Four Years Of Hair For A Wedding And He Cut It For A Scene Chapter 10

Four Years Of Hair For A Wedding And He Cut It For A Scene Chapter 10

The train pulled in.

The station announcement crackled over the speakers. The conductors started checking tickets.

Audrey wiped her face and looked at me one more time.

“You were right, you know. What you said yesterday.”

“Garrett is selfish. Completely, perfectly selfish.”

“It doesn’t matter who he likes.”

“What matters is who’s useful to him.”

“You gave him four years.”

“I gave him so much longer.”

“And in the end, we both got the same thing.”

She paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was gentler.

“Elena.”

“Leaving is the right call.”

“At least now, no one’s going to compare you to someone else and tell you you’re not enough.”

“And no one’s going to make you feel like you don’t matter.”

She smiled at me.

“Be happy, Elena.”

My eyes burned.

“Thank you.”

The conductor called final boarding.

Julian picked up my bag and headed for the train.

I looked back one last time.

Audrey was still standing there. She waved.

The train began to move. The platform slid away.

Then came a shout, distant and desperate.

“Elena!”

My head snapped up. Someone was sprinting toward the platform from outside the station.

Garrett.

Drenched in sweat, clothes torn and filthy, mud caked to his ankles. He’d run the whole way.

“Stop the train!”

“Elena!”

“Elena, get off!”

He was running alongside the train, legs buckling, chest heaving so hard he could barely stay upright.

“Elena!”

“Look at me!”

“Come back!”

But the train was pulling away.

He kept running. He stumbled, hit the ground, got back up, and kept going.

His voice was shredded down to nothing.

“Elena!”

I sat by the window and watched him fall behind.

Until he was just a shape at the far end of the platform. And then he was gone.

The train crossed the mountain pass and kept going.

The day I arrived in Bay City, I saw the ocean for the first time.

I stood at the pier and stared at the water until I lost track of time.

Julian stood beside me, smiling.

“Do you like it?”

I nodded hard.

“I like it.”

The ocean looked exactly like the books had described it. Nothing like North Crest.

But I wasn’t afraid.

Julian was right there beside me.

Everything I’d been afraid of turned out to be for nothing.

Julian’s parents were warmer than I ever could have hoped.

They were both academics, one in history and one in cultural anthropology.

When they found out I was from North Crest, they lit up, more excited than Julian had ever been.

Julian’s mother pulled out a notebook and sat down next to me.

“Elena, do they really sing the old consecration hymns at weddings where you’re from?”

I nodded.

Julian’s father jumped in.

“Can anyone still recite the full prayers to Saint Jude? The ones from the vow ceremonies?”

I nodded again.

I learned something in those first weeks. Everything Garrett’s crew had laughed at, everything they’d called backward and ignorant, Julian’s parents treated like treasure.

They never laughed. They just listened.

I told them about weddings in North Crest, and they hung on every word.

I told them about growing up in the convent. They filled pages and pages of notes.

I told them the old legends, and they’d spend half the afternoon arguing over a single story.

Sometimes Julian would come home from work and find the three of us deep in conversation, and he’d be the one standing on the outside for once.

His mother would shoo him away.

“Don’t interrupt Elena.”

“We’re just getting to the good part.”