Companion to Friends Don't Kiss
Amber just had her first coming out talk, and it didn’t go as she hoped. Deciding there’s only one person whose response truly matters, she boards a flight to San Francisco, unannounced to find her longtime crush, Sarah. After all, if her brother Leon can find love, why can’t she?
It’s been a year since they last saw each other, but Amber hasn’t forgotten the spark she and Sarah shared. Nervous but determined, she hopes it hasn’t faded, and that showing up out of the blue isn’t a terrible mistake.
Because the real question is: will Sarah even be happy to see her?
NOTE: This story is a follow-up to Friends Don't Kiss that can be read as a standalone.
One moment I'm in Flagstaff, Arizona, and the next, I've somehow landed on the other side of the country, in San Francisco. Or at least, that's how it feels. I don’t think I’ll ever stop being amazed by the fact that we humans can do something as simple as boarding a plane, sitting in a chair, and then, just a few hours later, stepping out into a completely different world. It's not like this is new to me -- planes have been around my entire eighteen years -- but every time I really think about it, it still feels incredible. Incredible ... and maybe just a little bit scary. Not scary enough to stop me, though. It would take full-blown terror to keep me from making this trip.
My phone buzzes again once I switch off airplane mode, but I’m not ready to answer it. I know it’s my parents, and I don’t want to think about what happened before I left home. For the upcoming time, I want to focus on different things, only on the positive.
I traveled to San Francisco on a whim, yet at the same time, it feels like I never wanted to do anything else. Being here is all I thought about in the past year, since the moment she left Flagstaff -- Sarah, the girl I’m crushing on. Reuniting with her has been on my mind since she gently tucked a loose strand of my blonde hair behind my ear and said, “When you’re ready, come visit me in San Francisco. I’m hoping to have my own place by then. You could stay over.”
Since then, it doesn’t matter how much time passes or who I meet, nothing can ever stop my mind from traveling back to that moment. And whenever it does, my stomach swirls, and my skin tingles all over. I’ve never been in love before, but if I had to guess, this is it. Just thinking about her makes me woozy, and if I get this response from just picturing her, imagine how I will react when I’m face to face with her. Will I be able to breathe, let alone find the words I need to say? The thought of it is both thrilling and a little unsettling.
It’s only been a year since she left, but it was a long one; graduation couldn’t come fast enough. Maybe I didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have. Everyone around me keeps saying it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event and that eighteen is such a special age. Still, I don’t know ... it feels pretty pointless to me without that one particular person to share it with -- that one person who makes everything feel just a little brighter, more worthwhile. For me, that’s Sarah, but now that I’m here, in San Francisco, the question arises: does she even still want me here?
