Never Summer Again

Chapter Fifty - Pick Up Your Bags, Baby

Score: Farewell - Rihanna

Lydia

I stand on the platform with my suitcases by my side, waiting for the doors of the Eurostar to open.

I love taking the Eurostar to Paris. I've always marveled at the engineering put into this facility, for the sole purpose of connecting people. Of connecting entire nations. I love the idea that people decided to dig under the ocean to get closer together.

Yet, I am running away.

After Theodora's friendly visit, I made a major decision. Staying in London is just plain complicated for me now. I'm not getting back to my dad's, and Alex is going to Birmingham for university in a couple of days. Despite what she says, about me staying there, while she's away, I don't feel comfortable with that.

Also, I really miss my mum.

So, I decided to go and stay with her for as long as it takes for me to figure out what the hell am I going to do with my life.

Even if it means never coming back.

I packed all my bags and left Alex's, asking her not to tell anyone, especially my dad and Mark, where I'd gone.

A fresh start. That's what I need. I need to be separated physically from this city, which has the tendency to both ruin and elevate lives.

Going away without telling anyone, but Alex, where I'm going has other pros, too. Like, no more unwanted visits. Because the Casterlys would easily make the trip to come and find me, being creepy as they are.

We were called for boarding, which means that there are about twenty minutes prior to departure now, and I'm standing on the edge of the platform. I take my phone out of my back pocket and open my Instagram.

A pang of disappointment stings my chest, as I scroll down my feed, but see nothing from Mark.

Well, of course, there's nothing from him, because you blocked him, silly, I have to remind myself.

I lift my head up and look left and right, biting my lip, as if worried that someone will catch me doing something that I shouldn't be doing. The platform is fairly full, but nobody seems to be paying attention to me.

So, with trembling fingers, I type Mark's name into the search bar and wait.

His feed pops on my screen and I squint my eyes like I'm looking at something that I shouldn't.

Nothing. His last post is a photo of us from his father's wedding.

My eyes tear up when I look at the photo. We both look so happy and so...in love, in it. My cheeks, burning with the rosy glow that the Greek sun had given me. Mark's head tilted, so that his eyes are fixed on me, and the emotion, streaming from his gaze tangible, even though it's only a photo.

My throat constricts painfully. I need to work to swallow around the lump that's stuck there.

The wedding seems like a lifetime ago, and yet it's been less than three weeks. But I've learned the hard way that hurting someone only takes a mere second. And then their whole life tastes bitter.

I heave a sigh and close the app, before putting my phone back into my pocket.

The indicator next to the door of the train flashes, indicating that the doors are now open, and the door begins to slide, as a robotic voice blares through the intercom, informing the passengers that the train will leave in fifteen minutes. I bend down, shuffling into one of my bags to retrieve my iPad. I want to watch something to distract me during the trip.