“When you love someone, you find a way to be together no matter what, and I am going to do whatever it takes to make sure you know every single day just how much I love you. Whether you’re right here with me, or a million miles away taking over the world.”
“You could totally start this ritual of devotion by taking me to McDonald’s and buying me a Happy Meal. I haven’t eaten anything but Cheetos since like, last Friday.”
“We don’t want you withering away to nothing.”
“No, we don’t.” I rise up off the swing and hold my hand out to help him to his feet. Pulling him into my arms, I hug him, absorbing the warmth of his body and committing it to memory. I’m committing everything to memory from here on out because if I can’t take him with me, I want to be able to close my eyes wherever I am and remember what it feels like to be in his arms. “I might need more than a Happy Meal now that I think about it. Because the next thing you’re going to do to show me how much you love me is ask me to spend the night.”
“Miss Wick,” he steps back a little, leaning his head out to look at me, “if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were trying to seduce me.”
“I could be. You’ll have to ask me to spend the night to find out.”
He kisses me, his soft mouth descending over mine and making every muscle in my body quiver. My knees weaken a little, but I know he’ll catch me if I fall. “Tali?” he whispers across my lips. “Spend the night with me tonight. I haven’t slept in a week, but I think if you were there with me, I might be able to sleep.”
“I don’t know how much sleep you’re gonna get tonight. Just sayin’.”
“It’ll be more than enough if you’re beside me.”
EPILOGUE
Thirteen months later…
“So, I’m thinking this is going to be a good place to put the TV.”
“Yeah,” Nate rolls his eyes at me. “Like we’re going to be able to afford a TV.” He grabs my phone and closes the pictures, lowering it onto the table between us. “You work in an ice cream shop, and who knows how long it’s gonna take me to find a job. I’ve been saving for this all year, working all the overtime they’ll give me, but we’re probably going to do without a lot of little luxuries. Like TVs.”
“Fine,” I shrug. “We’ll watch TV on my laptop.” I swipe the phone off the table, reopen the pictures tab and tap on the image of a plain white wall so I can display it like Vanna White. “After all, Internet is a priority in my line of uh… work.”
“Work, right,” he smirks.
“So anyway,” I clear my throat obnoxiously. “We’ll have plenty of Netflix.”
“We’re not going to have time to watch TV, Tali.”
“Just look at it. This is where we’re going to put my laptop when we don’t have time to watch TV. Isn’t it cute?”
“It’s a wall.”
I put the deposit down on our first place together back in May, right before I hopped a plane to come home for the summer. I know he gets it. I know he’s just as excited as I am, but he’s not as thrilled about our wall.
Our. First. Place.
“It’s not just any wall, Nate. It’s our wall. Yours and mine.”
“I’ve seen the pictures of our wall about seven billion times already, Tali.”
Ignoring him, I go on rehashing my big plans for our wall. “We’ll set my laptop up on some milk crates and it’ll be so homey. You’ll see.”
That whole thing they say about absence making the heart grow fonder? Whoever made that up was a genius. Long distance relationships suck, hardcore, but if I’ve learned anything over the last year, it’s this: Fate will not be hindered. If two people are supposed to be together, they will find a way, no matter how many miles stand between them.
Nate flew out to Austin last October to tour the University of Texas at Austin campus, right after receiving his acceptance letter. Psychology. Every time I say something about him shrinking heads someday, he laughs and complains about how much he’s going to hate statistics, which is the first class on his roster.
I know he’ll be fine. He definitely has the brains for it, and the heart. He believes if he can help save the life of even one troubled teen, it might alleviate some of the burden that still sometimes clenches around his heart. I don’t think he’s forgiven himself, not entirely, but we’re working on it.
That’s what you do when you love someone, right? You work on things, and while loving Nate is probably the easiest thing I’ve ever done, I know it’s about to get a lot harder.
Moving in together while we’re in college is going to really test the bond between us, far more than the two semesters we spent apart. We’ll both be working close to full-time just to keep up with our rent, and when we’re not working we’ll be bogged down with projects and school work. But every time I think about how hard it’s going to be, I remember nothing worth having is ever easy.
It makes me think about my dad working two jobs while my mom went to art school, and while I can’t speak for my future with Nate on that level, I know right now there’s nothing in the world I want more.
