Big Dreams

Chapter 10: The tragedy

August was a warm and sunny month full of happiness; Beni had moved into the house, which was great, because she was so cheerful, and Miguel and I were better than ever.

I worked at a cafe not far from the beach, so I went for a swim whenever I could and my friends used to join me. I was very surprised to see that a strange but fun group was forming; me and my friends -Marta, Francisca, Trina (when she was in Portugal), Gulli and Dan-, Miguel and Mateo. We spent the rest of the summer together until the beginning of college and I enjoyed every moment I could with the most special people in my life. We also started thinking about going on a road trip which was something I planned to do with my friends and now Miguel and Mateo would join us.

We had dinner at my house several times since I had a table outside and the nights were hot; we discussed everyone's future, the boys talked about football and we girls used to cook, we also played monopoly, cards, and Wii and we had long trips in Mateo and Miguel's cars to visit cities not far from Porto. The best days were at the beach because we could swim, which is somthing I love to do, and because the weather had been perfect that year.

In the first week of college, everything was great; we kept talking about the summer and how much fun we had. Also, the parties were back and we had some of them that week in which me and Miguel appeared together to everyone's surprise. It was good not to hide anymore. I was so happy it felt like a fairy tale, being with Miguel didn't scare me anymore, at least not as much as before; I had a lot of fun when I was with him and I felt that we really knew and trusted each other completely and everyone around us loved to see us together. Everyone except the rest of his friends, who kept asking him who I was and why he was still with me which was not very pleasant to know but I tried not to care too much.

One day I got to college and what I thought would be a normal day turned out to be the beginning of a real nightmare. I didn't see Miguel anywhere and he didn't respond to my texts so I thought it was kind of strange but I wouldn't insist. However, that day turned into days and I was getting worried and talked to Mateo who didn't know what was going on either.

Miguel didn't show up to college or give news for over a month. Everything was so good after the wedding, what had happened? Was he okay? Was it something that I did? I couldn't just stay at home, go to college, and study without doing anything so I went to all the places we used to go together to try to find him. That didn't give any results and Mateo had stopped replying to me too so I was freaking out.

Some afternoon, I was talking to Marta and Francisca, telling them about his disappearance.

- "That's really weird", Marta said thoughtfully, "But he will come back."

- "But maybe it's nothing to do with you, you were more than okay during the summer", Francisca didn't believe he would just stop caring from one moment to another.

- "I don't know anything about him for weeks, this is not normal and if it has nothing to do with me he could at least tell me, saying something, I don't even know if he is okay". I was completely lost and not knowing anything was killing me.

And one day he came back as Marta said. I saw him leave Mateo's car and my heart stopped. He was back. But what had happened? He looked so pale and sad... "He's going to explain everything right away", I thought to myself. There weren't many people there so I approached him but he just kept walking, ignoring me entirely. I looked at Mateo in shock.

- "Just leave him alone for now, he needs some time", Mateo said, sounding polite.

- "Mateo, what the hell is going on? I've been trying to find him for days!"

- "Look, it's none of my business, it shouldn't be me telling you."

- "He doesn't talk to me! I'm worried about him, I need to know what's going on!"