63

THE FAREWELL

The day has come...

The day he has to leave, that he will go from being a few meters away from me as my neighbor to being hundreds of miles away. Silence reigns between us, not uncomfortable, but painful, because we both know what we are thinking: the inevitable reality. The sky is beautiful, the stars shining in their maximum splendor, perhaps it is an attempt to illuminate this heartbreaking sadness.

There is a certain inexplicable pain in the inevitable, it is much easier to walk away from someone when they have broken your heart, when they have hurt you, but it feels impossible to do so when there is nothing wrong between you, when the love is still there, alive, beating like the heart of a newborn, full of life, exhaling future and happiness.

My eyes fall on him, my Ares.

My Greek god.

There he is, with his hair tousled and his eyes red from the long night and yet he looks beautiful.

My chest tightens, shortening my breath.

It hurts...

"Ares..."

He doesn't look at me.

"Ares, you have to..."

He shakes his head.

"No."

Oh, my unstable boy.

I struggle with tears filling my eyes, my lips shake. My love for him consumes me, suffocates me, gives me life and takes it away. His flight leaves in half an hour, he has to enter the area where he waits to board the plane, where I can't enter. We are in the waiting area of the airport, where we can see the sky through the transparent glass of the place.

His hand brushes mine gently before he takes it firmly, he still doesn't look at me, those blue eyes focused on the sky. Instead, I can't stop looking at him, I want to remember every detail of him when he's gone, I want to remember what it feels like to be by his side, to feel his warmth, his smell, his love. Maybe I sound intense, but the love of my life is about to get on a plane and be separated from me for who knows how long, so I have the right to be cheesy.

"Ares?" Apolo's voice sounds behind us, it has that same sense of urgency and sadness that my voice had when I reminded him it was time to go.

Ares takes his eyes off the sky and lowers his head.

When he turns to face me, I strain to smile through the tears forming in my eyes, but I fall short on a sad smile. He licks his lips, but says nothing, his eyes reddened, and I know he can't speak, I know the moment he speaks he will cry, and he wants to be strong for me, I know him so well.

He squeezes my hand tightly and tears escape my eyes.

"I know."

He wipes away my tears, holding my face as if it will disappear at any moment.

"Don't cry."

I laugh falsely.

"Ask me something a little easier."

He gives me a short kiss but filled with so much emotion that I cry silently, the saltiness of my tears blending in our kiss.

"Don't give up on me, chase me, but don't forget me, please."

I smile against his lips.

"As if I could forget you."

"Promise me that this is not the end, that we will try until we can't anymore, until all resources and means are exhausted, until we can say we have tried everything and still try a little further."

I wrap my arms around his neck and hug him.

"I promise."

He kisses the side of my head.

"I love you so much, witch," his voice cracks slightly and it breaks my soul.

"I love you too, Greek god."

When we part, he wipes away his tears quickly, and takes a deep breath.

"I gotta go."

I just nod, tears sliding down my cheeks and falling from my chin.

"You're going to be a great doctor."

"And you're going to be a wonderful psychologist."

God, this hurts so much.

I can feel my face contort in pain as I stifle my sobs. Ares says goodbye to Apolo, Artemis and his parents, I walk with him to the gate he must cross to get through security and go to his gate. His family stays behind as I stop at the gate with him, and wipe away my tears.

"Let me know when you get there, okay?"

He nods and lets go of my hand to head for the door, stops in the middle turns, walks over in quick steps and hugs me.

"I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, you are the love of my life, Raquel, I love you."

The sobs escape me, so I wrap my hands around his waist.

"I love you too," my voice breaks. "I love you."

"Please, let's fight for this, I know it won't be easy, I know there will be hard times, but..., please don't stop loving me."

"You won't... you won't be able to... get rid of me so easily," I tell him with a broken voice, when we separate I see how red his face is, and the tears on his cheeks. "I promise you, I will always be your little witch stalker."

He runs his thumb across my cheek.

"And I'll always be yours."

I give him a confused look.

"I was watching you too, you silly witch."

"What?"

"We never ran out of internet, I asked Apolo to pretend with me. It was my excuse to talk to you; you've always had my attention, witch."

I don't know what to say, idiot Greek god, why he chooses this moment to tell me this. Ares takes out some bracelets I recognize very well out of his pocket and I gasp, because I made them a long time ago at a school fair, but couldn't manage to sell them until a boy bought them all. Had Ares sent that boy? Had he done that for me even when we weren't even speaking to each other?

Ares puts a pair of bracelets in the palm of my hand and closes it.

"You've always had my attention," he repeats with feeling and that only makes me cry even more.

"Ares..."

"I must go," he kisses my forehead. "I'll let you know when I land, I love you," he gives me a short kiss, and disappears through the security door before I can regret letting him go, and begging him to stay.

With my hand on the transparent windows of the airport I watch his plane take off, I watch it disappear into the sky and I feel the air has left my body, that a hole has opened in it and it will never close, maybe it will heal, but the scar will always be there.

Part of me imagines him coming back like in the movies, telling me that he loves me and won't leave me, but it's not like that. Real life is often crueler than romance movies. I close in my hand into a fist over the window.

Goodbye, Greek god.

Ares' parents along with Artemis are already gone. Apolo remains by my side, weeping openly while I just weep silently. The walk back to the house becomes the saddest hour of my life. Apolo and I share a taxi, but neither of us speak, we say nothing, both of us absorbed in our own sadness. Trees, houses, people and cars pass by the window, but I don't see him, it's as if he's not here.

