As you wish.(Kevin Hughes) Author’s Note: Katie and Kevin met at a bus stop in the first story. He called her: “Your Grace.” She called him: “Her night in green corduroy.” They agreed that no one else could use those monikers …except them. And only to each other. And now, we find them on the brink of Graduation from High School…and off to college.

But there is a problem.

*****

“Hey my Knight in green corduroy, I need you to come over tonight. We have to talk.”

“Yes, your Grace. As you wish.”

She couldn’t help it. She let a big smile blossom on her face. Ever since they watched that old movie: “The Princess Bride,” they had used that phrase to say: “I love you.” It still made her heart tingle with the amount of care and concern her Knight in green corduroy put into saying it.

“Don’t be late!”

“As you wish, your Grace.”

And so it came to be. Two teenagers sitting on a single bed with the lights down low. One fidgeting with concern, the other patiently waiting for whatever was on her mind. He had no fear. There were no trust issues between them, and no secrets either. So he assumed whatever had made her this nervous - would be something he could handle.

He was wrong.

She started, as she always did- with a simple direct statement. Bereft of any emotion, hints, or interpretations.

“I am going to MIT. It is the best choice for my career in Astrophysics. They have accepted me. I start this summer. I can’t wait for the Fall semester. I start the summer Session in just three days. I am leaving right from Graduation.”

Only then did she look into his eyes. She should have warned him. She should have told him her plans. She should have let him down gently. She saw the pain in his eyes.

“Oh. I thought we were agreed to go to State, together. You would study Math and Physics…and I would go into the Humanities and study History. I thought it was a good plan.”

She reached across the small bed and patted the back of his hand. The touch still grounded her, making her soul feel safe and loved.

“It was a good plan. This one is better.”

He shook his head.

“For you, your Grace.”

There it was. Out in the open. Until she got the acceptance letter from MIT, she would have gone to State with him, like the original plan. But MIT…well, that carries a lot of weight in her chosen field. She wanted to be the best…and the best went to MIT.

She knew she was being selfish. She also knew they were just kids. They would get over their puppy love. Maybe even someday smile at how lucky they had been with a first love.

Ending that love… was the hard part. The part that might only manage bitter sweet smiles later in life. She stuck to her plan.

“Yes. For me. I love you. I probably always will. But even with my help, your Math skills are basic. I know you like History. You will do well with that Major. I imagine you will be the most popular teacher in any High School you teach at after you get your Degree.

I will be too busy to have any Social life…way too busy. You will be at State more than five hundred miles from my School. That is too much pressure to put on either of us. It would make us bitter, hanging onto a relationship that would try to be kept healthy with one or two visits a year. It won’t work. It never does. I don’t want you to hate me. So…we break up now. While we both still care. “

There was a long silence. Her hand still resting on the back of his palm. He didn’t jerk away. She knew he was thinking. He had a way to work through things and sort them out that would have made him a wonderful Mathematician…or husband.

She choked back a tear with that last thought.

He stood up. She stared up at him. Hoping he would yell, scream, beg, blame or curse. Anything so she could feel the hurt she caused. He did none of those things.

“Well, don’t let those eggheads plant any seeds of doubt in your brain. You are going to make a difference in your Field. I know it. You made a difference in my life. Don’t show them any false modesty, or hold back. You lead the pack!”

And with that, he turned without another word . He closed the door behind him with a soft solid click.

He didn’t show up at Graduation the next day. She texted him, but it bounced. She cried…a little. Then she remembered his last words. She would go to MIT and kick their asses. An hour after graduation she was headed to Boston in her old beat up Prius.

He had bought it for them both. Then he gave it to her for her Graduation. She swore someday she would give him a gift car too.

She sent one last text. It bounced too.

“As you wish.”

She whispered to the wind struggling against the car.

*****

He didn’t remember coming home from her Grace’s house. He stumbled up the steps without turning on any lights. Light was the enemy of his thoughts. His world had turned dark. The light was gone.

He went to his desk. Her picture blown up to 8 X10 on one side, off to the other, his favorite picture. A bit blurry because it was taken with a Brownie camera on a moving buss. But it was the first day he met her, and her friend Britney had taken that picture to tease her with. Instead it was treasured by them both. He had the original …and her Grace had a copy that was indistinguishable from the original. She kept it on her desk too.

He laughed in the darkness.

“Fifteen minutes ago, I was in love. Fifteen minutes ago I was looking forward to a summer together, and then leaving for State in our Prius. And now…I have nothing.”

He cried. Long and hard. Then he cried some more. He had given her the title to the Car for Christmas. She loved that little thing. He was glad she was taking it. He had heard that parking was out of the question in Boston. But she loved it, and it got her where she was going. So he smiled about that.

He took out his phone and deleted her as a contact. Deleted her from his email and DM accounts. Then he emptied his cache of old photos. He blocked all texts from her phone. In the dark, he moved through his room removing everything of hers he could find.

In the end… he only kept the picture of them on the bus.

In the morning he burned all the hard copies of their time together. Both Prom Pictures, the oh so happy beaming pictures of her in Huntsville Alabama at the Space Center…you could see her future even then. Space called her name…and she was answering.

As he burned through those pictures, and the little golden heart with a diamond on it, that dangled like an amulet of safety on his chest, he ripped it off and threw it into the fire too.

Then he took her huge 8 X 10 picture. He held it over the fire for a second, or maybe a lifetime. He was never sure later which it was. What he was sure of, was what he said when he finally put it to flame:

“As you wish.”



*****

Note to Reader: This is the second story in a series of 7 stories about this couple. You can read all 7 stories together in the Novella titled, The Saga of Kevin and Katie, which has been published in the NOVELS section of Storystar.

Or you can look for all seven short stories, each published individually here on Storystar:

The Saga of Kevin and Katie
1) Done and done
2) As you wish
3) Tragedy
4) The hospital scene
5) Moving day
6) Did you know her?
7) Hope.

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