Farewell

She stands on the corner of the city block, right next to her apartment, but she doesn't move to leave. Instead, she stares at him expectantly and crosses her arms over her chest. She shudders, but that could well be because of the breeze that's picked up, blowing litter their way.

"What are you going to do tomorrow?" she asks suddenly, breaking the awkward silence that has settled between them.

He blinks in surprise, then smiles. "I'm going to Leon's to grab a coffee and some donuts. I heard a cold front is coming tomorrow."

"Yeah, I can feel it already."

"Here." He shrugs his jacket off, and before she can protest, he offers it to her. She looks at him with wide eyes, but he shakes his head. "It's a little chilly already, I know, but you need this more than I do. You're shivering."

She doesn't protest his offering as she eagerly wears it, zipping the front shut and tucking her hands into the large front pockets. "Thank you." For a moment, her eyes seem to shine in the waning evening light, but she blinks and their shimmer vanishes. "I should get going now."

"It was good seeing you again. I missed this," he admits, rubbing his elbow with his other hand. So long since they've seen each other, and now they're being parted by the more burdensome aspects of reality. "I'm passing by Leon's at seven tomorrow. You can come if you want. Everything's on me if you do."

"I will." Her voice quavers slightly, but he attributes this to another side effect of the cold, itself which makes his skin break out into goosebumps.

"Well... goodbye-"

"If tomorrow was your last day on Earth, how would you spend it?"

The question catches off guard when so few things do anymore. He tries to make out her face, only catching the faintest shifting of her jaw and crease forming between her eyes.

"Do you mean before aliens come and abduct me type of thing?" She remains silent. He chuckles softly before stifling it, realizing how pathetic it must sound to laugh at your own joke. "Oh. Hmm... that's a hard question to answer. I think I'd spend it with my family and friends and doing the things I love the most."

"And what do you love?"

You, he wants to blurt out, but instead keeps his heart sealed at the moment. "Drawing. Painting. Gardening. Skating. If I had one more day, I'd probably spend the rest of my time painting what I want the afterlife to be. You know, like heaven, but it's nature without all of the cruel conflict that comes with living. That's my vision of the afterlife."

"That sounds nice."

"What about you? How would you spend one last day?" He wasn't going to let the conversation become one-sided. After everything they've gone through, he still doesn't know enough about her, about all of her wildest hopes, dreams, and fears which she keeps tethered to herself, much to his disappointment. Tonight, however, has a different feel to it, so he knows it won't be any ordinary night.

He's proven right when she speaks again. "I'd take a walk in the forest."

"Oh?"

The years seem to scale back, exposing a softer underbelly as she begins recounting tales from her childhood that he hadn't known about before. "My father used to say that the forest was an unruly thing. Let go of caution and the forest will not hesitate to attack when given the right moment. I guess it doesn't apply to a suburban park, but what did I know? I was a little girl who wanted to see everything, and he wanted to protect me by keeping me away from the unknown. Still, I didn't take his warnings and explored that park everyday.

"You should've been there with me during those years. It was so beautiful. It was my little paradise in between all the houses, and while all the other land became new neighborhoods, that patch of forest in the park stayed the same. But then, I discovered that there was some truth in my father's words. I found a grizzly bear."

Again. The momentary silence, leaving him stunned. He recalls a faint memory where she explained where she had gotten the jagged scar running down her arm, something related to some bear, but he accidentally lets the memory slip through his control and it vanishes into his subconscious.

She must've told him this story before, but he'd forgotten. What a terrible friend, a voice at the back of his mind whispers. He doesn't argue.

"Of course, it wasn't that big. Maybe four feet tall when it stood, so I wasn't too afraid of it. As I got closer to it, it let out this growling noise but I thought it was just like a dog-I wanted to pet it. That's when the bear struck. I didn't see what happened. Everything went white and I was thrown back, my arm bleeding where it had clawed me."

He doesn't get a chance to say something meaningful when she continues. "I got lucky that the bear didn't chase me after that. I remember my father shouting when I got home. I also remember feeling so guilty about it, but at the moment I didn't know that he had just been trying to protect me. And after that, I was never allowed to visit the forest again." Her stance shifts slightly and she removes her hands out of the pockets, instead clasping them in front of her.

"I understand."

In the dim light, he makes out a faint smile on her face. "Now I can visit any place I want, obviously, but the one place I keep returning to is the forest. Even after what happened, I can't stop. It calls out to me. After all that time I spent without the forest, I can't stop. That's where I would spend my last day."

"We could visit the park tomorrow. I can paint and you can walk through the woods."

"Is that supposed to be a date?" she asks, teasing.

He's grateful the darkness hides his blushing. "S-sure. If you want to call it that." When there's no more to be said, he turns around. "Goodbye-"

"Wait, please," she says, and the urgency in her voice stops him. There's a short pause before he hears footsteps approaching him, and by the time he swivels around on the balls of his feet, he sees her standing feet away, holding his jacket in front of her. "You're forgetting this."

He places his hand on hers and guides it back towards her. "It's fine. Keep it as a small gift from me. I have other jackets, anyways."

"Really?"

"Yes, it's fine. If you really don't want it, give it to me tomorrow, but not today."

She nods gratefully. "Thank you."

"No problem. Goodbye-"

Heat presses down on his lips, and it's not until he unexpectedly wraps his arms around her that he realizes that she kissed him. His mouth melts into hers, and they remain this way for a long time, or for what seems like a long time as she becomes the world at that moment.

They separate to draw in breaths before diving back into the heat of the moment. She's everything. There's no denying it as he cups her cheek and relishes the moment. This is everything he's ever hoped for, and it ends much too soon when she splits away and casts her gaze aside.

"I'm sorry," she mumbles, but he grins and kisses her one last time. The kiss is brief but powerful, sending his heart soaring above heights he never thought possible, and once again they find themselves flustered for breath, the chill not bothering him for once.

"Don't be. You have no idea how much that meant to me."

She shivers against his embrace despite the jacket that she's wearing. "See you tomorrow at Leon's." Then, with a last kiss, she lets go of him and heads towards her apartment. "Goodbye, Dante."

"Goodbye, Julie."

It's the last goodbye he ever gets to hear from her, because while he's waiting at Leon's for her early in the morning, burning his fingertips as he picks up his cup of coffee, he receives a call.

"Julie's been suffering for close to a year from cancer, but she didn't want to tell you so you wouldn't treat her differently. We tried so hard to fight the cancer, but some things just happen in the end without any explanation. Nature is cruel. The doctors say she passed peacefully in her sleep... they say her last words were that she wanted to visit the forest with you. I-I'm sorry, but I have to hang up. I hope you understand."

Julie's father.

Dante's heart shatters. He curls his hand into a fist and drives his nails deep enough to produce blood. "Goodbye," he whispers over and over until his coffee has gone cold.

It's the last time he ever says goodbye.