I don't even say goodbye to Apolo when I get out of the car, I walk in my house like a zombie. My room greets me in silence, my eyes fall on the window and pain squeezes my chest tightly, my mind playing with me, imagining Ares coming through the window, smiling, his pretty blue eyes lighting up at the sight of me.

I look at the front of my bed and remember that night I made him hot chocolate and he told me about his grandpa. Ares has grown so much as a person, from an idiot who didn't value anything to a man who values everything, who finds it easier to express his feelings, who understands that it's okay to be weak, that it's okay to cry. I don't want to take credit for that change, no one changes if they really don't want to change, I was just that push he needed to get started.

I sit on my bed without looking at a specific point. Dani opens the door with a bang, his gaze meeting mine, and that's all it takes for me to lose control.

"Dani, he's gone."

She gives me a sad look, moving closer to me.

"Really, he's gone," I start to cry inconsolably, letting it all out, I feel like a part of me has gone with him and maybe it has.

Dani rushes over, throwing her purse on the floor and hugs me.

"He's gone," I keep repeating over and over.

In my best friend's arms, I cry all night until I fall asleep, only waking up slightly to read that Ares has already arrived, but after talking to him I just cry myself to sleep again.

#

3 months later...

"And then I told him he was an idiot," I say with the phone in front of me, talking about Joshua. "How could he even think of putting an egg in the microwave?"

Ares laughs, his face encapsulated in my phone screen. We're Skyping while I'm cooking in the college dorms.

"And that wasn't the worst of it," I continue, "He put a pink shirt in the wash with his whites. Guess who wears only pink now?"

"And I thought I'd be the one making the most mistakes with this living alone thing."

I squint.

"You burned all the pots in your apartment."

"I was learning."

"You don't even know how to make coffee."

"You haven't tried it."

"Thank God," I mumble.

Ares gives me a murderous look.

"Yesterday I made pasta, it was a little sticky but edible."

"Look who's here," I show him a stuffed witch he gave me when we met at Thanksgiving break a few weeks ago. "She's my roommate."

"Speaking of roommates. Where's Dani?"

"At a frat party."

"And Joshua?"

"At the same party."

"Your roommates are at a party and you're here talking to your boyfriend, so loyal."

I give him a tired look.

"Parties have never been my thing," I taste the soup I'm preparing, and lick my finger. "Mmm, it's delicious."

"I wish I was that finger."

"Ares!"

"What? I miss you, witch. I'm going to die from lack of love and sex."

I roll my eyes.

"Only you can be romantic and sexual at the same time."

"I need the Christmas break to come," he runs his hand over his face. "You know what we should try?"

"We're not having phone sex, forget it."

"I had to try."

"But if you behave yourself, I might send you a sexy photo."

He gives me that cheeky grin I like so much.

"Oh, well, fair enough."

"Christmas is a week away. I'll stick to you like bubblegum. You know that, don't you?"

"I love bubblegum then."

"Are you flirting with me?"

He bites his lower lip.

"Is it working?"

"It might be."

We keep talking and I laugh at his failed attempts at flirting, so far we've been fine, missing each other a lot, but seeing each other at least once a month. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's tolerable, it makes me think we can survive this.

#

When Christmas break comes, I get home, tell my mom how I'm doing in the first few months of college and start making hot chocolate. I go upstairs with two mugs in both hands and when I get to my room I sit down in front of the bed, putting the mugs next to me.

It doesn't take long when I see Ares at the window, I run to him, jumping on him and giving him a desperate kiss that leaves me breathless. Those lips I love so much greet me with the same desperation. The kiss is passionate, and tastes like "I missed you". Our mouths moving together as we know we like, in that perfect synchrony.

When we break down the kiss, our breaths are ragged, his beautiful blue eyes are lost in mine and I run my fingers down his face to tangle them in his hair and kiss him again.

After a kissing session, we sit in front of the bed, each with a cup of chocolate in our hands. It's starting to snow, there are little snowflakes floating outside.

We clink our mugs together toasting, I realize it will take a lot more than distance to break what we have. He and I are in a time of change in our lives, but that won't stop us from being together and getting through it. And I know that, when hardship comes, we will both give our one hundred percent to fight; maybe it will defeat us, or maybe we will prevail, that only time will tell.

And, even if it ends at some point, I will be able to say that I fought until the last second, until I couldn't fight anymore, because I know he will too.

We are the Greek god and the witch after all.

The one who felt everything and he who felt nothing, now we both feel more than enough.

And there in the silence of my room, with a cup of hot chocolate in one hand and the other intertwined with his, we sit in silence, watching the snow fall through my window.

THE END

AUTHOR'S FINAL NOTE: THANK YOU! Thank you for being patient, thank you for giving this story a try. Thank for loving Ares and Raquel and giving them such a warmth welcome to the English world. 

How are you feeling? Share your heart. 

I'm so excited for them to be in bookstores. Through My Window already on Pre-sale on Amazon.com and it will be out on January 4th, 2022. 

ALSO, WE GOT SOME AMAZING NEWS YESTERDAY ABOUT THE MOVIE. WE GOT A RELEASE DATE. AS YOU KNOW 'A través de mi ventana' (Through my window) was adapted by Netlflix Spain and it's in production right now. In four months, we will have the movie :D Look at the short clip where they share the date:

https://youtu.be/OL7P8B5ikN8

Follow me on social media so I can keep you on the loop of everything :D Instagram: Ari_godoy, Twitter: Arix05, Tik tok: ariana_godoyc and the movie official instagram page is Atdmvnetflix

Love you all and see you on my next translation which may be my story: Heist: a dark romance thriller that I'm sure you guys will love. 

Ariana G.