A Touch Of Summer Love

Chapter 6

It was officially the last day. The day we'd have to say goodbye. How can we say goodbye when we still have so much to learn from each other? When we still have so much to say? We can't just leave all of these words unspoken, can we? Will we keep talking afterwards? Will we be able to break the distance again? Only time can tell...

After our wonderful meal, and presenting the dreadful projects in front of everyone, it was time to say goodbye. They called us one by one, giving us diplomas saying how we had successfully completed the program from June 21st-26th. They gave the winning group a prize since the purpose of the program was also teamwork and being able to solve business problems throughout tasks that they would give us daily and voila, the time had officially come.

We all gathered as groups one last time and took countless amounts of pictures. After the pictures, we huddled up and Nicholas proceeded to give us a speech. "This is really hard for me but--" he started saying tearing up... "you guys are amazing. I had never met such an incredible group of people in such a short amount of time. I never thought we would get this close. I've never had a connection like this with anyone. Not even with my friends back at home." At this point, Matthew, Kim and Sasha started crying along with him but I decided to hold it back and be the strong one. The six of us stood in a circle taking in this very moment. Nicholas had his head on my chest while he quietly sobbed and I gently tried calming him down caressing his face. All I could do was hold him in my arms while the rest of us hugged. None of us wanted to let go.

It's incredible how we went from being six complete strangers, to super close friends in just five days. Our bonds grew stronger with every passing day. It was something apparently most of us hadn't quite experienced before. After our group hug and a few other words said, we proceeded to hug each other individually. The hardest part of all...

First, I said goodbye to the girls, then to Matthew who gave me one of the best hugs I have ever received, and right when I was going to hug Nicholas, Chelsea ran up to him and stole my hug. While she hugged him, I stayed in front of them waiting for her to leave and all we could do was look at each other. Our eyes met, and locked. After she released from her hug, I jokingly said "Is it finally my turn?" and he simply walked up to me and we just stood there hugging.

It felt as if the world had suddenly stopped, the stars alined, and no one else was in the room. It was the kind of hug that you never want to release from. It's the kind that makes you feel safe in that persons' embrace. As we hugged, neither of us wanted to let go. It was the type of hug where you're both just standing there taking in these last few seconds together. However, in the middle of the hug, after what felt like endless minutes passing by, he held me tighter and closer to him as if it were possible to be closer. This was something I had never experienced before. It was like saying, I don't want to let go, please don't make me let go.

Little did I know that the reason behind why I felt so safe and why it felt so natural for me to be in his arms was because with every passing second, I would be falling for him a little more each time and without realizing it, I ended up head over heels for him, but only finding out months later...