Come Back To Me (chapters 1-9) by Paige569 (top 100 books of all time checklist .txt) 📖

the air felt as it stung my lungs. I sank to the floor clutching my stomach with one hand and ripping the pendant I wore off my chest with the other.

I was crying, crying silent sobs that flowed down my cheeks in a cascade of salty water that was surely ruining my dress. The stupid dress I was wearing that made me feel even more ridiculous then I already did.

Dylan was getting married.

He wasn't mine, he never was and he had forgotten all about me.

I remembered what he said that night, "Nothing will ever change between me and you Little Kate," and he hadn't lied either, because nothing had changed. I was still his Little Kate and he was still Dylan, always a grasp out of my reach.

chapter 3


I peeled myself off the bathroom floor by clutching the sides of the sink as I tried to catch my breath. I needed to snap out of this. Dylan had come home; it's what I'd been waiting for. I tried to smile. To find some kind of contentment in the fact that he was here, but it didn't work. What started off as an empty grimace, turned into a twinge of sorrow as tears trickled down my face.

"He came back to me," I said a load to the empty bathroom, listening to my broken words echo around me; he just came back to me with someone else.

The anguish jolted a scrutinizing jab of pain across my chest. Someone else, he was marrying and in love with someone else. The words seemed foreign and I suddenly felt very sick. I closed my eyes and inhaled heavily, I needed to get a grip. Nothing could change what was real and waiting for me downstairs.

I leaned over the sink and let the water run cold before splashing it on my face. When I arched upward, I met my gaze in the mirror and saw that my eyes no longer sparkled like they had earlier, but conveyed an empty trough of nothingness.

A gentle knock against the door interrupted my sorrow fest and I tried to compose myself.

"Kate, you in there honey?" it was Mrs. Walsh, Dylan's mom.

Great, this is just what I needed.

"Just finishing up, I'll be right out." I shouted through the door.

"You sure your okay Kate, Vanessa said you didn't look to well?" she asked with concern wavering in her voice.

Already it was Vanessa.

It seemed like things were moving too fast and the world was spinning chaotically on its axle and I couldn't hold on. I needed things to slow down so I could take them in, but that didn't seem like that was going to happen and I realized the longer I stayed up here, the faster things were happening down there.

"I'm fine," I assured her.

I listened to her feet walk across the hall and down the stairs.

I ran my fingers shakily through my hair and smiled roughly as I looked at myself in the mirror in an attempt to motivate my weaker side that was considering crawling out the bathroom window and making a run for it.

You can do this Kate, just tonight and then were gone, maybe go stay with Rachel for a while.

I nodded reassuringly to my reflection and placed my hand on the cool brass knob. My feet were unexpectedly frozen to the ground. It was suddenly more than just a knob; it was the one thing that would reconnect me with the realism of what was on the other side, Dylan and his fiancé.

I took one more deep breathe to steady myself and walked out the door.

Downstairs I could hear voices and music playing softly in the background.

My heart was still beating distortedly against my chest and I felt a little shaky, but I needed to hold myself together.

"There she is," exclaimed my father as he got up from his seat and wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

My mother was busy chatting with Mrs. Walsh and Dylan's dad had cornered Dave and Jared and was now showing them his fishing wire collection.

I looked at Dylan who was sitting on the couch next to Vanessa. He didn't even glance at me when I walked in the room.

Was I invisible?

It was now clear, that he never had any feelings for me and that hurt, but he was still my best friend.

Wasn't I?

Or was someone else going to run through the door and say they had fulfilled that position as well, leaving me with no place when it came to him.

"Can I get a hand in the kitchen?" Mrs. Walsh shouted from across the room and behind the flapping doors that separated the kitchen from the dining area.

My father patted me on the back and handed me his drink that smelled highly of alcohol.

"Coming!" he shouted as he walked across the room and unknowingly abandoned me. I suddenly felt very awkward and out in the open without him at my side.

I was about to walk outside when I was stopped by a light tap on the shoulder.

"Kate, is that you?" it was Jared Dylan's friend.

"Oh hey Jared," I said forcing out a smile.

Across the room I could see him getting rewarded with an evil glare from Dave, who was without a doubt mad at being abandoned with Dylan's dad.

