Talania - a Trip Down Memory Lane... by Crystal Spears Page B

trembling violently as she holds her ring. “Do you still regret making that promise?” Her voice cracks.
    Fuck no! I am such an idiot! “No,” I croak.
    “Are you sure?” she whispers, setting her ring down slowly and carefully on the table.
    “Yes,” There is no hesitation when I answer her.
    “Good, because when I was at your bar and you said that,” she pauses, “it hurt right here.” She puts her hand over her heart. “I couldn’t figure out why, because I’ve only known you for a few days in my mind. Then I realized something. My brain may have forgotten you, but my heart hasn’t. It’s still yours if you want it.”
    Wait! What?
    “My heart is still yours. It still beats for you. It feels like it is pounding out of my chest right now. Crap, I’m not saying this very well.”
    Tristan, breathe dude! Just breathe!
    “What I’m trying to say is that this scares the hell out of me. I’m trying to find myself again and figure out who I am. Tristan, my heart already knows who you are. I love you. My heart is telling me I already love you and I don’t know what to do with that Tristan. I just don’t know.” Evelyn cries.
    She loves me! It takes me a split second to get to her. I slam my lips to hers and pull her body against mine. God, those are the three words I have waited to hear from her again for four long years. This kiss is passionate with tears rolling down our faces. I can taste the saltiness of the tears mixed with the taste of Evelyn and I moan, grinning against her mouth. Everything I feel for her is in that kiss.
    “I’m so glad you’re listening to your heart. I love you so much it hurts,” I whisper against her trembling lips. “I promised to never stop loving you. I may have been mad at you, but I promised to never stop loving you, and baby, I didn’t because I can’t.” I whisper causing her to whimper.

I whimper against his lips again when he says he never stopped loving me. His devotion to me is true. No matter how mad he was when he was seventeen, no matter how heartbroken he was, he never stopped loving me.
    That night he took me to all the places we loved going to when we were younger, and we made love under the stars before heading back to the house. We needed to get some sleep before our long journey to the campus to enroll in our college courses. Tristan also needed to get back to the club and his band.

    I wake up drenched in sweat in the middle of the night. I look over at Tristan and he stirs. My breathing is heavy and I have a slight headache. That sometimes happens after I exert myself too much or too quickly. My body really requires a lot of rest while it is still healing. I definitely exerted myself tonight. I smile at that thought while looking over at this beautiful man beside me. I reach over and smooth his hair out of his eyes, accidentally waking him up.
    “Evelyn,” he whispers sexily.
    “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to wake you.” I grin.
    “Why aren’t you sleeping baby?” He picks up his phone off the nightstand to check the time. “We have to be up in two hours, so why are you awake?” He playfully scolds me while tickling my side.
    “I woke up sweating. It’s way too hot in here and way too quiet.” I usually sleep with the radio on low or a fan on high. I have neither of those things here, since they are in my dorm room now.
    “Why does the quiet bother you?”
    “It drives me crazy when it’s quiet. I can sometimes still hear the machines from the hospital beeping over and over again. Noise drowns that out in my head.” I groan. Damn it! Now I hear the machines just because I’m talking about them. I throw my hands down on the bed. “Now I am hearing them.” I flop backwards, lying down again. Rubbing my hands over my face, I try to explain. “The beeping the machines made was the only noise I heard when I was in the hospital. Sometimes, it’s all I can hear in my head now. Sometimes I doubt they will ever be quiet.”
    “You