My Country Paradise

Chapter 25: The End

Eight years later.

I stared absently out the window of my apartment as rain fell in sheets and thunder, barely audible, rumbled some few miles out. My final year as a veterinary student was almost complete and I was just a few months away from becoming a doctor, from achieving my life long dream.

But something inside me felt empty. All my classmates were going to the bar tonight to celebrate their success but I wasn't interested. Never really had been.

Still, now eight years later, my thoughts wandered to Andrew and our last few moments.

Andrew smiled somberly at me, "So, this is goodbye, huh?"

"I don't understand why you won't go with me." I peered up at him, disappointment flashing in my eyes and taking root deep inside me.

"You know me. You know that I belong here."

"Am I not important enough to you for you to come? Didn't you say we'd find a way?"

"I said if God intended us to be together, we would."

Andrew's calm irritated me, and I turned from him, trembling with both anger and sadness.

"I thought you were different," I whispered with my back still turned.

"What?" Andrew lightly touched my shoulder, but I stepped forward out of his grasp.

I sighed, pulled my shoulders down, and turned, smiling. "It was a fun summer, Andrew. Thanks for hanging out with me."

"Hanging out with you? Alli, I-"

"Goodbye, Andrew." I lightly hugged him and climbed into my aunt's car. I didn't turn to watch his expression. I didn't turn to see that Andrew's heart had broken in that moment. That he was watching me with eyes so full of pain that he could barely muster enough strength to pull breath into his lungs.

The car pulled away.

I shook my head, drawing myself back to the present. My cat leapt onto the couch and rubbed his head against my thigh.

"Hey, there, Felix." I absently stroked his fur while mentally scolding myself for allowing thoughts of Andrew to invade my head once more. It had been eight years and I had thought I would have moved on by the first. But the memories continued to invade and I continued to wonder where life had taken him.

"This is ridiculous," I muttered aloud before crawling under my sheets and closing my eyes against his pained brown eyes.

-----

The next morning, I dropped Felix off at Alyssa's house.

"Have fun in the big city."

"I'll do my best," I offered Alyssa my brightest smile before leaning down to toss into the air the toddler scurrying at my feet. The end of summer those many years ago had brought the end of Alyssa and Jake's relationship and in his place came a gentle, soft spoken man who treated Alyssa as if she ruled the very earth she walked on. He had made her his wife after only nine months of dating. I was happy for her.

"So, I'll be back in four weeks. Take good care of my Felix." I gently tugged his fur between my fingers before placing a quick peck on his head. Felix wandered off with a flick of his tail.

I'll miss you too, you traitorous cat.

-----

I landed in Los Angeles several hours later. Mountains marked with tenacious shrubs rose up from all around me and communities of homes formed clusters around their bases. It was breathtaking.