meant to be
honestly just a way to cope, it's just a drabble I shared with my friends, no real structure or nice narrative, time skips are really my thing
March 17th, 2007
there's you: a 17 year old exchange student in Royal college in London, you have two friends and roommates, Ezra, who is french, and Jen, who is Irish, it's noon, the three of you are getting drunk in the dorm you share and Jen wants to do something for St Patrick's, because she's Irish and because she was forced to also celebrate things for your traditional patriotic festivities (you're not British or Irish), Ezra and you laugh it off but Jen convinces the two of you to sober up, grab your car and drive all the way from London to Liverpool to then grab a ferry to Dublin.
almost an entire day later you arrive and in your avid need of party and celebration (also booze) you go to a few bars, Jen assures you that nobody will ask for your id because it's national day of getting drunk and you binge drink for a while.
the three of you go to a little bar on the end of a little street and get weirded out because it had like six dudes siting on a table and nothing else, the dudes notice you and let you in and they make you sit with them and then you realize it's a birthday party, and the birthday boy is just sitting there like trying to hide, you do shots with them and Ezra tries to teach the birthday boy to drink whiskey until you stop him and to avoid Ezra near the guy you sit next to him, you start small talking because that's what you do when you're drunk and you two start speaking about music, movies, the weirdness of the new decade, your backgrounds, and the fact that there's a language you know but as you were very drunk you've forgotten, he wants to smoke outside and you go with him, not because you also smoke but because you like the company, you laugh outside at the guys on the street that are also drunk and then he asks you, very very stuttery to kiss you, you accept and you make out a bit, at this moment hours had passed and Jen realises you've been awake for a full day, so she tries to sober up a little and drag Ezra and you to the car so she can drive to her cousin's house where you're gonna stay until you can drive back to London. you had the chance to say goodbye to the birthday boy, one of his friends even took a picture, but when you were on your way from Liverpool to London you realized you didn't ask for his number, and neither gave him yours.
April, 2014
there's you again: driving your car in some road in London, where you stayed, because when you were 19 you wrote a teen adult novel that sold really well and people wanted more, so you became a writer and life passed by fast, you turn on the radio and there's this show you never listen on BBC radio but for a weird impulse you don't change stations, the host of the show is introducing this new artist who had come all the way from Dublin with a hit song and a debut album coming, you listen to the voice introducing itself and involuntarily smile, because it's soft and nice and it reminds you of something, you keep listening to the interview and then the host asks him for the most random and cool thing that has happened to him before his song became a chart favourite: the guy starts laughing a little and starts telling about his seventeenth birthday party, he told how his brother made him and his friends go to a bar in the middle of Dublin and how he wasn't really enjoying it until a random trio of teens crashed at it and started lifting up the party, he told how back then he thought they were just lost because it was st Patrick's day but how by the time they were gone he was thankful because he felt better about life. you were speechless, completely astonished and out of breath, you tried to reassure yourself because of much of a fucking coincidence would that be. so you parked the car on the side of the road and took your phone out, waited for the host of the show to give out the number and then dialed it. you felt completely crazy but it was because after all those years you never stopped thinking about that tall Irish kid with the wavy hair and the glasses and the nice voice and the beautiful eyes, you couldn't believe he was now some kind of amazing singer and the odds of you finding him were quite short, but you still dialed the number. somebody picked up and the first thing you said was: i was one of the three teens that crashed Hozier's seventeenth birthday party
your call never went on the air, but by some sort of luck, they kept you until the interview was done, the person on the phone first put you with the interviewer, he asked you some details about the thing and then Hozier wanted to speak to you, he said hi, and you said hi, then you both went silent for a minute.
āmy name is Andrew
āI imagined a more Irish name āyou said, he chuckled
āwere you listening? āhe asked
āyeah, I never listen to this show but idunno, something made me keep listening
āI'm glad āhe responded, you smiled widely and then you said something you didn't know how else to say
āyou wanna meet up?
and he said yes, the two of you arranged a meeting, something that you didn't want to call a date, but felt like it.
you went, he asked for it to be at his own hotels bar, mostly because he didn't had much time, you arrived quite early and got a table, a few minutes later he was there, you saw him: obviously older, a little bit taller, his hair was beautifully longer, his body skinnier, his eyes were still gorgeous but wiser, he said hi and his voice was even more soothing than the last time, he sat and you smiled, he was still shy.
you started talking as if you never stopped, at some point he pulled out his phone and showed you a photo, there was you and him in the middle, he hugging your seventeen year old self with one arms, Ezra talking with his brother in the background and Jen's hand on the edge, you laughed so hard at both of your face expressions and then he invited you to one of his gigs the next day, so you could listen to his music and spend a little more time with him, as he was then headed overseas to start a tour for a few months, you said yes, you completely wanted to spend time with him, you liked him, you really did.
before you two had to say goodbye again, he told you he wanted to be with you, he asked you for a kiss and then asked you for your number, he assured you this time the goodbye was just for a few months
December, 2014
ādid you miss me? āyou heard a voice behind you, you turned and saw him, a little tanned but still him, after months of only speaking to him over the phone, you had him again, at least for a couple of weeks.
that time you spent almost every second together, he introduced you to his parents and his dog and his close friends, he told you about him wanting to get a place of his own and you told him about your book, you felt right next to him, you felt completely right.
May, 2019
āhappy anniversary āhe said, handing you a little box, you smiled at him, made him bend over a little to kiss him and opened the box, it was a ring, you looked at him and he smiled at you, nervous, anxious, happy
āhonestly, took you long enough āyou said, he laughed and grabbed the box to put the ring on your finger
ānot so long, only five years
April, 2020
you opened your eyes, you felt a little light headed, you sat on the bed and found it empty, for a moment you felt sad until you looked directly in front of your bed, there was your bride gown, it's finally your wedding, after almost another year of planing and after six years from the two of you encountering again, and after thirteen years of your first kiss, you were finally marrying the love of your life. and it felt completely right.
