Chapter 1 Goodbye

MAEVE

I pushed through the crowd, trying to reach my locker in one piece.

“Please, excuse me,” I kept saying as I squeezed past the students blocking the way.

I held tightly onto Niamh’s hand as we pushed through the crowd together. I was in front, trying to make a path for us while she followed closely behind me.

“The crowd is too much today!” I shouted over the noise.

We had finally passed most of them and were almost at our lockers.

“Well, it has to be today. It’s our last day in high school,” Niamh said.

I glanced back at the crowd we had just pushed through. Almost everyone had happy faces, and many were already carrying their things as they prepared to leave.

“I bet they’re going home today,” I said.

Niamh patted my back playfully.

“Aren’t you doing the same?” she asked.

I rolled my eyes.

“Why wouldn’t I? I’m eager to go home. I’ll finally be free and soon to be a university student.”

The excitement in my voice made Niamh laugh, and I couldn’t help giggling with her.

I turned back to my locker, but my eyes wandered around the hallway again, searching for someone.

Damiano.

He was my other friend, the only male friend Niamh and I had in high school.

“I haven’t seen Damiano since we checked our results,” I said, looking at Niamh as we continued taking our things out of our lockers.

Niamh suddenly stopped smiling.

“He said I should tell you to meet him at the café in front of the school gate,” she said.

My hands stopped moving.

“Only me?” I asked.

“Yes, only you,” Niamh teased.

She gave me a knowing look.

“Maybe you should confess your undying feelings for him.”

“Niamh,” I warned, immediately looking around to make sure nobody had heard her.

She laughed.

“Come on, Maeve. Today is our last day in high school, and we both know that after today, we’ll be busy preparing for university.”

She closed her locker and turned toward me.

“What if you don’t have the chance to confess to him again? Is this how you’ll keep having one-sided feelings for him?”

I lowered my eyes.

That was one thing about Niamh. She was always straightforward. Sometimes, I wondered if I had the kind of heart she had, but hell no, I didn’t.

I was always scared.

Whenever I wanted to say something from my mind, I thought about it a hundred times before finally finding the courage to speak.

“What if he rejects me?” I asked. “What if he says he doesn’t like me?”

“Then you’ll stop holding on to those feelings and move on,” she said.

I rolled my eyes.

“That’s easy for you to say.”

“What about you? Don’t you have someone you have feelings for?” I asked her.

“Well, you know me. If I have feelings for someone, you would have known,” she replied.

She reached for my hand and pulled me along.

“Come on, let’s go.”

She dragged me out of the locker room and straight out of the school compound. As we walked, I kept going over everything I planned to say to Damiano in my head.

I had known Damiano for the past three years of high school. He had joined us late, and from the moment he arrived, most students kept their distance from him.

Nobody wanted to get involved with Damiano.

He had a cold look that seemed to send people away before they could even get close. But he was damn brilliant and damn handsome, and he preferred being alone.

I became friends with him anyway.

Even Damiano had been surprised that I still got close to him and wanted to be his friend despite how cold he always looked.

Damiano was a man of few words.

“I’ll wait outside here,” Niamh said when we stopped in front of the café.

She looked at me and smiled.

“No matter what, I’ll be waiting for you here.”

I sighed and reached for my scarf, making sure my hair was properly covered before getting out of her car.

I stood outside for a moment, taking a deep breath.

This was it.

I was finally going to tell him how I felt.

I pushed open the café door and walked inside.

My eyes immediately found him.

Damiano was sitting close to the window.

My heart began beating faster.

I walked toward him and waved.

He didn’t wave back.

Instead, he looked down.

I slowed my steps.

Something was wrong.

“What’s wrong with you?” I asked as I sat near him.

“Maeve,” he called my name.

I looked at him.

His expression was unreadable.

“I’ll be leaving Ireland today,” he said.

My heart skipped.

“Why?”

The word came out before I could stop it.

“Where are you going?” I asked, trying hard to keep my voice steady.

I had come here to confess my feelings to him.

I had spent so much time thinking about what I would say.

And now he was telling me he was leaving Ireland today.

“We won’t see each other again,” he said.

I stared at him.

His words seemed to echo inside my head.

We won’t see each other again.

My chest tightened.

“Why?” I asked.

He stood up.

“I have to go.”

“Damiano,” I called after him.

He stopped. Then he looked at me.

“Maeve, it’s better you tell him your feelings now, or you will regret it.”

My fingers tightened together.

I had already spent three years hiding how I felt.

If I let him walk away now, I knew I might never get another chance.

“I like you, Damiano,” I finally said. “I have liked you for three years now.”

He didn’t look at me. My heart sank.

“Maeve,” he called my name again.

There was something in his eyes, but I couldn’t understand what it was.

He reached into his pocket.

I watched as he brought out a ring.

Before I could ask him anything, he took my hand and placed the ring on my finger.

“I’m sorry, Maeve.” My throat tightened.

That was it. He was rejecting me.

I quickly pulled my hand back and tried to hold the tears burning behind my eyes.

“Let’s forget I ever said this,” I whispered.

I didn’t want him to see me cry.

I moved closer to him and kissed his cheek goodbye.

“Damiano,” I whispered one last time.

Then I turned and ran outside.

I rushed into Niamh’s car and shut the door behind me.

“Ah!” she screamed, turning toward me. “What happened?”

I couldn’t answer.

The moment I sat down, the tears I had been holding back began to fall.

“Just drive,” I said. Niamh started the car.

“He is leaving Ireland,” I managed to say through my tears. “I won’t see him again.”

I wiped my cheeks, but more tears followed.

“I am so foolish. I shouldn’t have confessed to him.”

My eyes dropped to the ring on my finger.

The ring he had placed on my wedding ring finger.

I stared at it silently.

“I will heal,” I whispered. “I know it will take time, but I will heal and forget about him.”

I swallowed hard, trying to believe the words coming out of my mouth.

But it still hurt.

It hurt knowing that I wouldn’t see my Damiano again.