Legacy: The Awakening by Liza Malloy

Author:Liza Malloy [Malloy, Liza]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781950478095
Publisher: Teal Street Publishing
Published: 2020-03-30T05:00:00+00:00

Jessica

I waited for Aiden outside the Political Science Building the next morning. I couldn’t help but smile as I saw him emerge after his test. I hopped off the half wall where I’d been seated and scampered over to him, bubbling with excited energy.

“So you’re all done with finals?” I asked, anticipating a cheer, or at least a smile.

Aiden nodded, his face tense.

“Did it not go well?”

He shrugged. “I’m sure it went fine.”

“You look miserable.”

Aiden glanced at me again, but didn’t reply.

“Shouldn’t you be celebrating? Graduation is kind of a big deal, even if you’ve done it before.”

He forced a smiled and kissed the side of my head. “Your hair smells amazing,” he whispered. “I’m going to miss that.” He sighed, loudly. “I can’t be excited about graduation because it means I’ll have to be apart from you.”

I squeezed his hand and led him to an empty bench. “You’re sweet, but you should still celebrate. Besides, didn’t you say you’d be back in town a few times over the summer? It’s not like we will be apart the entire summer.”

Aiden frowned. I could tell he was holding back something, but what I didn’t know was why.

“We can talk on the phone, text, and email when you’re gone, and then when you’re in town, we’ll just have to make the most of our time together, right?”

Aiden relaxed a bit, so I kissed him.

He abruptly pulled away, leaned forward, and thrust his head into his hands.

“Jessica, I think we should cut our losses and move on,” he mumbled.

“What?”

“We’ve had a great time together this year, but this summer—my leaving—we shouldn’t work around it, we just need to accept it as the sign that it is. You don’t need a long distance relationship now. Neither do I.”

I inhaled slowly, trying not to jump to conclusions. “I don’t understand.”

He wrinkled his eyebrows but stared straight into my eyes. “I’m not good for you. You should stay away from me.”

My mind was spinning. I tried to guess what was prompting this. “You said you loved me. You said no one in your family would hurt me. So why?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Ugh! Aiden, it’s always complicated with you. Tell me what the problem is now.”

He laughed sardonically. “There’s not just one problem, Jessica. There’s dozens. How do you see this ending?”

“I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I suppose I figured we could enjoy the moment, but if you want to know an endgame, I guess I realize that statistically we’re most likely going to break up at some point before I graduate.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

“No I’m not okay with that. Right now, I’m happy with you, and I thought you were happy with me. I don’t normally go into a relationship assuming it’ll fail, but I don’t know what else you want me to say.”

“What if we don’t break up? What if we’re both happy and more in love than ever in two years?”

I laughed. “That’s a good thing, right?”

“No, because the more attached you get, the more it’ll hurt you when I have to leave you someday.

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