The One Who Got Away is Back

Memory 15 ♡ The End of The Beginning

The first farewell was Ayrton's. After the big party following the showcase, he gave me one big bear hug and said, "Now that you're going to New York, I'm going to have to look for another roommate."

"Uh, it's just a summer internship, though."

"Bitch," he said as he pulled back from the embrace. "You're telling me you can afford to pay rent here and also in the most expensive city of the country?"

Ah, good point.

I waved him off from the curb of our apartment complex as he drove away. Aunt Jem was going to need quite a lot of help especially the first month, and Ayrton was going to fill in for her at the bar. He'd worked as hard, if not more, than I did to prepare for his final exams and despite the trips between Orlando and Sarasota, he had aced them. I had no doubt that he was going to become the world wide known, awarded and multimillionaire movie director he wanted to be.

The next goodbye was also one that I'd been expecting, but it was strange nonetheless. Miguel invited me to his graduation. And Becca too, I had to add. After everything we'd gone through this semester, we'd all become pretty good friends. She shed some tears as Miguel's name was called to the stage to pick up his diploma. On my other side, Charlie gave me an eye roll so exaggerated that I feared Becca had seen it.

"Only my stupid brother would invite two girls for his graduation," she muttered loud enough that I could hear.

I shrugged. "We're friends."

The look on her face asked, without words, if I was stupid. I certainly felt like it as Becca dabbed at her face next to me.

"Damn it, if only he were at least one semester younger," she said next to me. "I guess it wasn't meant to be."

She got that right.

Once time for the pictures came, I volunteered myself to take them. His dad and sister stood around him, smiling proud at their boy. There were a couple of funny ones where Charlie made faces at her big brother. I'd actually never seen her laugh so much in my life.

Then Malik came over and I took a few snaps of the two of them. It was Malik who casually told me Bryce and Miguel hadn't ended in good terms, which was why he wasn't joining our group for the pictures. Becca squeezed herself in between the two guys, and I went full on professional photographer on them. I reminded them of my words before the fashion showcase, and Miguel and Becca struck their best supermodel poses unprompted. Soon a larger crowd of Miguel's business buddies joined, and I had to step away even farther to get all of them in the frame.

"What about you?" Mr. Bernal, Miguel's dad, asked me from the side. "Aren't you going to be in any of the pictures?"

"Oh, that's okay," I told him, and I was about to give a very polite excuse when a hand snatched my cellphone from my hands. Before I could react, I was being squeezed against someone.

"Say whiskey," a familiar deep voice said.

I turned to Miguel's smiling face as he lifted the phone up for a selfie.

"Isn't it supposed to be cheese?" I asked him, at the same time as my body tingled where we were connected.

He was so close to me when he turned my way that it would have been easy to kiss him if I'd had any balls.

"In Venezuela we say whiskey," he explained. We both looked at the camera and said the word with big smiles on our faces.

That was the only picture we managed to snap together before he was pulled away by his friends. He and his family were organizing a nice brunch at the golf club my father absolutely loathed, but I was going to miss it because my best friend was coming to town. I watched as Miguel and his friends joked around and took more selfies, and I figured that was it. I excused myself with Mr. Bernal, who tried to convince me to stay.