"You really grew up didn't you," he exclaimed," the last time I saw you, you were what seventeen?" he said staring at me like he had never seen me before.

I glanced across the room and saw Dylan looking at me for the first time since outside and immediately looked away when I met his eyes.

"Yep, all grown up I guess," I said with a frown, not knowing what else to say.

To me Jared still looked exactly the same. He had always been tall and his face still held the same boyish features it always had. His light brown hair was messy, but slightly combed back tonight; I'm assuming for the occasion and his brown eyes were tinted the tiniest shade of green.

"So what have you been up to, since you left?" he asked looking rather interested.

I felt like this was a conversation he might drag out and I was already growing irritated.

It was strange how this night had turned out. I thought I would have been having this discussion with
Dylan not Jared.

"Nothing much, I moved back about a month ago and now I'm trying to decide what I want to do." I said looking away like I was distracted.

I wanted this conversation to be over and for my answer to have been enough for him to stop talking to me.

"Yeah, I opened up my own business last year, it's doing alright. Set my own hours, even got one of those websites up and running as of last week," he said proudly.

"That's great Jared, umm...would you excuse me," I said already walking away.

My life had just fallen apart and I didn't want to hear about how great his was going. I walked towards the back of the room and into the den where the party wasn't secluded too. I lifted the glass to my mouth and took in my dad's drink with a single gulp before setting it down on the mantel.

"Aren't you a little young to be drinking?"

I turned around surprised, I thought was alone.

"Dylan," I breathed out somehow managing to say his name.

"I didn't mean to bother you; I just saw you come in here and wanted to see if you were alright." He said with a tone that was caring and quiet.

So he had noticed. He wasn't completely blind to my display of heart ache outside.
What had he expected though?

That I would ask to be a bridesmaid and become best friends with the wretch?

Wait I take that back. It really isn't her fault and I felt bad for forcing the blame of this on her. He was the one who had broken my heart. I had waited four years for him to come back, all for nothing. I couldn't help the slight anger that rose in my throat and out of my mouth.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I asked harshly, maybe a little too harshly in fact. The way his body flinched from the cold unexpectedness of my words was clearly visible.

"I just thought... never mind. I guess I'll see you out there," he said turning to leave.

Some part of my brain yelled, don't do this. You're better off just leaving it as is. Think of yourself and what it will do to you, tomorrow you can be gone and never look back, but I just couldn't.

"Dylan!" I said abruptly, not knowing what I was going to say.

I only knew I was being selfish. He was my best friend and I needed to be happy for his happiness, my
feelings set aside.

"Yeah?" he asked.

I took a few steps towards him and maybe it was the drink I had just consumed, but I wrapped my arms around him and crushed him into a bone cracking embrace.

"I really did miss you," I said softly, closing my eyes as tightly as possible. If I opened them, the tears would escape and I didn't want him to see me like that. I didn't want him to see all the pain this had caused me.

I also wanted to memorize everything about this moment. The way he smelled and the feel of his muscles and how they were tense, but slowly relaxing beneath my arms. Tomorrow I would leave and who knew how many more years would pass until I saw him again.

"Me too Katie," he breathed against my neck and my whole body felt like a million goose bumps from the feel of his breathe on my skin.

"And ....and I'm happy for you Dylan," I said against his chest.

His arms tightened around me.

It was a lie. A complete and utter lie, I wasn't happy at all.

I would have rather he came home and said the last four years were a wasted sham or that he was going to jail for a horrendous act of crime, before I witnessed him coming home with her, but what could I do other than be happy for him.

I pulled back, only a little, not wanting to make him uncomfortable by staying too long in his arms.
Instinctively, not even thinking about it, I kissed the side of his cheek softly with the faintest brush of my lips.

I couldn't not notice the way his face leaned into mine, causing my lips to press firmly against the side of his cheek and the whole thing felt far more intimate then I had intended. I could smell the sweet peppery taste of his mouth, but I ignored it pulling away while stepping out of his arms completely.

He was just being nice after all.

He was getting married, I didn't know when, but he obviously loved this girl enough to bring her home and ask her to spend the rest of his life with him.

I gave him what I hoped to