Contrite ✓

Prologue.

"Come with me."

"You know I can't, Harry."

He chuckled quietly and reached out a hand to gently tug at the ends of my hair. "I know."

I sighed and laid back against the soft grass, making my brown hair fan out around my head. Summer was everywhere around us, but in my heart only winter existed. My best friend, the boy I'd grown up with and knew better than I knew myself, was leaving. I wasn't sure how I would continue my life like normal without him by my side.

"I'll miss you so much, promise you'll ring me everyday?" I whispered, turning my head to meet his green stare, desperately trying to keep my tears at bay. The last thing I wanted was to cry in front of him when I knew how happy he felt.

"I promise, Ella," Harry softly said. "And soon you'll be able to leave here, too. Come visit me in New York, even move there if you wanted." He smiled his signature dimpled smile, making my insides painfully squeeze together.

Yes, he truly was my best friend. Though lately I had started to develop unfamiliar feelings towards him that were everything but simply friendly. It wasn't something he knew of and I wouldn't tell him either. Maybe if he hadn't chosen to leave, but not now when he finally had made the decision to move away from the small English town we had grown up in. Those unfamiliar and rather unsettling feelings had to be pushed aside and eventually forgotten all together.

His hand absentmindedly caressed my cheek while I kept staring at his evergreen irises. A tiny, sad smile formed on his lips. "Cheer up, babe. We'll see each other soon again."

We didn't. He broke his promise, because I never heard from him again.