Harbour Lights

"I'm happy for you," Marilyn told Will, though the somber tone of her voice said otherwise. They were sitting on the beach, watching the sun descend behind the horizontal line where the ocean met the sky. Sitting side by side, Marilyn and Will didn't care about getting sand in their pants. The only thing that was important right now was the fact that they were together.

Because apparently that wouldn't last for much longer.

"You're finally going to be able to live the dream," she went on, forcing a smile. "Your dream. It's great, Will."

"Yeah. Great," he echoed, though he didn't sound too enthusiastic about it.

"And you're going to be rich and famous, too, I bet. You'll be able to buy that Audi convertible you've been obsessed with for the past three years." She noticed the frown on his face, "Isn't that what you've always dreamed about? Isn't this the life you've always wanted?"

"Not anymore," he grumbled. Instead of looking at her when h spoke, he kept his eyes on the sun, which was now a ruby gem in the sky.

It irony was murderous. Two years ago, Marilyn had been the one to leave Will. She left to travel the world and live her life. And now he was going to do the same exact thing.

"But you'll be able to play your music and be paid for it, and you'll be one of the few people in the world who has a job that they actually love. And – "

"Ugh, who cares, Marilyn?" he groaned and stood up. He paced down the beach a little bit and then turned back to her, "For the first time in my life I want to stay here."

"But you've always wanted to get out of Ogunquit," she protested.

"If I do that, I'll be leaving you behind," he answered. "Yeah, I hate everyone and everything in this shitty town. But you're the one thing that would ever keep me here."

"No." She shook her head, closing her eyes. "I can't chain you down here. You have to live your life."

"I will live my life. With you."

"I won't let you," she replied, her tone indicating that she was frustrated. "I won't let that happen. This is what you've always wanted."

"But I want you, Mare. I'm going to have to compromise on this one."

"No!" She stood up abruptly. She was shouting now, "That's not fair to you. Especially since I've already had the opportunity to leave and do whatever I wanted. It's your turn to do that."

"But you – "

"If you drop out of your band, you'll regret it for the rest of your life," she said fiercely. "I want you to be happy."

"You think I'm going to be happy by leaving you?" he asked incredulously. "Is that honestly what you call happy? We're both going to end up miserable and you know that."

"We're going to end up miserable either way," she shot back. "If you don't go you're always going to think about the 'what if's'. And I'll never forgive myself for letting you stay here."

He sighed and sunk back down on the sand, defeated. He seated himself behind Marilyn and she leaned back against his chest, allowing his to wrap his arms around her. The rhythm of their matching breathing was the only thing that provided some comfort for Marilyn. "Well," Will said after a long moment, and Marilyn could tell from the hopefulness of his voice that he was trying to look at the silver lining, "it's only until November. That's, what, three months? I'll come back and then we can – "

"It's not going to be that simple," she sighed sadly. "You got signed by Navy Records.You're going to be big. And that means more tours, more time away from home…And I have to go back to school anyway."

"In…in Europe?" he asked. She could almost hear his heart sink in his chest.

"Yeah," she said. "If I want to go to a school in the States then I would have to transfer, and I can't do that until next spring. So I'm going to be stuck in London for the next nine months."

He didn't have anything to say to that, but then again there was nothing that could really be said at this point. They both knew what was coming, they both knew what this meant, and the outcome wasn't looking too bright. Together, they stared out at the setting sun, as if it held some sort of answer for them. Both of them were searching, searching for a solution, searching for a loophole.

Neither of them could think of anything.

Minutes passed, and by now the sun had disappeared. Night was falling, fast, and darkness prowled onto the beach like a wildcat. "What do we do now?" Marilyn asked in a soft voice.

"I don't know, Mare," he replied somberly. "I really don't fucking know."

"I can't…" She let out a shaky sigh, and she could feel the familiar sting that meant tears were threatening to fill her eyes. "I can't do this. Not again. We already broke up once and…and I…it's too hard." Her voice cracked on the last word, and she blushed from acting like such a baby.

"Shh," he whispered and pulled her closer to him. "I don't want to do this either. But it's like you said, we'll never be able to live our lives happily without knowing what could have been. And you have to go to school anyway and…"

His words trailed off; he couldn't believe he was saying these things. Was it really possible that the world could be this brutal? She had left him once, and he had gone through hell – and now he was going to do the same thing to her. It just wasn't fair. It should have been against the laws of nature for two people to go through all that suffering.

"There's nothing we can do," Marilyn said and her voice was thick, on the verge of crying. "We have everything working against us, like the universe doesn't want us together. We couldn't work out no matter how hard he tried."

Will nodded. "If there's a God, He's a fucking asshole."

He held onto her tighter than ever and she let out another shuddering sigh, "Oh, Will." She turned to him, her eyes glistening with crystal tears, and kissed him fiercely. It was the same kiss she gave him when they kissed the first time during their midnight picnic. Only with that first kiss, she was saying, 'I missed you.' Now she was saying, 'I'm going to miss you.' It was a goodbye kiss.

"We can't do this, Will," she said after she pulled away, giving him a stare filled with so much remorse and sadness he could feel his heart being crushed.

He could only nod in agreement. "It's over. For good this time."