Zayn: I watch her packing the last of her things in the suitcase and fight the urge to just take her bags and hide them so she can't leave. I'm not a little kid anymore and antics like that won't make her stay. It's the last day of summer and it's time for her to go back home. She's not from here--this isn't her home and I have to go back on tour soon. We both have to part and somehow this is harder than I thought it'd be. "Guess this is g'bye," she announces softly, hoisting her bag over her shoulder and grabbing the handle of her suitcase. "Here, let me carry that," I drone, mindlessly taking the bag and staring at the soft leather. I can't meet her gaze--I'm afraid I might just break down and lose it if I do. "Right...Well, the taxi is here," she mumbles, blinking back tears but not being able to hide the one that slides slowly down her cheek. "I'll keep in touch," she promises, kissing my cheek as she slides into the backseat of the car. No you won't, I want to say. But I don't. I let her believe it and I try to let myself believe. Because truthfully, I know I'll never see or hear from her again. And that month we spent at the beach house will just be another piece of the past. Just some grains of sand, long forgotten.
Liam: I watch as the bus gets closer and closer, it's kind of foreboding. Once she climbs on that bus heading back home I know it'll all be over. She told me since the first day that we were just a summer fling. Just for fun, just for the summer. Somewhere along the skinny dipping and surfing lessons I'd started to feel more than that. I didn't want her to be just a summer fling--but she was leaving. She lived too far and I was never in one place for long enough on account of my career. "I guess this is good b-" she begins, but I place my finger to her lips and shake my head. "Don't say it," I sigh, giving her a joking smile although I'm earnestly about to cry and I feel like an idiot. "Don't look at me like that," she frowns, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "How am I supposed to leave that face behind?" She wraps me tight in a hug, her scent filling the air and I wish I could just bottle it up and keep it because it'll always remind me of this summer--indubitably the best summer I'd ever had. "B-TRAIN DEPARTING IN FIVE MINUTES, ALL ABOARD," the bus driver announces, causing us to break the hug and her to make her way to the doors. She blows me one kiss and climbs on the bus, and I can only watch as five minutes later it pulls away and my summer love is officially gone.
Louis: I look around at the screaming girls and fans and paparazzi and angrily shake my head. "I wish we could be alone now," I whisper, giving her hand a squeeze. She was about to board her flight and we couldn't even get a real decent good bye because all I could here is screams and camera flashes. "We could find a place to hide and just stay forever and ever," she pouts, looking down at her hands. She doesn't want to go back home but she has to. She has school starting soon, her family, her job. I've got to catch a flight tomorrow for the tour starting in Belgium. "I guess it really was just for the summer," I sigh, forcing myself not to cry. I do not need pictures of me crying spread all over the world. "LOUIS! LOUIS! LOUIS!" paparazzi scream, fans joining the chorus. I flip them all my middle finger behind my back and a few gasp. I don't even care anymore. This is it. It's good bye. Her flight is announced and she leans in one last time, kissing my lips and breaking away with a sad smile. "Out first kiss was just like this one, our last one," she laments, turning away and heading to her flight with no more words. I slide on my sunglasses although it's hardly even sunny outside and I'm indoors. That way no one can get a picture of me crying.
Harry: "I love you," I sigh, watching the sun set behind the pastel beach houses and palm trees. The warm breeze sends the salty scent of the ocean spiraling around--the scent had gotten so familiar and it reminded me of happier times, times I spent with her. Five weeks. Summer. Just me and her and the beach house, just disappearing from the world for a while. But I knew this was it, it was just the summer, right? I never meant to fall in love with her, but I guess things just happen. "Don't make this any harder for me, okay? I have to leave," she croaks, pulling away from me and wrapping her arms around her knees. I can see in the dim moonlight that tears slide down her cheeks. "I didn't mean to make you cry, I'm sorry, but I fell for you really hard and I don't want you to go," I whisper, biting my lip. Why did I tell her? I'm making this harder? I know she can't stay--I can't stay. We've got promises to keep, we've got places to be. It felt like we were playing a game this summer--no comitments and nothing to do. Just living wild and free...together. "We can't do this any longer, I have to go. School starts tomorrow, Harry," she says softly, placing her hand on my cheek. I lean into her touch and she offers a sad smile. "I had the best time of my life with you and there's nothing I want to change," she whispers, giving me one last kiss before climbing off the porch and heading to her already-loaded car.
Niall: "Don't leave, please," I plead, watching her lift each bag into the trunk of her jeep. "I don't want to leave, but we both know I can't stay," she sighs, tucking a green bag into the back. "You're just making this harder for me, Niall." I plop down cross-legged on the grass, I can feel bits of sand in my sneakers and I can see my tan starting to fade. It was September first, and I hated it. It meant the end of the summer and it meant not waking up to her anymore. "You were my summer love and you were nothing else," she tries to sound cold, but she starts crying instead as she slams the trunk to her car. "You were more than that, but I can't...you can't be," she sniffs, wrapping her arms around me as I bury her in a hug. "Just don't forget about me, all right?" I whisper, slowly running my fingers through her hair. I don't want to make this harder, I won't admit that I feel the same. I can't. I can't. "That'd be impossible," she laughs, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "Every time I find sand in my shoes I'll remember you," she jokes. I join her laughter but somehow it just doesn't feel right. Neither of us quite feeling like laughing at a time like this. But I watch her drive away and I just kind of lay on the grass until I realize I've got to be at an interview in an hour and summer is really over. And she really is gone.
