Friday, March 19, 2010

Chapter 8

"Are you really just going to sit here and let her leave without saying goodbye?" Christianne asked her son.
"Oui maman."
"Kristopher Allan you are being ridiculous! You and Brie have been best friends your whole lives and now when you are both about to embark on these important new journeys, you're going to do it alone? I don't understand Kristopher, what happened with you two?"

Kris hadn't told his mother about what happened; he couldn't. He had already broken Brie's heart, he couldn't stand it if he broke his mother's too. She had never said anything to him, but he knew deep down their mother's had always dreamed they would someday get married and have a dozen little hockey and ballet prodigies for them to dote on. He remembered the first time they heard their mother's talking about it over tea in the LaRoche's kitchen.

----------------flashback----------------------

"I can just see them twenty years from now: he'll be in the NHL and Brie will be a doctor. We'll be the one's planning the wedding because neither of them will have time."
"Nor the inclination," Margot added. "Could you see Brielle trying to plan a wedding?" she laughed.
"They'd be getting married in sweatpants and having a barbeque in the backyard!"
"There's no way in hell you're ever going to get Brie in a wedding dress, you know that right Margot?"
"I know, I know."
"How many grandchildren do you think they'd give us?"
"I need at least half a dozen; three little hockey players and three little ballerinas."

"Eew gross!" he exclaimed when they ran outside to the swing in the tall oak tree. Brie climbed on and Kris gave her a push.
"They want us to get married!" a seven year old Kris proffessed to his friend. "That means we'd have to kiss and stuff!"
"Yuck! I'm not kissing you," Brie said.
"Well, I'm not kissing you either," Kris retorted.
They sat in easy silence for a while. Her swinging and him pushing her.
"I'm never getting married," she finally said.
"Never?"
"Nope, never. Boys are bossy and I don't want some boy thinking he can tell me what to do all the time."
"Not all boys are bossy Brie. I don't tell you what to do."
"Yeah, but you're not like a real boy, you're my best friend. That's different."
"Oh."
"Besides, if you get married then you have to do all that yucky love stuff. Gross!"
"Yeah, gross," Kris agreed.
"Well if you're never getting married, then I'm never getting married either," he stated.
"Yeah, we'll just be best friends forever. We can grow up and go to school and be rich and live together and we won't need anybody else right Kris?"
"Right."

-------------------End flashback-------------------------

"We just had a fight maman."
"Must have been some fight; you've been moping around here for weeks. Just apologize for pete sakes and get on with it.
"It's not that easy; I can't just apologize and have everything be okay again."
"Well you better figure it out and soon," she said looking out the window and seeing the last of the boxes being put in the U-Haul. "If you let her leave without saying goodbye, you'll regret it for the rest of your life."

It had been three weeks since he had broken his best friend's heart. They had never gone this long without talking; never been in a fight of this magnitude. He had called her everyday for the first week; hell he'd even gone over to beg for her forgivness. It took a lot of convincing to get Margot to let him in, but she had. He sat on the floor outside her locked bedroom door for three hours trying to get her to talk to him. He got no response. He had said everything he could possibly think of to say, yet she never uttered a word. God she could be so damn stubborn! One of the qualitites he usually loved about her was now driving him crazy.

Kris all but gave up on Brie that day. Sure he still hoped against hope that she would come to her senses and show up at his door begging him to be her best friend again, but he knew that wasn't going to happen.

He pulled the curtains back and saw Brie out on the sidewalk with a bunch of her friends from school hugging and saying their goodbyes. Someone happened to notice they were being watched.
"It's kind of creepy that he's just up there watching you," Jeanette said.
"Who?"
"Kris," she motioned towards the window he was standing in.
"Oh," she replied without looking.
"Are you really going to leave without saying goodbye to him?" Jeanette questioned.
"Yep."
"Wow! I don't know what's up with the new Brie but I like her!"
"Nothing's up. I just want to leave the past in the past and get a new start with new people. Kris is in the past. As a matter of fact, Kristopher Letang is dead to me."
"Ready to go honey?" Margot yelled to her daughter.
"Sure am. Let's go."
Brie waved to her friends one last time before getting in the car with her mother.
"See you guys at Christmas," she called as she slid into the passenger seat.
"Have fun," they all yelled back.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Jeanette called.
Brie smiled and shut the car door.
"Are you ready for this honey?"
"I'm ready mom."
But Margot didn't start the car.
"Brie, are you sure you want to leave without saying goodbye to Kr..."
Brie stoppedd her mother from finishing.
"I have nothing to say to him mom. It's time to move on. And please, I really don't ever want to hear his name again. End of discussion."
Margot shook her head in disagreement, but said no more. She knew it was pointless. The boy next door had broken her daughter's heart; she just hoped it wasn't broken beyond repair.


She was just about ready to get in the car.
'Come on Brie, come on. Just look up. Please just look up at me' he urged silently.
When the car door shut and he hadn't seen those beautiful blue eyes, his heart sank; but when the car failed to move, his heart began beating just a little faster.
'I knew she couldn't do it. She can't leave without saying goodbye. Come on baby; please don't leave me without saying goodbye.'
His hope quickly faded to heartache as he watched the car finally start to drive away dragging part of his heart with it.
Hot tears stung his cheeks as he tried to process what what happening.
She did it. She actually left without saying goodbye, and he had no one to blame but himself. He had the chance to stop it and he didn't. He loved her. He loved her more than he thought it was possible to love another person and that's why he let her go. He could never forgive himself if she threw her future away for him. But he never expected it to hurt this much.

He made his way down the stairs and out to the old familiar oak tree, but this time it was him taking a seat on the swing. He needed to feel close to her and this was the only place that could do that. He sat, swinging slowly and let the tears fall freely.
"I'm so sorry," he sobbed out loud. "I'm so, so sorry. I will always love you Brie. No one will ever take your place."
It was the first time he had ever said those words out loud. Too bad it was too late.

5 comments:

  1. I'm so glad that you updated this. I really enjoyed this chapter and hope that you update as soon as possible

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  2. KRIS!
    boys are so dumb!
    he better go to wherever she's going. iudfhgkdfhgkjf

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  3. awhhh poor kris and brie. he should go visit her. or vise versa.

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  4. Please, please - not so long between updates! I love this story.

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  5. I've just found this, read it all at once and you got me crying! I can't wait to see what happens in no.10 (if you're still writing this), maybe two years forward? LOVE IT - it's different to other Letang stories which is great and I hope Brie and Kris cross paths in the future!

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