“I don’t want you to leave me,” she whispered.

He pulled back so he could look at her better. Her dark blonde hair had fallen into her eyes, which were filled with a sadness and longing.

“I don’t want to leave you,” he told her, brushing her hair gently out of her face, “but I have to go.”

“No!” she shouted, her sudden anger taking him aback. “You don’t have to go! You don’t have to leave me! You can’t! Just stay here!” Her outburst done, she started sobbing, falling into his arms again. “Just stay here with me,” she pleaded quietly, her face buried in the comfort of his shirt.

He cupped her head in his hands and tilted her face up towards his. “I have to go,” he whispered. “You have to understand, I want to go. All my life I’ve dreamed of making something of myself, and now I finally have the chance to go to college. A good college. I never, never want to leave you, but I want to go. Why can’t you accept that?”

Her deep brown eyes shimmered with tears. “Why for so long?” she murmured. “I don’t think I can live without you.”

“I didn’t live until I met you,” he whispered, “and I won’t live without you while I’m gone, but I’m willing to accept that, if it means I can be something more than I ever thought I could be. My family has never been important, you know. I promise you when I come back, I’ll be an even better person than I am now.”

She shook her head. “There’s no way you can be better than you are now. You’re perfect in every way. That’s why I love you.”

Her words cut him to the core. He had never thought he was particularly exceptional in any way. But if she thought so--

“Maybe,” he whispered, drawing her close to him. “Maybe if you think so--“

But she placed a hand on his chest and gently pushed him away. “And since I love you so much,” she whispered, her voice breaking, “that’s why I’m going to let you go. No matter how much it will break my heart, I want what you want.” She bowed her head and turned away, not wanting him to see the tears that were even now starting to stream down her cheeks. “Just go,” she whispered. “Go and be happy.”

He caught her as she walked away and kissed her. “I’ll come back a better man. In just a few years, I’ll come back for you. I promise.”

Tears still streamed down her face as she looked at the face of a man she wouldn’t see again for a long time. “I know,” she whispered. “I’ll be waiting for you. Always.”

He kissed her one last time before picking up his bags and striding away, knowing she would wait for him.

And she did.