Deeper

68 | Farewell

The door creaks open, and I see her coming in. My heart beats twice. It's funny how she still gives me this kind of feeling every time I look at her, no matter how many times I see her. Perhaps, it's because a part of me still thinks that this is too good to be true. I've never thought that she would forgive me. The three bullets that I took are nothing compared to the pain of losing her.

Thank you, Melanie. Thank you for giving me a second chance.

She approaches me and sits beside the bed, looking down. But I still can catch sight of the sadness skating on her face, and that makes me frown.

"Melanie, what's wrong?" I ask, my worry evident in my voice.

Slowly, she looks up at me, and my breath catches in my throat. She's been crying, a lot, her eyes puffy and red.

"Baby, what's the matter?" Urgency fills my tone. My heart thumps wildly inside my chest as I think about her being hurt again. All the horrible thoughts fill up my mind, and anger builds up inside me -- I'm guessing that it's about that one fucking bastard. "Did something happen to Derek?" I've been watching the news and know that he's in nowhere else but jail. "Did the court say something against us?"

She shakes her head, holding my hand in hers to calm me down. "No, it's not about that. From the latest update I've heard from Jake, there's no way that he can escape the punishment."

"Then what made you cry?" I stroke her hand while my other hand gently cups her chin so that she can look me in the eyes.

More tears pool in her beautiful emerald orbs, and pain strikes me. I hate to see her crying.

"Vaughn, I--" she begins. "I don't think we can do this." Her words make my frown deepen. "I don't think we can stay like this," she stutters.

Now, I'm starting to hate myself for not understanding her sentence. What the hell does she mean?

Sensing that I'm still struck by her words, she continues, "During my time here in Texas, I've been finishing some new college applications." This is something new that I hear from her, and a horrible feeling stirs inside me. If she's been keeping this information as a secret, then it's nothing good for me. "And I was thrilled that one of them responded to my proposal quite quickly."

I'm still at a loss for words. This is her future, and I should have expected this kind of thing. All this time, I've been keeping this thought at the back of my mind because I can't imagine her having a future without me. Whatever her path is, I'll stand by her side, so what she said earlier doesn't make sense to me.

I don't even realize that my hand is shaking when I stroke her hand again.

"Well, that's good to hear, Mel," I say. "I'm sure we can work things out together--"

"No, you don't understand," she cuts me off, her voice shaking. "We-we can't be together anymore."

That sentence makes me want to explode. Did I hear her right?

She can't just suddenly throw this in my face and decides everything for us.

"I'm leaving," she finally chokes, and I feel like my heart is about to be shattered all over again. "I'm going to Australia."

I freeze, shocked to the core. I've never expected such information from her.

"Australia?" I echo. "Melanie," I pause, the shock still making me difficult to speak. "That's somewhere extremely far away from here."

She lets out a shaky breath, and I clench my fist. Sure, I don't expect her to start college in Boston again, but I've hoped that she stays in this country, maybe in one of the states nearby. I've definitely not expected her to choose a place that is on another continent on the other side of the world. But then, it's actually one of the options she would consider, and I was too afraid to admit it.