“So, this is it, I guess.” James frowned.
“Yeah, I guess it is,” I said, my chest feeling heavy. We both looked at each other, our eyes glassy. Neither of us wanted to go through this or for our relationship to change.
“Have a good flight, let me know when you land,” James said, pulling me into his chest.
“I will,” I responded, my throat constricted. Why did this have to be so hard? “I love you,” I told him, hugging him harder, not wanting to let go. “This past year has been the best year of my life. I’m going to miss you so much.” My eyes teared as he loosened his hold on me, his eyes equally as misty.
“I love you and we are going to make this work, I’m so proud of you for following your dream,” he said and then pulled me back in, kissing me deeply. I wish the kiss could have gone on longer but I had a plan to catch.
“Bye,” I managed to whisper, as I let go of him at last. After one last kiss, I started to the security line.
“Bye,” he waved and mouthed, I love you. I finally had what I’d wanted so badly and I was leaving him behind, it felt wrong, like I was leaving a piece of myself. I just hoped I’d be able to get it back and wasn’t leaving it for good.
James
Michaela had been gone three weeks already. We spoke daily, and videoed and sent each other pictures whenever we got the chance but it was hard with the time change and just not actually being with one another. We went from seeing each other every day and spending all our time together to being thousands of miles apart. I missed her touch, her scent, I missed just holding her and it was killing me. Not to mention, I had no idea what to do with my life. I hadn’t been accepted to the two schools I’d applied to and I still had no idea what I wanted to be, I also hadn’t secured a job yet and didn’t even know where to start there. I knew I had to get a job but had been waiting for Mickey to leave first, so that I wouldn’t miss any time with her, and now it was three weeks later and I wasn’t any closer to having a job as I had been before.
“What do you like doing?” June asked after dinner, as we sat on the couch watching TV.
“I don’t know, I like movies, comics, video games, cars.” I shrugged.
“Well no offense but you are not a great actor and you are definitely not great at math, so I don’t see you working in film or designing video games,” she said thoughtfully. “You could be a mechanic like dad, but you’ve never seemed to want to follow in his career before,” she continued. She was right, I liked cars but I didn’t want to work on them all day. “You’re good at history and you like it too!” she said suddenly.
“Yeah, so?” I shrugged.
“Why don’t you teach?” she asked, seeming to think it was a genuinely good idea.
“Me teach?” I laughed.
“Yeah, why not?” she asked confused, she was studying to be a teacher.
“I hated school,” I told her, even though she knew this.
“Yeah, except for history class. You wouldn’t be the student anymore, you’d be the teacher. You’d get to talk about history and make it fun for people like you who don’t like school.” She explained. I thought about that hard, that could be cool. “Or you could work in a museum or something,” she added. It was all something to think about. All I knew was the one thing I wanted to be, was with Mickey.
“I wish Mickey was here,” I told June as our movie ended. Mickey was long asleep and would be waking in a few hours, when I’d be asleep.
“Why don’t you go see her?” June asked me. Go see her? “I mean, it’s not like you have anything going on here.” She nodded, gesturing around us. She was right, I had graduated, I had no job and nothing keeping me here. Mickey was the only thing I had going for me in my life at the moment and she wasn’t even here.
“I don’t have any money.” I frowned at the reality of it.
“You’re creative, I’m sure you could find a way.” She smirked getting up to go to bed and leaving me to think about this. Could I go be with Mickey? Was that a possibility? Because if so, that’s exactly what I was going to do.
Michaela
I was bringing my groceries back to my apartment. Groceries for one. It was pretty sad and lonely here. My first week here with dad had been great and we’d had so much fun exploring and doing some touristy things but then he had to go back to work and I was alone. I missed everyone back home, but mostly I just missed James. The past seven weeks had been very hard and lonely. I wished so much he could be here and I didn’t have to do this all alone, that we could do this together and enjoy it all together because in actuality it was really cool here.
I was struggling to open the front door of my building, with my large paper grocery bag held in one arm, when a man stopped behind me.
“Bonjour,”
