In The End

Prologue - At The Start

"Did you finish it?" He asked softly.

I shook my head and frowned. "I couldn't bring myself to." I replied. "I thought if I...."

I stopped, because my words had begun to waver. If I continued I was going to cry and if I cried then I wouldn't be able to let him leave.

"It's okay." He whispered. "I get it."

He stepped forward and placed his hand over mine as I held the book and pushed it gently back toward me. "Keep it. It's yours. Read it when you're ready."
I nodded, because it seemed like the natural thing to do. Because I was running on autopilot, because my best friend was leaving for college and I still had three years of high school to get through, because I didn't know what else to do.

Seb swallowed hard and looked down. "I'm going to miss you Em."

His words were all I needed to break me. To send me down a spiral of self pity so strong that suddenly I didn't want to put myself through the torture of goodbye. I felt the tears line my eyes before I even had a chance to catch my breath. I pushed past him, shoving the book into his hands as I ran out the front door.

I didn't even know where I was running to. I looked at Seb's house beside ours and let out a gasp. I wasn't going to be able to lean across my balcony and tell him bad jokes anymore. He wasn't going to be there. Life was forever evolving, forever changing, but for me, this change sucked.

I ran next door and climbed up the trellis beside Seb's room. I'd scaled his wall a thousand times before, but today I knew it would be the last time. Without him here, there wouldn't be much point.

I looked down at my front yard before I slipped inside. Seb was on his way here.

His room looked pretty much the same, if not a little barer. By the door sat a gigantic suitcase thought and his open closet was empty. I walked into it, leaned against the wall and sank to the ground. I couldn't stop the tears that fell from my eyes, as much as I wanted to be strong I wasn't. For so long Seb had been my everything and now...

"Em." his door opened and he stepped inside. For a moment he stood there, a look of confusion pasted across his face. Then his eyes met mine, he walked until he was by his closet and fell to his knees. He was crying too. "Don't run away from me."

"I could say the same to you." I managed to splutter out in between sobs. "I need you Seb."

Seb bit his lip and pulled me up and out of the closet, embracing me. Hugging wasn't a thing we did, but today it seemed so necessary. Like I needed to be as close as possible to Seb so that everything about him would stay so vividly in my mind.

""It's not forever. I'll be back." He offered before continuing. "You are the strongest person I know Em. You don't need me, you'll be fine."

I sucked in a breath and shook my head pulling back away from him. Our faces weren't far apart, so I spoke softly, regaining clarity for a short time.

"If I am so strong, then why does the thought of you leaving make me feel so weak."

His eyes closed for a moment and when he finally opened them again, fresh tears rolled down his cheeks. I lifted my hands to his face and brushed the tears away.

"Stop." He murmured.

I listened, but left my hands on his cheeks. Something stirred within me. A feeling I didn't understand, a feeling I'd never had before. I yearned to learn everything I didn't already know about Seb, which I gathered by the depth in his eyes was more than I realised.

"I love you Seb." I whispered. I'd told him I loved him hundreds of times before, we'd been best friends almost all of our lives. We'd seen each other through hard times, well as hard as they can be as children and teenagers. This time though, the words seemed to have a layer they'd never had before... another meaning.

"I love you too Em."

I closed my eyes to stem the flow of tears, and as if by magnetic force I felt my face move forward, closer to Seb's until we were so close I could feel the warmth of his breath on my face. I felt Seb's hands cup my face and then skin met skin, our lips brushed sending a bolt of electricity between us, connecting us like a powersource. I'd never been kissed before, I'd never wanted to be... not until now. The tears in my eyes evaporated from the sheer warmth we had generated from one small, soft kiss. It was everything, it almost felt like a beginning and yet at the same time and ending.

All too quickly it ended, with Seb releasing me and shuffling backwards until he was against his bed and I was by the closet. My lips still tingled from his touch even though we were almost a room apart.

"I'm sorry." Seb said finally. "Em... I shouldn't have..."

My heart thumped against my chest so hard that it felt like my whole body was moving with its rhythmic thump. Nausea filled my gut and all of a sudden I felt like I was falling off the edge of a cliff. Whatever we had just shared had changed me, I felt different somehow and yet Seb just looked disturbed.

"It's okay." I whispered even though I felt anything but okay.

"I... I gotta go." He stuttered, jumping to his feet.

I stood up, even though my legs felt like jelly and my head felt like lead. Seb walked to the door and grabbed his suitcase handle before opening his bedroom door. He left the room, pulling it down the stairs behind him. His parents met us at the bottom, his mother was misty eyed, while his father held her. He stopped by the door and looked at his parents.

"Don't cry Mom. I'm only a few hours away." He stopped and looked down.

"Oh Sebastian." Anne, his mom exclaimed, stepping out of her husband's embrace in order to envelope her only son into her arms. "My baby, you're all grown up."

"Son." His father exclaimed with a thick voice he joined the hug and for a moment I felt like I was encroaching on a moment meant only for family. But Anne stopped and held out her arms for me.

I held back, aware that Seb felt strange about what had happened only a few minutes prior, but he looked over at me and nodded. I walked forward and stepped into the hug and pretended that everything was going to be okay.

All too soon the embrace disintegrated. Seb's grip returned to his suitcase and the his dad opened the front door.

He got into his car and I watched as he drove away, feeling helpless and alone, completely unaware that the worst was yet to come.

A/N - Welcome to my new book available first on the Radish App. I will be updating REGULARLY (as in at least once a week). The next chapter will be up on Wattpad as soon as my sixth chapter is up on Radish (there are FIVE chapters already up on Radish.)

On radish, the first three chapters are completely free, and the chapters after that can be purchased at a small cost, or if you can wait will unlock for free 7 days after I post. If you like this book, and want to be amongst the first to read the chapters then using the Radish App is going to be the best for you.

Either way, I hope you like this new story.

Updates for my other books will be on Wattpad soon!