I immideately recognized him, when he appeared on the TV. I grabbed the remote and turned up the volume, so I was able to hear, what the news lady was saying. He still looked the same. He had added a couple, well maybe a little more than a couple, of tattoos to his perfect body, but apart from that he was exactly the same guy. His dark curls were perfect as always. His hair looked just as soft, as I remembered it.
“And it’s now official. One of the members of the previous boy band One Direction is engaged to the British girl, Mary James.” Even though I had tried to convince myself I was over him, it still felt like a knife was stabbed through my stomach. Pictures of him and a beautiful girl appeared on the screen.
“After he has been single for almost 10 years, it looks like he has finally found the girl, he wanna spend the rest of his days with. So to all the old fans, who believed he would end up with Amber Miller… sorry girls, you were wrong.” I gasped as I heard my name mentioned. I though the world had forgot about us. Had forgotten about the pictures, the videos. If they hadn’t, they definitely would now. I switched off the TV and stared out the window. A part of me had never stopped believing, that he one day would call me or stand on my door step. But that day had never come. And it definitely wouldn’t now. Of course there had been other men in my life, but they had disappeared just as fast as they had gotten into my life. Nobody compared to him. I remember the day, 4 years ago, when they had announced their break-up on live TV. Told the world, that this would be the last performance as the band One Direction. I had thought, that maybe he would come now. Maybe he would have time, to be with me now. But he never did. The only thing I could hope for was that he had kept his promise. That he had never forgotten me.
10 years earlier
“Sure you got everything?” Lizzie asked and looked at me with a tense look. I smiled, trying to calm her down, and walked over to her. I laid my hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes.
“I’m absolutely sure! And if not, then I’m sure New York has shops too.” A little laughed escaped from her, and her tense look disappeared.
“I can’t believe you’re growing up so fast,” she said and held me tight. She almost sounded like she was about to cry. She tightened her grip around my waist, and I felt how the oxygen slowly disappeared from my head.
“Well, if you’re gonna keep squeezing me like that, I won’t grow older,” I said. She released her tight grip, but didn’t let me go.
“Ready to go to the airport?” Marc interrupted coming into my room. I nodded, and Lizzie pulled away from me.
“Sure you don’t wanna come with us and wave goodbye?” I asked and grabbed my suit case. I turned my heads towards Lizzie, who had tears in her eyes. She nodded and grabbed a tissue from my beside table.
“Lizzie, she’s only gonna be away for 3 months! You’ll see her again,” Marc said and walked over to his crying wife. I regarded him grabbing her hand and slowly pulling her into his chest. I had never seen any human beings loving each other as much as Lizzie and Marc did. They were the reason I believed in love. He held her tight for a couple of minutes until he slowly pulled away.
“New York is just so far away! And you are all by yourself,” Lizzie continued, crying even more.
“But I can handle it! I’m 19 years old! I’m ready to start living a life on my own… who knows, maybe I’ll never return! I could buy a flat, find a nice guy, have sex, get pregnant, start a life there,” I joked, but Lizzie clearly didn’t thought it was as funny as I did.
“Oh, I wouldn’t do that if I was you young lady!” she said with a bossy tone. I grabbed my suitcase, and tried to carry it downstairs, but it was way too heavy. “She can’t even lift her own suitcase,” Lizzie cried and took another tissue.
“She’ll be fine,” Marc said, walked over to me and helped me carry my big, red suitcase downstairs. Lizzie followed us. Her eyes were following us, as we walked out on the front porch. I noticed she stayed inside, so I walked into her, and laid my arms around her.
“I’ll call you when I’m there! I promise! And I will text you every morning and every night! Because even though I’ve turned 19, you’re still paying my phone bill,” I said and gave her a quick hug. She laughed and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I walked out to the car, and opened the door. Without any trouble I swung in on the front seat. I slammed the door and closed my eyes for a short while. 3 months away from boring England! Just me and myself! I was excited and nervous at the same time. I opened my eyes, when I heard a door slam, and saw that Marc now was sitting next to me.
“Ready to go?” he asked. I nodded as answer, and waved to the crying Lizzie standing on the porch. Marc drove the big car out on the road, and I watch the house getting smaller and smaller.
“I guess we should say goodbye now,” Marc said. I turned towards him. He laid his arms around me and held me tight.
“I’ll be alright,” I said and pulled away. He nodded.
“I know… I’m just nervous about Lizzie! You know how much she loves you, right?” he asked and handed me my backpack. I nodded.
“Just as much as I love her,” I said and smiled.
“Sure you can handle it… being away from us, your friends, James, for such a long time?” he asked. I gave a start. James… The sound of his name, brought tears to my eyes. On purpose I had said goodbye to him yesterday. I wouldn’t be able to walk away from him, knowing, that I wouldn’t see him the next 3 months. I wiped away a tear, and nodded.
“I really wanna go! I need to get out and explore the world on my own,” I said and hugged him again.
“Okay,” he whispered.
“It’s time to go,” I said and pointed in direction of the gate.
“I love you,” Marc said and gave my hand a squeeze.
“Love you too,” I said, grabbed my suitcase and started walking away. I boarded the plane, found my seat, sat down and closed my eyes. I started imagining what I wanted the next 3 months to be like. But soon I was going to find out, that this summer wouldn’t be like I had expected it to be… at all.
