Him & I • E.D.

chapter twenty - hard goodbye part two

It's been a couple of months since graduation. Shaila has already left for Greece about a month ago. It was an emotional goodbye for sure, but she's been sending tons of pictures from Greece. She seems to fit in well there. Nolan got into an art school in Georgia, so he leaves right after we finish our senior year. Ethan and Grayson leave for New Jersey in two weeks and I couldn't be more unprepared. Ethan and I have been spending every second with each other during summer break, which makes it even harder to say goodbye in two weeks.

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I threw myself onto the couch next to Rob and my mom.

"What's wrong, hon?" My mom asked.

"It's just, Ethan is leaving in a couple of weeks for college and so is Grayson. And Nolan will got into a school in Georgia. And freaking Shaila is in Greece living her best life. And you guys are loving married life. It just feels like everyone has their life figured out, but me." I vented.

"It's okay not to know what you want. You're young, you should explore the possibilities." My mom said.

"Hey, I'm going up to Seattle for a conference next week. You should come with me and just get out of the state before school starts back up." Rob suggested.

"That sounds like a great idea!" My mom said, getting excited.

"I guess so." I said, still pouting.

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Our last days flew by before I knew it and I was at the airport with Ethan and Grayson.

Grayson gave me a big hug.

"Hey, thank you." He said.

"For what?" I asked.

"For all you've done for Ethan. He's changed a lot since he's met you." He said.

"He's probably changed me more than I've changed him." I said, smiling.

Ethan walked up to us.

"I'm going to check our bags in." Grayson said, leaving Ethan and I to say our goodbyes.

"So, this is it." I said, smiling at Ethan.

"This is it." He said, smiling back at me.

I went in for a hug and he hugged me back, tightly.

"I'm going to miss you so much." I said, as I started to cry.

"Hey, don't cry." He said as he wiped my tears with the sleeve of his hoodie. "This isn't bye, this is see you later." He said, smiling and holding back tears himself.

"I love you, Ethan." I said, trying to hold back the rest of my tears.

"I love you, Liz." He said back, giving me one last hug and kiss.

"You ready to go, E?" Grayson asked, interrupting our moment.

"Yeah." He said, looking back at me for one more second.

They walked off and Ethan turned around and smiled one more time before walking out of sight.

I cried the whole way home and the whole night that night.

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Rob and I flew to Seattle the next day. It was beautiful and I loved the vibe of the city, but it was hard to enjoy without Ethan. Speaking of Ethan, he hasn't texted or called since he got to Jersey yesterday. I guess he's just settling in before his classes start tomorrow.

"So here is where my conference is." Rob said as we drove up to a tall, beautiful building with windows literally everywhere... it was a building of windows.