Artgirl

24// la fine, pt 2

In the summer of 2013, while watching Good Luck Charlie, I heard one of the characters (PJ) talk about his mailman neighbor. The idea of a mailboy/mailgirl popped up in my head and so: Mailboy was born.

Now, more than 4 years later, 2 completed books later, many tears and sleepless nights writing, excited rambling to my friends and an unbelievable amount of support later, I present to you the last ever chapter of the Paperweight series, the last presentation of the lives of Nico & Zoey. Since that first upload, I have fallen more and more in love with you, the readers. Thank you for loving this story, for liking it or even hating it. Thank you for taking a glance at it. Thank you for telling me that it's okay that I don't have time to write, or that my anxiety is understandable. Thank you for giving this book, and me, by association, some kind of love. Thank you, with all of my heart, THANK YOU. I love you so much.

This is for Zoey and Nico, two characters who have grown with me so much, who have gone from recklessness to a comfortable kind of love. For all of the secondary characters: Jessie, Adrian, Camila, Diana, Joel, WALTERS, etc., who helped them become who they are. This is for me! Most of all, this is for you.

Without further ado...

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ARTGIRL 24: la fine, pt. 2 - per lui

nayyirah waheed wrote these lovely poems/excerpts. they are perfect to set the tone for this chapter, i highly recommend you read them.

"we return to each other

in waves. this is how water loves."

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"she asked 'you are in love, what does love look like' to which i replied 'like everything i've ever lost come back to me."

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present tense: 1 year after Barcelona, 6 years since they have first met

Nicolas bear Forrest, man, lover, friend, architect with an eye that sees magic in the simplest of things

I HAVE BEEN fortunate enough to experience heartbreak only once.

The only type of heartbreak that I have met is one that tore me apart, when I lost my mum at 17. I felt as if my heart got buried in the grave with her. The skies had lost their clouds, the sun lost its light, the rainbow had died. I did not know how to function, how to breathe without pain, how to love anything else.

When I learned how to love Zoey Hunter, I also learned how to see the light in the world again.

I have always been afraid of love. Of what is in the movies, of books about them, of shows where the main characters finally understand that everything they have gone through has lead them to this one moment, where their hearts fit like they've been made for each other.

However, I only realized the magnitude of Zoey's effect on me when I stood in the train station waiting for her, when she came back from Barcelona.

The stuffy air in the station was gone when I saw her. She had been gone for a week and a half, but it felt like our love had climbed mountains in our nightly talks. She ran towards me and leaped into my arms, and I wondered if anything would feel more right than this. The tightness in her embrace confirmed my suspicions.

This embrace was an apology for what would come next.

She pulled away from me, still in my arms. "Nico. I want to tell you my answer."

"I know what it is, Hunter." I set her down on her feet.

"So," her brows came together. It was then that I saw how much happier she was since the last time I'd seen her. I was no longer holding broken pieces of my love, she was a little less broken than before. "Wait-what? You know?"