The Way Back To You

Prologue

“Kendall, do you take Kai—wait, what’s your middle name again, Kai?

” Jenna leans in, her brow furrowed. She’s shuffling back and forth on her feet holding a makeshift bouquet of wildflowers we picked from Mrs. Buchanan’s garden.

They were starting to wilt in the heat. It was a humid hazy summer day and we had spent most of it by the lake until we got bored.

Now we were having an impromptu wedding ceremony for me and Kai. Jenna’s idea.

“I don’t have one,” he whispers, barely audible.

“Oh right. Kendall, do you take Kai Matsumoto to be your husband forever and ever? In sickness and in health, in good times and in bad?”

“I do,” I say excitedly, squeezing his sweaty hands tighter.

“Kai Matsumoto, do you take Kendall Elyse James to be your wife forever and ever? In sickness and in health, in good times and in bad?”

“I think so,” he murmurs, his eyes darting around and finally settling on my face. I smile at him and he smiles back, a real one. The one I feel like he saves just for me.

“You have to say I do Kai, or it’s not real,” Jenna chides with one hand perched on her hip.

“I do,” he responds.

“Okay great. Kai, you may put the ring on Kendall’s finger,” Jenna tells him. He takes a red ring pop from his pocket and slides it onto my finger.

“Kendall, you may put the ring on Kai’s finger.” I mirror his actions with a blue ring pop.

“Okay. I now pronounce you husband and wife. Kai, you may kiss your bride!” Jenna announces with enthusiasm. Kai doesn’t budge. I’m not even sure he’s breathing. Jenna glances back and forth between us expectantly.

I take a small step towards a nervous, trembling Kai and whisper, “We don’t have to kiss if you don’t want to. It's okay. It’s just for fun,” I try to reassure him. But he still isn’t moving and his face has gone rigid.

“No, we can. I want to,” he replies, even though he looks like he’d rather stick his foot in a pool full of piranhas.

“Okay. How about I kiss you on the cheek?” I ask. He nods in agreement. I lean forward and place my lips on his flushed skin and the whole time, he remains perfectly still.

***

Afew hours later, we’re sitting on the front steps of my house, eating popsicles in silence and waiting for the fireworks to begin. I lean back against the metal railing and it cools my skin, a nice contrast to the humidity we’ve been fighting all day.

“You were brave today, Ken. You know when Jenna said it was time to kiss,” he says before taking a bite from his melting patriotic flag. I chuckle while blue and red juice dribbles down his chin and falls to the ground.

“What do you mean?” I wonder, staring at him.

“I was too nervous,” he admits.

“That’s okay. You’re brave too, Kai. There’s a lot of things that scare you and you do them anyway.”

“Like what?”

“Like marrying me and the kiss.”

“Well, you kissed me,” he points out.

“But were you scared?”

“Yes.”

“And did we still do it?”

“Yeah.”

“So that makes you brave,” I decide.

“You think one day we’ll get married for real?” he asks.

“I hope so. You’re my favorite person. Well, you and Jenna.”

“You’re mine too,” he answers. I notice he doesn’t include Jenna in his list of favorite people. Just me.

“Come on, let’s go. We don’t want to miss the fireworks!” I yell and offer my sticky palm to him. We stand up and sprint across the lawn hand in hand, the last of our popsicles sloughing off to meet their end on the grass below our bare feet.