Nate grips my hand tighter as we make our way through the airport.

People rush around us, running to catch their planes while Nate and I are clearly hesitant in leaving each other's sight. The clear sound of last calls ring through the vast area, setting the deep tendrils of dread to cling on tightly.

These past months with Nate only set me up for more sorrow as the ticking time bomb known as the future krept up like a ghost lurking amongst the living. We have spent every waking moment together and the thought of being seperated for a single second hurts more than I would like to dwell on.

"Maybe I could stay another week," Nate suggests, looking around the airport as if someone would agree with him and that would make it settled. "We still haven't gotten to that circus movie you wanted to go to. There's still time."

"Nathaniel," I say with a smile because the thought of spending more time with him is tempting. "Your summer program starts on Monday. There isn't anymore time."

"That's still in threeish days. Let's go. We can make the seven o'clock matinee if we beat traffic."

He stops us at the gate and waves to his family as Lucy cries proud tears into her husband's shirt. She is crying more today than she had at graduation, which is saying something because the woman sure loves her son.

Nate had pullen on my hand before I had a choice to stay back with them which I am thankful for because that gives me more time alone with him and I have never handled Lucy Haynes' tears very well. I think he did so because of just this but mostly I think he figured I wouldn't talk him out of staying.

I really want him to stay.

"You're going to miss your flight, Rocketman." I reach up and straighten his collar, placing my hands over his chest to steady myself as I lean forward and breathe him in.

I'll miss the clean smell of him that wafts through my sense any time he is near. I'll miss his hand clutching mine, trailing his figures over my skin innocently whenever we are close. The feeling so intimate as the electrical sparks ignited and fused us together.

I'll miss Nate's dry humor and the way he simply smiles at me when I try to reciprocate his jokes only to laugh along with me when I fail miserably. He's just too smart for his own good.

I'll miss his laugh, his touch, his kisses. Him.

But I can't be selfish. He has to go to Washington, D.C for the summer and I have to go to Dartmouth in the fall. Though spending a summer without him will surely hallow a hole in my chest, it will set us up for how the next four or more years will go with Nate in Kansas City and me in New Hampshire.

"You'll come up to visit in two weeks, right?" Nate persists. Panic smothers his eyes and that starts to make me tense but I know I have to be strong.

"Yes," I assure him even though his parents had told him that he shouldn't get distracted from his research. But we've never let anyone keep us apart, so why start now? "I'll be there in 335 hours and 59 seconds." I tilt my face up towards his.

"Counting every second." He bends down and connects his mouth to mine, kissing me deeply and soundly. My heart clenches once more and I pull him as close to me as possible.

My tongue instantly darts out to skim across his bottom lip and my blood sizzles when his meets mine for dominance. The sizzling and popping turns to singing in my ears and my fingers weave themselves in his hair that he has been cut short again. I miss the curls but this way reminds me of the beginning.

Our breathing is ragged as we pull apart.

"You have to go, Nate. You're going to miss your flight." I try to inch my lips further away from his as I try to speak but he holds me tightly. Plus, let's face it, I really wasn't trying to move away from him.

"One more minute." His lips trail across my cheek and nip at my earlobe until I am laughing and twisting away from his tickling fingers. When he stops and I am breathless, he places his forehead against mine. "I wish we had the summer together. I don't want to go."

"Yes, you do," I assure him. "You have done nothing but talk about this program since I've met you. Molly will meet you at the institute when you get there. There will be a familiar face and everything, okay? It's only eight weeks, Nate."

Eight weeks of pure torture.

Molly had gotten into the NASA program as well which is reassuring because I know how Nate gets. He has come a long way but I still find myself coddling him like a mother hen when it comes to his well-being.

"A summer of Molly barking in my ear. How delightful." His golden eyes twinkle as they roll.

I laugh and he smiles down at me like he always does when I do so. His eyes soften and his hand reaches up and smooths a strand of my now shoulder length hair behind my ear. My eyes close briefly at his light touch and a content sigh passes my lips.

The final boarding call to D.C. sounds through the terminal and we both incline our heads.

"Go," I push and peck him once more before hugging him to me.

