35Chapter Thirty – Four
I finished eating my dinner and went back into my room to finish unpacking and to gather up enough courage to call Mark and let him know that I had changed my mind about spending nearly my entire summer with him and his family in their RV. By the time I had pulled all of my clothes out, put them in my dirty clothes hamper, and then put the rest of my things away, I still wasn't really ready to break the news to him. I knew he really wanted me to be there with him this summer, but I didn't think I could take it personally, let alone our relationship. It would never survive three months straight together without doing something one of us would end up regretting later on down the road.
I lay down in my bed and stared at the ceiling with the phone in my hand trying to figure out the easiest way to tell Mark without upsetting him. I decided there wasn't a nice way to tell him and decided that it would just be harder to tell him the longer I waited. I dialed his number and let it ring until someone answered.
"Hello?" a male voice said.
"Hi, may I speak with Mark, please?" I asked realizing that it was his brother that had answered the phone.
"Yeah, just a second, I'll get him," he said. Seconds later, I heard him opening a door and then a soft thud that sounded like the phone being tossed into a pillow.
"Hello?" Mark said.
"Hey, it's me," I said assuming he would know who me was.
"Hey, sweetie, what's up? Miss me already?" he teased.
"Of course," I responded, "I have something to tell you," I said.
"What happened?" he asked immediately worried.
"Nothing bad," I said, "well, not really bad, I guess. You know that vacation that your family is going on this summer that I'm supposed to be joining you on?"
"Yeah. What about it?" he asked.
"Well, I've been thinking about it ever since you invited me and I don't think it would be a good idea for me to go with you guys. I think we'd end up getting sick of each other being in such a close space for such a long period of time," I said quickly.
"Oh," he said before pausing. "That's it?"
"Yeah."
"Well, that's nothing. Don't worry about it, if you don't think it's a good idea that you come, then I'm fine with you staying home," he said. I knew that he didn't completely mean it, but it was nice that he was at least trying to respect my decision.
"Okay, I was worried you might get upset," I said.
"No, not at all. Well, I have to get packing, we're leaving in a two days, you know?" he said.
"Really? Already?" I asked thinking that he still had at least a week at home.
"Yeah, I think I must have heard when we were leaving wrong or something," he said.
"Oh, well, I guess you should go pack then," I said.
"Yeah. I'll call you while I'm gone?" he said questioningly.
"You'd better," I said.
"You won't forget me while I'm gone, will you?" he asked.
"How could I?" I teased.
"And you won't run off with someone better than me, right?"
"Better than you? That doesn't exist." I reassured him. He sighed.
"I guess this is goodbye then? I think I'll be too busy to talk or hang out until we leave," he said disappointed.
"Yeah, I guess it is," I said not really wanting to get off the phone.
"Well, I'll talk to you soon?" he said.
"You better," I said.
"Goodbye, darling," he said.
"Goodbye, love," I said. We both hung up the phone and started getting ready for our summer vacations without our significant other.
THE END!
A/N – this is the end of this fiction! Like I keep saying, it was the first one of significant length that I ever started and definitely the first I actually finished. It's getting ready to be revamped into a new file on fictionpress called Tampa: Una Vez Mas and it'll be better, I promise. To fans of PS – I Love You: it'll be similar in style to that one, since that's a work in process for me, but it won't be as serious in nature, seeing as the age difference is so large between the two sets of characters.
While on the topic of PS – I Love You, chapter 14 has taken a lot longer to write than I expected. I've for some reason hit a stall on that one, but I'm working on it and hope to have it out by the 20th at the latest. To those who read Tampa but haven't read PS – I Love You, I strongly recommend it if you enjoyed this piece even slightly. :
Thanks again to the few of you who stuck it out from the beginning to the end, especially my reviewers:
RaNDoM mOnKEys
remi14
Katie Hesnar
Spread Your Wings and Fall