“We’re not blocking it,” Axl says, raising his voice. “There’s plenty of fucking room for people to walk around.”
“Axl, let’s go.” I grab his hand, trying to pull him toward the door.
“We’ll go when I’m ready,” he says, glaring at the cop.
“If you’re not going to move,” the cop says, “you’ll be charged with—”
“We’re moving,” I say, yanking hard on Axl’s hand. He’s skinny and not that strong, so my hard pull makes him stumble toward me.
“Rumor, what the fuck?” He tries to yank his hand away, but I keep hold of it.
“Hurry up or I’ll miss my plane,” I say, smiling at the officer as I continue to pull Axl toward the door.
The officer keeps his eyes on us a moment, then continues down the walkway.
I let go of Axl as I hurry inside the airport.
“What the hell was that?” I hear him ask from behind me.
I whip around. “You really want to start a fight with a cop? So when I come back here, I have to visit you in jail?”
“He wasn’t going to arrest me.” Axl shoves the hair out of his eyes. “It’s not a fucking crime to stand on the sidewalk.”
“Can we just forget about that and go back to saying goodbye?” I grab hold of his black t-shirt and reach up to kiss him.
He holds my face in his hands and presses his lips to mine.
“This isn’t goodbye,” he whispers, resting his forehead on mine.
“It feels like it is,” I whisper back.
People rush past us as announcements blare from the overhead speakers. Ignoring all that, I focus on Axl, burying my head in his chest, breathing in his earthy scent. Blocking out all the noises around me, I listen to the steady murmur of his heart. The heart I fell in love with two years ago, when I was only fifteen. Back then, I wasn’t even sure what love was until I met Axl.
He was my first — first date, first boyfriend, first kiss, first time. My first everything.
He’s my first love, and hopefully my last.
That was the plan. For us to be together forever.
But now we’re being torn apart.
“I love you, Axl.” I squeeze my eyes shut to stop the tears, but some have already fallen, dampening his shirt.
“I love you too.” He wraps his long, thin arms around me and holds me against his chest.
“I don’t think I can do this,” I say, sniffling.
“You can. You’ve been through worse.”
He means the day my mom died. She was my whole world. And then she was gone. In an instant, she was gone.
Axl lets go of me and takes a step back, with that slight smile of his on his face. “See ya later.”
A lump forms in my throat as I look at him. He’s my everything. How will I go a whole year without seeing him?
“I’m not ready,” I say, my voice cracking.
“The sooner you go, the sooner you can come back.” He nods toward the check-in line. “Get your ass over there. Go do this shit, then come back and we’ll start our lives.”
