Never Say Goodbye

Chapter 9

Summer break that year was strange for Zach, he'd gotten used to having Ness around, but she was touring Europe with her parents and he found himself at a loose end a lot of the time. He spent a lot of time at the beach, picking up a new girl every few days, but they only filled a fraction of the void she left, he didn't even feel like fighting.

Sunday mornings were his favorite time, that's when he would get the weekly email from Ness, telling him everything she had seen and done the previous week, she wrote so much detail he could almost smell the places she had visited; Zach always felt like such a failure when it came to his reply, he had nothing to say and instead tried to sound enthusiastic about the Eiffel Tower, or the Coliseum or whichever place she had mentioned seeing in her novel length email. He wished his battered old computer had a webcam, so they could have a skype call, the best he could get was an occasional phone call, they didn't last long because they cost so much but the chance to hear her voice at least was worth every cent to him.

Ness was totally enamored with her tour, but she felt the distance between herself and Zach growing with each week and the lack of news in his replies to her hurt more than she was willing to admit to herself. When she first called him as a surprise he had sounded happy and Ness struggled to decide if it was summer happy or hearing from her happy, she eventually chose summer because he still didn't write more in the next email. She called again a couple of weeks later and he seemed to have a lot more to say, talking about the guys from the fight club, the different girls he'd met and that he had got himself a part-time job at the local convenience store, so he had a bit of extra cash but less time to himself.

"I was thinking of buying a camera, so we could chat over Skype," he said

"That would be cool, I've almost forgotten what you look like, what with all the gorgeous guys over here." Ness replied with a grin that transferred into her voice for Zach to hear. "But I'll be back in a little over a week, it would be a waste of your hard-earned money," she added.

"True," Zach said, he knew it made sense, but he was missing her face more than he wanted to admit, even to himself. "What day are you back? What time is your flight supposed to arrive? I could come meet you and we could go straight to Jerks, I bet you've missed their rocky road."

"Too right!" Ness had missed him more, but she would settle for telling him she missed the ice cream. She gave him her flight details and they finished the call in a better frame of mind than either had been in for a few weeks.

"NESS!" Zach shouted across the airport as soon as he saw her, causing more than a few people to visibly start; her head whipped in his direction and a massive grin spread across her face, a matching grin spread across Zach's face too, and any fear that they had grown apart over those last few weeks faded away. They met with a fist bump and an awkward hug,

"Look at you! You're all sophisticated!" He said, stepping back to get another look

"Nah, I just look all sophisticated, I'm the same old Ness." She replied with a smile, "It'll take more than a few Europeans to make me change."

"Glad to hear it, ready for Jerks or do you need to head home first?"

"Well..." Ness looked to her parents

"Go on, get out of here, we'll take your bags home and see you later" Her dad smiled and waved them both away. They didn't need to be told twice and high-tailed it out of the airport, laughing all the way.

Half an hour later they were sitting on the Pier eating ice cream as though they hadn't spent weeks half a world apart. Ness was regaling Zach with all the extra stuff she hadn't put in her weekly emails, Zach, for his part, admitted that he had felt completely stupid with his lack of adventures in comparison to everything she was sharing, and Ness finally understood why his replies had been so short.