Hey, guys. This is the final chapter of Southern Magic. I'm sorry it took so long to arrive. Between exams and a bad bout of writers block I couldn't finish it. Please feel free to give any advice for possible future submissions.
Lots of love,
Phoenix King
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Nate regretted leaving as soon as he was back. The sun shone strongly, seemingly unaware of the turmoil that thundered within him. Derek was gone. He was alone. And it was entirely his fault. How could he have blamed Derek for lying to him when he did the thing that Derek feared the most? He left, without any discussions or understanding. He let his emotions govern his actions and now he was stuck in the past without any way of returning to the man he loved, the only person who had accepted him for everything that he was. How could he have been so selfish?
When he went back up to his house he quickly realised that Derek had sent him back to the moment he left. No one knew that he went anywhere, but he knew. He knew what he found and what he lost. He wanted the feelings of hurt to go away but they wouldn't. There was but one person who could make him feel whole again and he was in a different state, half a century away.
He completed his work on the ranch that day, grateful for the familiar routine and distraction it offered. The sun was setting in the sky when he went up to the main house. If his parents noticed a change in him they didn't say anything about it. After dinner he went to his room and opened the suitcase that Derek had conjured for him. His cellphone was still alive, though it wouldn't be that way for long. He tried dialling Derek's number, knowing that it would accomplish nothing. In this time Derek Callaway, the person who had become his everything, ceased to exist. He spent hours reading over their messages, laughing at the improper grammar of his and the perfection of Derek's. His laughter turned to sobs. He's not here anymore, Nate thought, I am alone.
He fell asleep with the phone in his hand.
***
The next few weeks carried on in the usual fashion pre-Derek: He woke at dawn and worked till dusk. He rode his mare, Poppy Seed, across the open plains thinking of the promise he made to Derek, how he'd teach the other man to ride. After experiencing Derek's close knit family he recognised the deficit in his own. They lacked that sense of sharing and open love for one another that Derek's family had. He found himself once again conforming to society and hiding his true self. One day, identical as the rest, his father sent a ranch hand to call him up to the house. The irregularity of this was enough to cause him apprehension. Once inside he sat with his parents at their roughly hewn, wooden table. The both looked at him, there was something wrong. His mother looked uncomfortable in her seat.
"We have arranged for your marriage to Charlotte Davis next fall. I expect you to consent to the marriage and to treat Charlotte as a proper wife when the time comes," said his father, with a sense of finality.
Nate's heart stopped. He'd known Charlotte in school. Her family was one of the richest in the county, with her grandfather establishing an oil rig in his lifetime. Though she was the heiress to a sizable fortune, she was unattractive and thus undesired by many. So, this is how his life would play out, he thought ruefully. Thinking of how he would never see Derek again Nate turned to his parents and said, "I will do ask you ask, father."
***
Back in 2014, I gasped. I had been watching over Nate for the past few weeks. I was with him every day and saw everything through the Retrovision Spell. Nate was going to be married, I thought. A flood of panic washed over me. I was going to lose him forever. I ran to Gwen's room and told her what I saw.
"So, are you going to sit here talking to me or are you going to do something about it," she asked, smirking.
I knew what I had to do. "No," I said, with a new sense of determination. "I'm going to bring him back to me."
She smiled and after promising she would tell my parents what I went to do she sent me back through time.
***
Nate rode Poppy Seed fast across the land as if
trying to escape the fate that awaited him. It was ironically beautiful that day. The sun beamed brightly in the cloudless sky, its blueness extending infinitely in all directions. How could this have happened, he thought. Just a few weeks ago he was living, in blissful happiness, with the love of his life. Now, he was back in Texas, engaged to someone he barely knew. Worse, it was a woman.
Just as Nate was about to turn back he saw a person walking up to him. He cupped his hand over his eyes so that he could see more clearly. It was Derek. Here, right in front of him as if he willed the other man into existence.
***
I saw Nate on his horse, Poppy Seed, the sun in his eyes and the periwinkle blue sky at his back. He was wearing a cowboy hat and his arms were taut as he held his mare back. He had never looked so beautiful. He kept staring at me as I approached him, as though I was some ghostly apparition. I didn't know what to say to him. He probably still hated me for lying to him. He was probably happy to be back. I shouldn't have come. I looked into his eyes, looking for the love for me that he'd once held there. All I saw was surprise. I started to turn back.
***
Nate couldn't believe that Derek was here. He came back for me, he thought. He stared at Derek in surprise, saw him stop, look at him and start to turn back. No, Nate thought, I'm not losing him again. He dismounted his mare, ran to Derek and turned the other man towards him. "Never again," Nate whispered. He clasped Derek's face and pulled it towards his own and kissed him, trying to make Derek feel every iota of his love for him in that single kiss. Tears streamed down Derek's face and for the first time in a long time they were tears of happiness.
***
I looked up at him, not believing what was happening. I pulled him close to me and breathed him in, intending on never letting him go again. Being with him felt like being home and I was finally complete again. I kissed him again on the lips, lightly, and let my head fall on his strong chest. "So, what happens now," I ask him.
