Worth Waiting For

Epilogue

Victoria's POV

The sea air fills my lungs as the breeze gently plays with my hair. The calls of gulls above me sound distant, like a dream. I open my eyes and take in my surroundings. I'm in a park not far from the sea; grass stretches out before me, benches nestled under trees. I'm standing under one of those trees, the shade providing momentary relief from the blazing sun above. I have been here for some time, watching the people sat on the bench a few metres away from me.

They are in their late twenties, one has curly brown hair and brown eyes, and the other has straight black hair and piercing blue eyes. My focus is on the brown-haired one.

Its's been six years since I last saw that face, six years since he said goodbye. Six years. And it's hurt every day since.

I watch as they slip their arms around one another, closing the space between them. They smile as they gaze into each other's eyes, like they can see what lies behind them. And they understand.

I've never forgotten the day he left. The day he saw what I'd been missing all along. I knew something had been wrong before that; he brushed me off whenever I asked him what was wrong, seemed distant whenever we were together. I should have realised what was going on. But that wouldn't have made it hurt any less.

He left me. He tried to make it hurt as little as possible, but he still left me behind. I thought he was the one, but he left me for another.

I have always wondered if he did enjoy our time together. If every smile was genuine, if every laugh was real. I often wonder what it was we had, if it was even anything at all. Or if it was all just fate's cruel way of bringing two people together. Two other people.

I should've known that I could never be to Dan what Phil was to him. I should have seen the connection between them; the way Dan's eyes shimmered whenever he talked about his friend. The way it devastated Dan when Phil left. I should've seen what was going on in front of me, but I was blind to it.

And that brings me here. Looking at the face of the man I loved, the man I still loved. The smile I adore. The contagious laughter, the secrets shared. The loving gaze he once gave me, now focused on the boy sitting next to him. The breeze carries their words to me.

"Phil?"

"Yes Dan?"

"You know I love you right?"

"Of course, Dan. I love you too."

"No not just 'I love you', I mean like... I really love you. You make the happiest I could ever be. Even when we're just lying next to each other, not saying anything, it's the best feeling in the world just to know you're there. I really love you, and I love every minute I have with you."

"I love you too Dan, more than I could ever hope to express in words. There's nothing I want to do more than just be with you, all the time. I see the world differently when I'm with you, it's brighter. More amazing. I can see the beauty in everything. You help me to see it."

"Well I don't need any help to see the beauty in you"

"DAN"

"Ha ha you love me really"

"Yeah I do, but that doesn't make you any less annoying."

"Phillip Michael Lester, that was rude"

"Daniel James Howell, that was true"

"Ok maybe it was"

"See, I told you." Phil reaches up to rest his hand on the side of Dan's face, stroking his hair. "I love you more than anything, and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you."

Dan smiles, running his fingers over the silver band on Phil's finger, a matching one on his own.

"Neither can I. And the rest of our lives have already begun."

"And that makes me happier than you could ever know."

Dan smiles, leaning in to press his lips to Phil's. A soft, tentative kiss full of promise. Promise of the days and months and years to come.

I watch; a silent observer in the shadows. In another reality, that could have been me there with Dan, me who woke up next to him every day. But that is a life I will never get to live.

So I turn and walk away, leaving the couple alone together.

Forever.