His long arms wrap around me in a protective, warm, embrace and for a moment I consider telling him not to go. We could still catch that movie and spend the summer at his family's lakehouse like we had daydreamed of doing so.

The thought is too tempting and I know that his plane is leaving whether he is on it or not.

"Nate, go," I say once more and nudge him. I smile reassuringly at him and through my watery eyes, catch him looking once more behind him at his family. He raises his hand again in a wave and I hear his parents shout their goodbyes. I don't have to look behind me to see his mother suppressing her tears but failing as much as I am as Tim rubs her back.

"I'll see you soon," Nate tells me as he walks backwards to the escalator.

The lump on my throat chokes me further as I try to put on a brave, supportive girlfriend, face and wiggle my fingers in a wave.

Watching Nathaniel Haynes walk away from me to pursue his dream is a conflicting feeling. I know that if it was me, he would hold himself together with grace as he watches me go because he knows it is what is best for me.

So I will do just that. But, dang, does it not royally suck to watch the one person you love most on this planet hop on a plane without you.

I can't help but smile through the farewell tears at how romantically disgusting I have gotten over the close year Nate and I have been together. I will see the kid in two weeks!

I expected Nate to turn around for one last send off at the top and when he does so, my face will be tearless and I will grin broadly to show just how proud I am of all that he has overcome. So I wipe my tears and clear my throat. But I know that my face is probably red and blotching from holding back a waterfall.

But Nate doesn't make it far up the escalator before he surprises me by hopping the railing and jogging back down the stairs to where I stand. With large, impressed eyes, I wait for him to reach me at the bottom and my heart pushes through the lump in my throat.

Pulling a familiar gesture, he crashing his lips back down on mine as I wrap my arms around his neck to balance myself. The whole thing makes me want to laugh yet cry at the same time. And even though, it feels like ripping myself apart from velcro to do so, I soften the kiss and pull back.

"I love you," I tell him and, in the end, brightly smile up at him. Because how could you not feel pure happiness when around him? His face looks more relaxed now as he gazes down at me as if remembering every freckle, every fair feature, as I gaze back at him.

"I love you more." Not possible. "I'll call you when I land."

He still hasn't let go of me so I press my face into the crook of his neck once more. Nate laughs and the sound calms my shaken nerves completely. "I gotta go, babe. For real this time."

"I know," I groan and purse my bottom lip. Nate chuckles in amusement and leans down to kiss me once more. I groan again when he captures my pouting lip between his teeth.

Pulling back, Nate winks which makes the heat under my skin flare.

"See you in two weeks." And with that, Nate walks back towards the escalator and ascends to the top.

Feeling hot and bothered in public is not as sexy as some make it out to be. Especially when the source's parents are watching. I walk back towards the gate and welcome Lucy's motherly hand as she rubs small circles on my back as we watch the wonderful man in our lives disappear into the sea of people. But before he does, Nate turns and waves one last goodbye just like I knew he would.

My chest tightens in on itself, so tight that I can barely breathe, but the lack of oxygen is welcomed, it feels good. I could look at him for hours as he stands there, his eyes locking with mine.

There was no more thick black glasses hiding the fleck of gold that beamed like sunshine when they connected to mine. It didn't matter that I couldn't see them, to really see them, because those amber pools have allowed me to see the actual sun as they pulled me into their orbit time and time again.

I feel like just by looking at his mouth I can hear my name on the tip of his tongue, caressing every syllable. I never want to take my gaze away from it, afraid that he will say something else beautiful. Even more beautiful than the way the two pink halves shape when they smile. And they do, as he mouths that he loves me, that he loves his family, one last time before he walks away to catch his flight.

I was no longer the it girl of Stanton High considering those days are over. I would be invited to Dartmouth parties and attend the football games, cheering on Big Green. I would strive to get straight A's because med school was going to be harder than any test I have ever taken.

But the boy that had once believed that he was living his life unnoticed, blending into the background even though he had the type of eyes you could drown in, now knew he was the only one that caught my eye.

He was the most intriguing person I had ever laid eyes and now he could see me.

He now saw that I am the best version of myself because of him. At least in his eyes.