Page 6 of Never Forget You
But love… true love, that’s supposed to get us through anything, especially something like this. It has to, doesn’t it? Somehow… maybe if I just wait here, then she will calm her dad down and come back to me.
“Oh, God.” But it isn’t her that appears. It’s him, her father who has pure, unbridled anger on his face.
“What are you still doing here?” he screams, seemingly totally fine with humiliating me, a total stranger, in public as well. “Get out of here, will you? She isn’t coming back, so you need to leave or I will call the cops.”
He’s the sort of person who has the power to put me in jail, and I really don’t want that, so I guess as much as I hate it, it’s time for me to get out of here. Even if every step is heavy and it feels like she is slipping through my fingers like grains of sand, leaving me totally unable to keep hold of her. This is officially the worst day of my life. I feel like this is a tragedy and there’s no escaping the pain. So much pain… it might actually kill me.
5
GEORGIA
Wow. I didn’t know that life could hurt this much. I didn’t know that I was able to cry as I’ve done, but both of those things are true. I’ve fought with my father in the past, but this is the worst time. I really have pushed him over the edge now, and all for sharing an innocent kiss with a boy whom I love…
Not that he wants to hear anything about love. That just makes him madder than ever. He really doesn’t trust me enough to believe I might know what my own emotions are. I’m not some kind of idiot! Honestly.
But the one good thing to come from all of this is the lack of flights home. My dad couldn’t find one for today, and my mom calmed him down enough to suggest that we go in the morning so we can all cool it a bit. He wasn’t happy, but he agreed as long as I stay in my room. Which I will. For now. If he thinks that we’re leaving without my seeing Harry at all, though… well, he has another thing coming. Not a chance. The guy is the love of my life, and I intend to make sure we can keep in touch. My father will have to learn that he can’t control everything. Even ifhe wants to. Eventually, one day, I will be an adult and out of his control, and then we can be together again.
Yep, I’m so set on him that nothing else matters. I can envision our future, our wedding, our happily ever after. I can even imagine moving here to live with him if that’s what he wants. I don’t mind what he wants as long as we’re together. I don’t know exactly what I want to do for my career anyway, so that isn’t a factor right now.
I wonder if he knows. I bet he does. Harry seems like a man with a plan. I’ll have to ask him when I see him. But for now, I need to get into my pajamas because it’s getting late and I justknowthat my dad will come in here at some point to check that I’m asleep. Or he might send Mom if he’s still super pissed off with me and can’t stand to look at me. That could be possible, to be fair. I’ve never seen him quite so angry before. He was even talking about new ways to punish me, such as sending me out to some military school or something so that I learn discipline. Stupid… I know that he won’t follow through on that, but still… it’s not something he’s said before.
“It will be okay,” I whisper to myself as I curl up underneath the sheets. “It will. It’ll have to be somehow.”
Family arguments never last forever, do they? No matter what a person has done. They always end eventually…
It’s my mother who checks in on me just before midnight. I continue pretending to be asleep, but I have to admit I’m a little disappointed. This really is bad. But my dad can’t keep me a little girl forever. He has to accept that I’m going to grow up and moveon with my life. I’m seventeen years old, for crying out loud, not seven. He should be happy that all I want to do is kiss because that isn’t the same for most people my age…
Anyway, I can’t get too wrapped up in that because I have a plan in mind and I need to get on with it. Once Mom is gone, I leap out of bed and get my outfit ready to go and see Harry. Oh, I know that he would be totally fine with me turning up in my pajamas, but I don’t want that to be his last impression of me. Last for now, anyway, because somehow in this crazy world, I’m absolutely certain that we will make it work out. So, I grab my nicest dress, which may well leave me a little cold in the night air, but I don’t care about that. The excitement of seeing Harry will keep me warm. Plus, his arms around me and definitely some more kisses. It might have been the kissing that got me into trouble in the first place, but that doesn’t mean I’m not totally addicted to his lips. I love it. I love him.
My heart pounds heavily as I try to sneak from the room. I’m nervous that even though my parents have their light switched off, which I can see underneath their door, they aren’t sleeping and are just waiting for me to slip up. There’s no plausible deniability for all of this, but somehow, I manage to pull off my escape plan and make it outside.
It’s empty. Not like the city, which is always busy no matter what the time is. This place is completely empty, which has me feeling so much safer as I walk. It allows my mind to wander off instead of being totally focused on what’s going on around me. I think about Harry, and I pray that he isn’t in his bedroom sleeping or all of this will be for nothing. I can’t imagine it. I’m sure that he’s tortured and awake just like I’ve been, but still… it’s a worry.
Thankfully, I know where his house is. He pointed it out to me while we walked past it one day. He invited me inside, but Iwasn’t quite ready to meet his parents, which probably stems from my sheer terror of my own family. Now, I don’t know what I should have done. Maybe it would’ve been nice to get to know more about him.
It’s too late forwhat if’snow, though. I can’t worry about anything like that. I just have to focus on the here and now. Anyway, if things turn out like I assume they will, then I’ll have all the time in the world to meet them.
“Georgia?” Harry sees me before I see him. He’s sitting on the porch outside his home, looking forlorn and heartbroken. “Is that you? Oh, my God, you’re here. I didn’t think that I would ever see you again.”
I race forward and jump into his arms, wrapping all of myself around him. It feels good to hold him like this, to have the warmth of his body against me. I am sure going to miss this when we leave… I so don’t want to leave, ever. I would love nothing more than for us to move here now, but that will never happen.
“We are still leaving,” I tell him sadly. “But I have the time to see you one last time.”
I grab him and kiss him a few times, drinking in the heat from his lips. They have missed me too, I can just tell.
“What are you doing sitting out here in the middle of the night, anyway? Talking to the moon?”
“Just missing you,” he replies sadly, not responding to my teasing… which I guess makes sense since this is a really sad moment. “I thought that you were already gone and I was never going to get to see you again.”
“I wouldn’t let that happen,” I reassure him desperately. “I refuse to go without seeing you once more. And wewillfind a way to make this work. You know that, don’t you?” I need him to have the same faith in us that I do. If we aren’t both in this together, then it isn’t going to work. It can’t. “You feel this as well, don’t you?”
“I love you,” he reassures me in a rush, his words washing over me in a glorious wave. “I love you and I know that we are going to make this work. I know that we’re destined to be together forever.”
Relief grips me hard. “I love you too.” It feels so good to say those words out loud. “I know that people will think we’re crazy for saying that when we’re so young, but Iknowand you do too, which means it can work. If we both want this, then we will defy my father and find a way to be happy. Me and you, together at last.”
I join him on his porch bench and lean against his chest, listening to the beautiful sound of his heart beating. God, I love that noise. It’s so wonderfully reassuring and reminds me of how much he loves me. Every pound of his heart is for me, and it’s wonderful. See? No adult can tell us that we’re dumb for wanting this, not even my dad. If he could really see us together, then he would know, wouldn’t he? He’d see how perfect we are. Then he would be forced to eat his words. He might even say sorry to me… although that’s probably too far.
“What do you want to do after college?” I ask Harry idly. “Do you have any big plans?”