Kids in Love

Alice couldn't help but get up early the following morning. She didn't even have to set an alarm. She got out of bed and promptly got showered and dressed. Though she had plenty of time to kill before she could even expect to see Frank at all. The sun was shining down beautifully outside and she knew it would be a shame not to take at least a few photographs each day she was here. She always welcomed a change of scenery when it came to her photography. By now her garden back home had been shot from every possible angle, at least now she had a fresh canvas. Alice began in the back garden, snapping photos of the plants, the treehouse, her grandmother reclined in a lawn chair, soaking up the sun. But after an hour she'd exhausted that, or at least she wasn't going to get anything more from it for now. She moved her focus to the front of the house.
Sitting on the front step she took over a hundred photographs of the children playing together with their toys in the quiet road. She remembered doing the same with the guys. This little stretch of road was where she learnt how to roller blade, ride a bike, and skateboard badly among other things.
When she looked at her watch and saw it was already eleven she almost resigned to quit waiting and go somewhere. That's when she saw it.

A powder blue van, creeping up the road. It had to be him, who else would it even be? Alice got up off the porch step and let her camera hang on the strap around her neck. As the van got closer she realised that she had no clue what to say to him. It pulled up in front of his house, just shy of Alice's own driveway. Without thinking she approached the van, camera in hand, watching as someone got out. The boy hopped out of the drivers side door and walked around to open the back of the van, Alice saw this as her opportunity to strike and snuck around to the back of the van, travelling by the opposite side so he couldn't see her. When she got to the back, the doors were open, she couldn't see his face he was bent over, rummaging for something. As he turned, pulling out a bag pack and standing up straight, Alice rose her camera up to her eye and took a quick photo. The blinding flash went of and the lens clicked.

"Hey!" Frank blinked a few times and squinted with the after effects of the flash before his eyes shot wide open, "Holy shit!" He whispered, more to himself than out loud. In one swift movement he let go of the bag he was holding and wrapped his arms around Alice squeezing so tight she could swear he was cutting off her circulation. Frank let go after a few seconds and stood back, as though he was verifying that this actually was who he thought it was, not just some figment of his imagination.

"It's really... you're back... when, how... Alice?" He was breathing quickly.
"Yeah, it's really me. I got in yesterday, I'm staying for the rest of the summer, just like old times." She felt an awful lot more comfortable than she thought she would. Frank didn't respond, he just gripped her in a tight hug again, this time she reciprocated, swinging her camera around to her back so that she could embrace him fully. When they let go she spoke again, "To be honest with you, I was kinda worried you wouldn't recognise me, you know, you've changed. Like, a lot!" She didn't mean it in a bad way, not by any stretch of the imagination. Frank still looked like himself for the most part, he had just matured. He had let his hair grow out, it was still as jet black as it has always been but now it was a little more unrefined, messier. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt and ripped jeans, the short sleeves of the shirt exposed his arms which were considerably more muscled and covered in various tattoos, he also had a couple on his neck and Alice thought she could almost make out a few on his chest through the light fabric. The lip ring on the left side of his bottom lip was something she never would have pictured, but it suited him well.

As she examined him and took him all in he was doing the same and suddenly she felt more self conscious than she'd hoped. What if she hadn't aged as well as he had and she was a let down. She was shorter than him definitely. And she didn't really have the same style as he did, though she rock music she never had the courage to dress the way she wanted. That was a part of her personality that she'd come to suppress back in LA. A lot of her friends back home were the superficial type and sadly Alice had just grown used to it.
"I missed you so much." He simply said after a minute.
"I missed you too"

Notes

Well, there's the reunion! What did you think?
Thanks so much for the tremendous support, it's so encouraging.