More Than A Summer

Chapter Five

I guess he thought that I’d be asleep by 1 'o clock that next morning, but I wasn’t And I was so happy to hear from him! It was a text of course... But that was all I needed.

EmmaLee and Paige stayed awake with me the entire time. They were just as happy I was to hear from Tyler. At some point in the night, we decided to go outside and hang out. Thankfully it was still warm out.

Tyler finally called me and I knew he had built his courage back up. We were playing tag with all the kids when my phone started to sing 'With You' by Chris Brown. Everyone stopped moving and looked at me. I pulled my phone out of my pocket very slowly. I honestly thought I was dreaming.

“Answer it!” EmmaLee yelled at me.

I hit 'Accept' and paused. Did I really want to hear this? Slowly I put the phone up to my ear. I waited.

Finally, “Hello?”

I exhaled. It was him, for some reason I was doubting it would be. “Hey.” I knew he was going to talk to me about everything that he said to Dacotta so I waited patiently.

“So, you're either extremely upset or you didn’t read any of he texts.

I stopped breathing and my mind jumped to a thousand places. I hadn’t read them, but whatever they said were going to upset me. For a second, I thought about hanging up. If they were going to upset me, I didn’t want to hear him say it. “Why would I be upset if I read the text messages Tyler? What did they say?” I didn’t WANT to know what he was going to say. I held my breath when he inhaled to reply.

“I didn’t mean it that way. I thought you;d be upset because I didn’t make sure it was you before I said anything. Keanah, if you didn’t read any of the messages, you have no idea how important this is to me!”

I sat down in the middle of the road and took off my sweatshirt as I said, “Well then, if I have no clue, why don’t you tell me what's so important to you? Please.” I balled up my sweatshirt and laid down on it. EmmaLee walked over and sat down beside me. I held a finger to my lips silencing her and we waited for Tyler to tell me everything.

After a few minutes he said, “I might as well. This time though, its a lot harder for me because I'm not as prepared. To be honest, I’m so nervous right now. I’m also terrified at what you;re going to say.” He paused, “I’m rambling now, Sorry.”

I smiled at his nervousness, it was so unlike him. “Its fine Tyler. Please just tell me what you need to.”

He took a deep breath, “Right. Okay, I can do this.” He pumped himself up, “I’m sorry if this isn’t as sweet as the first time. Everything I'm about to say is straight from my heart. I promise.”

I didn’t realize it at first, but my breathing had slowed down since he began. EmmaLee didn’t speak, she only slide over closer to me as the kids around us played their games. The only noise I listened to was the sound of Tyler's voice and his deep breaths to calm himself.

He began again, “Keanah, like I’ve said yo you a million time before, you are my everything. I mean that. Every morning I wake up, you’re one my mind, when I'm at work and think about my breaks; I think about texting you, when I'm alone at night and dream about how my future is going to look; you're always there. You mean everything to me Keanah. And I’d be the biggest fool in the world if I didn’t hold on to you. Don’t you understand? I love you more than life itself.” I gasped and held my breath as he continued, “Keanah, I'm moving to Indiana as soon as I can get my car. I love you and I want to be with you for the rest of my life.”

I didn’t even realize I was crying until I said, “I love you too Tyler. You have no idea how happy that'll make me.” I looked over at EmmaLee, it looked like she was crying too, but she had the biggest smile on her face.