Never Say Goodbye

Chapter 1

Ness was sat at her usual table; out of the way but still able to see what went on in the bar; nobody tried to get her to join in anymore, not that they had ever tried very hard, but she had always said no, and they had moved on to easier tasks. She knew all of them standing around the bar, had known them for over a decade but she had never really gotten close to any of them.

The reason for her continued self-imposed distance had just arrived and Ness swallowed hard, it never got easier to look at him, he never got uglier; she raised her glass to her lips and glanced his way again, his arm was carelessly draped around the shoulders of a leggy blonde girl who looked like she only left school a couple of months before, he was laughing at something, the way his eyes crinkled as he did so caused a muscle spasm in her heart; draining her glass in one Ness shook her head, she was hopeless, it was hopeless but she had decided long ago that seeing him, even with other girls, was better than not seeing him at all.

"God you really are pathetic, Ness." She muttered to herself as she walked the short distance to the bar to get a refill.

"Same again Nessie?" Jon the barman asked, removing the dirty glass and hovering by the racks of clean ones,

"Of course, Jon, why change the habits of a lifetime?" Ness grinned; a deep laugh nearby startled her, and she turned to see that Zach had moved along the bar in her direction and had heard the interchange between her and Jon.

"Evening Zach, who's the blonde?" She asked, proud of how steady her voice was despite his closeness.

"You know me, Ness, I haven't a clue what her name is..." He winked at her and handed money over as Jon put her glass of whiskey down. "I've got this one Jon." He added, shooting a quick smile her way and raising his eyebrow at her as she began to argue. Ness gave up, took her glass and with a quick nod of thanks she returned to her table, letting her light brown hair fall slightly over her face so she could watch without being seen.

It had always been that way, Zach had always been the hottest guy to ever walk through her life; through it not into it because despite her dreams and fantasies they were friends, just friends and after all the years she knew that was all it would ever be. She wasn't his type, he was almost always with a blonde, you know the type, long, gorgeous hair that reached halfway down to her ass and took someone's eye out if she flicked it back suddenly; body like a model, face as flawless as a movie star; and Ness, well, short brown hair that never did seem to grow any longer than her shoulders, a couple of extra pounds, weirdly pale green eyes and a wonky eyebrow from when she fell out of the treehouse as a kid and split it open – didn't really stand a chance.

The nameless blonde laughed loudly at something Zach said and Ness winced at the pitch, it was almost high enough to shatter crystal, she glanced through her hair to see Zach was also wincing at it and chuckled softly to herself. Zach looked directly at her as if he had somehow heard her and Ness was glad she had hidden behind her hair; she pulled her notebook open and made a show of making some notes for her latest blog post. She was really starting to get noticed online where only the stories she shared mattered and nobody cared about her appearance; all she needed now was to make enough money from it to be able to quit her job at the Paper, she was a creative writer, not a journalist but she had to eat.

Finishing her drink and stuffing her book and pen into her bag, Ness shrugged her leather jacket on, gave Jon a salute and headed for the door, as she passed Zach and his blonde she heard a derisive snort,

"Oh my God, why do girls think they look good as biker chicks? I mean, please... I bet she's never even been near a motorcycle!" The blonde said in her strange squeaky voice,