Where My Love Went - A Novella

Chapter Twelve : Memories

Will

"Will, you can't seriously be asking for more time off."

I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Coach, I know it's an inconvenience, but just one more game. I'll be back next week."

He sighs into the phone. "That's it, though, you got it?"

"Yes, sir. Understood."

"I'll see you at practice on Monday."

"Thank you, sir." I hang up the phone a few seconds later and look up to see Jo standing in the doorway. I've kept my door open every night so I can hear better.

"What's up?"

She swallows. "I saw your light on."

"I didn't mean to wake you." I sit up.

"I wasn't asleep."

I smile softly. "I know." I gesture for her to come in. "Is everything okay?"

"Can I ask you something?" She sits on the edge of my bed.

"Anything."

"Can you tell me the story of how we met?"

I bite back a smile. "Of course. Why don't we go in the living room?"

"Um, actually..." She pulls the sleeves of her shirt over her hands. "Could we stay in here? I like it. It's... familiar."

"If that's what you want." I push the covers off and move to the end of the bed to sit beside her. The clock on my nightstand says it's almost midnight and the wind outside says it's about to storm.

"I'd entered the abroad program through the Junior Hockey League. I'd already made the team but decided to be an exchange student rather than stay in a dorm with some of the other kids." I start. "I'd got placed with a single mom and her teenage daughter and I couldn't have been more bummed to not have a guy in the house."

"Where was my dad?"

I give her a sympathetic look. "Passed away when you were five."

"Oh." She looks down at the duvet.

"The day I arrived your mom picked me up from the airport with this huge sign that said "Välkomna", and she was jumping up and down." I smile at the memory. "Välkomna means-"

"Welcome. It's a Swedish greeting."

I nod. "You remember." I can't help the small smile that spreads across my face. "When we got home, you were there and not happy to see me, because you had friends who had brothers and told you terrible things." I chuckle. "You barely talked to me all day and then that night when you were passing by my room to head to yours, you stopped in the doorway and said, "Don't touch my towel in the bathroom, please", and I think I loved you from then on."

Josephine blushes. "You really loved her... Me. Huh?"

I nod in response. "You were my everything. I loved you more than hockey. And then you were just gone." I reach out to grab her hand but stop myself. "Jo, these past ten years have been horrible. And I know you're scared and confused, but could you just try and understand my side of this story?"

"What is your side?"

"A foreign boy falls in love with a pretty american girl." I smile. "He asks her to prom, you know, the biggest night of a teenager's life, and then on that night she goes missing. Nobody believes him, but he knows she's not dead. There was never a body, no evidence. She's missing and the cops just give up, call her case cold, and move on. But the boy never moves on."