Dear Augustus | I Never Let Go ✓

Epilogue | A Love Song

Adrian

She is my miracle, my constellation, and my love song. Her smile saves me from drowning in chaos. The twinkles of her brown eyes brighten my darkest night. I hear her voice as the melody that always lifts my spirit.

She's my soulmate, my Violet.

Stubborn strands of her chestnut hair fall on her face, and she scrunches her nose. I want to brush them away, but I don't want to wake her up yet. She doesn't know I'm here. It's her twenty-fourth birthday, mine too, and this is what she wanted as her present.

"What's your wish for this birthday, V?" I ask over the phone while running across the field. It's 5 am, and we've been talking for five hours straight. The fact that both of us haven't slept the whole night shows its effect on my muscles.

"How about you as my birthday present?" She says, and I don't miss the playfulness in her voice. Then she clears her throat, hiding the fact that she spoke what was in her heart. "I was kidding. Just Facetime me after your game."

So, here I'm in her room, lying beside her on the bed with her being only an arm's reach from me. My heart won't stop thudding, and my soul aches to gather her in my arms. It's been months since I breathed her scent and embraced her. Thick eyelashes fanning towards sharp cheekbones, and with kissable lips pulled together in an adorable pout- she looks so beautiful that I revel in the feeling of her beside me instead.

The moon gleams silver through the window she left open tonight. Is that a coincidence, or can she read my mind? I call it my luck. The second I arrived in the town, I wanted to run to her house and see her pretty face. But I decided to give her a surprise birthday present. She will be pissed, yes, but I want to kiss her breathless even more when she has those streaks of fire in her eyes.

It's been a year since she's here in town, training under her dad, and I'm playing soccer across the world. Although we belong to two different worlds now, our hearts belong together. Because no matter where I go, I will keep coming back to her, my Violet, my home. I finally move the strand of hair on her face with my index finger and tuck it behind her ear. She squirms a little in her sleep and moves an inch closer to me.

I inhale sharply as her breath mingles with mine. My willpower turns into ashes with every whiff of her familiar scent. I am too weak when it comes to her. I cannot stay away from her another minute, another second. It's pure brutality.

Composing my uneven heartbeats, I twist my head on the pillow. I let myself believe that she's finally in front of my eyes.

Violet is curled up beside me, lost in her dreamland. Her hands are now over mine. She pulls my hand and tucks it under her face. She looks so content, peaceful, and happy that a sob forms inside my throat. A deep frown appears on her face, with her eyes closed but eyebrows pulled together. Then her dark eyes blinked open. The moment the fog of sleep clears, she stares at me like I'm a ghost, only that I'm not.

Violet

The feel of his warm skin, his familiar scent seem too real to be a dream. I wake up abruptly, trying to calm the race of my heart and open my eyes into the darkness of my room to those ocean green eyes. His uneven breath tickles my face to my right. It's not just a dream because I feel them too.

I lay still, blinking at his handsome face, which has turned sharper over the year. He still has the same brown messy hair, a little close-cut now, but they make him look so much like a grown man. He tugs his lips upward into a most beautiful smile, and I start sniffing. I place my palm over his warm cheek to confirm I'm not dreaming.

"You're here, Adri," I whisper, my lips trembling under the impact of my ragged breathing.

"I'm here, V." He frames my face in his large hands and nudges our noses together, and within a second, I'm up and in his arms. I cling to his body, sobbing into the crook of his neck. I'm sure both of us will run out of air supply if I keep holding on to him like this.