“Anywhere you are will be home for me, even if we’re so exhausted the only time we see each other is when we’re in bed.”
“Being in bed together is always exhausting,” I tease, clipping my voice when Art and Delilah come barreling through the back door, their faces smudged with black and green camouflage paint and the squirt guns in their arms still dripping from recent battle.
“I thought you were leaving.” Art drops his gun on the counter, the plastic rattling and a puddle of water immediately forming under the barrel.
“We are leaving.”
“Not soon enough.” My brother sneers at me and runs his hand through the mohawk spikes of his hair. Apparently, Delilah told him mohawks were cool, and I wonder what else he would do if she told him it was cool. The two of them have become more or less inseparable over the last year. We rarely see one without the other, and I wonder sometimes if she’s going to be his first kiss. If maybe she hasn’t already…
I almost hope so, but the thought of him giving his heart away when there’s no telling how long he can stay must make the sadness in my eyes more than a little obvious.
“Did I hurt your feelings?” he pushes his lower lip out, a sarcastic mockery of the sorrow that instantly disintegrates. “Do you have any idea how fabulous it’s been around here without you?”
“Yeah, Dad says you’re a much better babysitter than I ever was.”
“He’s not, really,” Delilah chimes in. “If it wasn’t for me, you’d probably be short one sibling. Possibly two.”
“I wouldn’t complain if one of my siblings disappeared,” I shrug. “Especially the really ugly one.”
“How can you talk about Gwen that way?” Art gasps. “I mean, she does look a lot like you. A much cuter version of you… No, wait, never mind. She looks more like me.”
“That poor little girl,” I sigh.
Shaking his head, Nate is flipping through the pictures of our apartment on my phone. “You know what I’m not going to miss? The sound of you two bickering.”
“So, I shouldn’t Skype you guys every day, then?” Art wonders.
“You shouldn’t Skype us at all. Ever.”
Nate brushes his hand across mine, head bobbing back and forth. “Skype as often as you need to. We’re always here for you.”
“You’ll have to text me her sleep schedule once classes start back up, so I can make sure I wake her up properly every day.”
“You got it, man.”
Holding out his fist, my little brother bumps it and says, “Solidarity, bro,” before backing into Delilah and asking if she wants a popsicle. They’ll need fuel before heading back into the fray.
Art has really come a long way in the last year. He’s sort of blossomed, and he’s making a lot of friends. I’m sure a good deal of his progress has been inspired by his need to impress Delilah, and I know part of it is Nate’
s influence. He really looks up to him, and even though he’s being a little jerk right now, as he does, I know he’s going to miss us more than he’s letting on.
Reaching out as Art walks by, I grab his arm and tug him into me, squeezing him until he starts to batter his way out of my arms. “I hate you so much,” I tell him, but he knows it means I love him.
“Not half as much as I hate you.” Ducking away, he smirks back over his shoulder at me and says, “Drive careful.”
“Yes,” my dad saunters into the room, his glasses pushed up onto his forehead. “And call us when you get home.”
Home. What a weird concept, but I guess that’s where we’re going, Nate and me.
At times life can be overwhelming. If you, or someone you know is experiencing severe depression and contemplating suicide, you are not alone. There are people out there who want to help, who will talk you through whatever it is you're experiencing.
Please take a moment to reach out. For more information visit http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or call
1-800-273-TALK.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Melzer spent the majority of her life as a writer denying she actually liked to write romance, only to wake up one morning and discover that every single tale she'd ever written had somehow revolved around the heart. She has since given into the whim, spinning yarns of love and firmly believing that everyone deserves a happy ending.
She lives in Northeast Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter, but dreams nightly she is laying on the beach watching the stars fall over the Atlantic Ocean.
Visit Jennifer on the web at
www.jennifermelzer.com
ALSO BY JENNIFER MELZER
SERPENT OF TIME SERIES
Edgelanders
Sorrow’s Peak
INTO THE GREEN SERIES
The Goblin Market
Winterborn
The Darkling Prince
A WANDERER’S TALE SERIES
Rusted Memory
STAND ALONE NOVELS
Heart and Home
Siren
SHORT STORIES
Black Velveteen
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
Two Weeks and Other Periods of Decay
Beauty and Other Dangerous Things
Boys Don't Cry Page 20