Early Bird | ✓

49 | spoonbill

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           "I'M leaving soon," Lizzy admitted to JJ when they lounged in Greenwick's hotel pool area. JJ couldn't stop staring at her and her bikini-clad body. His stare intensified as their time together wore on, but Lizzy couldn't deny the fact that she gazed at him as much as he did to her. His tanned, toned torso was just as amazing as she imagined.

           "How soon?" JJ asked, his abs rippling as he sat up to face her.

           Lizzy pursed her lips. "Today."

           JJ's face fell and gazed out the window. Rain droplets leaked over the glass surface until the outside world blurred into blobs and nameless shapes. "Why didn't you tell me?"

           "I didn't want—I didn't want my time with you to end. I thought if I didn't tell you, then the time would go slower. I don't know." Lizzy blushed and leaned back in the chair. "I already packed my stuff."

           "Of course you have to go home," JJ replied, studying the window forcefully. Lizzy wished he would look at her. His emotions dwelled in his eyes. "It would be stupid and selfish of me to think that you might stay. We'll see each other soon though, right?"

            Finally, he looked at her, fragile and vulnerable, rain droplets transferring from the window to his eyes. Lizzy touched his knee and wiped her wet hair from her face. "Yes. And we can call and Facetime—and text." She smiled and quirked her eyebrows at the inside joke.

            JJ chuckled. "Lots of Facetiming. I don't want you to think you're texting somebody else."

           "That would be devastating."

           "Wouldn't I know it." JJ got up and sat beside her on the beach chair. He wrapped an arm around her and pressed a kiss to her forehead. Lizzy wrapped her arms around his strong torso. Goosebumps covered him like a second skin. His lips dropped close to her ear. "I'm going to miss you."

           "I'm going to miss you too," Lizzy whispered into his chest. She could hear his heartbeat matching hers like they were in sync, beating as one.

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           Lizzy threw her suitcase in the back of the car. JJ stood nearby, his hands stuck in his pockets. Lizzy walked over to him. They stood across from each other, eyes averted to the ground. Lizzy couldn't stand the silence anymore and she flung herself on JJ, her arms latching around his neck, her face burying itself in his warm T-shirt. JJ stumbled backward but regained his balance. He clung to Lizzy tightly as if he didn't want to let her go. Lizzy felt safe and secure in his sturdy arms.

           Lizzy detached herself slowly, her face inches from his. Her mouth opened and she wanted to say that she loved him but, for some reason, her vocal chords couldn't form the words. She needed more time to decipher what exactly she felt for JJ. She knew she was dangling on the edge of falling in love. She could tell JJ was disappointed, his eyebrows knit and his lips frowning. "I miss you already," she quickly said and kissed him.

           She kissed him like she was about to die, like she was falling from a cliff to her doom. She kissed him like she would never see him again. She kissed him like she was saying goodbye.

           He responded just as fiercely, just as passionately. Goodbyes were too hard, and kissing was easier so he let his lips move for him. Goodbye, Elizabeth Conner, they said as they grazed hers, surging closer and closer until space no longer lingered between them.