, I was surprised. "Where’s that?"

She looked up at me through moist eyes. I could see the truth without her needing to say the words that she whispered, I could barely hear her over the sound of the music and conversation inside. "Right here."

I broke down, so much for not crying in front of people. This was tears of happiness, though, tears of relief, tears of joy. Everything that I had hoped for was suddenly hitting the forefront. I had waited for the carousel to come around again, and it had, and I had been there to catch it when it arrived. I wiped away a tear from her cheek, and leaned down to kiss her. Within that kiss, everything faded away, the two of us were the only people on earth, it sounds cliché, but it was electric. I knew now, that everything would be alright, that I had made the right choice to wait for her.

We finally broke apart, and smiled into each others’ tear-filled eyes. My hand slid down her arm to find her fingers, which entwined with my own as we made our way back inside. Angela, Caleb, Jason, Jessica and other friends applauded, I gave Angela a glare for telling everyone the story, to which she gave me an innocent little smile. I simply laughed, I couldn’t have cared now, life had suddenly become perfect, and I wasn’t going to complain about anything.