now you know the rest of the story

the story continued...

I run down the stairs and out into the pouring rain and darkness. I ran out of our courtyard and down our charming street. Down another block…running running running. I get to a busy intersection and stop for the traffic.
Dejan is on the other side. I yell his name into the rain. He keeps walking. I scream his name.

And he stops.

The light changes and I run across the street. I am insanely soaking wet and out of breath.
“Alissa! (oh if you could hear the way that name sounded) What are you doing?”
… what was I doing?…
“You shouldn’t walk to the train by yourself.” That was seriously my response because I am a large dork and even when jumping off the high dive I plug my nose a little bit.

We walk side by side in silence under the big black umbrella for a few blocks. We reach one of the main intersections and stop to wait for the light.

And then he kissed me. Or I kissed him. I don’t really remember.

The light changed and then changed again. Maybe a few more times. And we were still there, under the umbrella in the pouring rain in the middle of the night.

After a few minutes we realized that he was about to miss his train and ended up running the rest of the way to the station. When we arrived there was no time for good bye. He insisted I take the umbrella back with me, he reminded me about that visit to Italy to sit on the beach and with one more kiss, he was off.

I never saw Dejan again, the weekend on the beach in Italy just wasn’t in the cards.
But the walk back home that evening - talk about feeling invincible. Which is funny because I did nothing that important. I kissed a boy. But it was about more than that.

And that my friends, is one for the granddaughters.