One in a Million

The sun slowly setting in the horizon, the two teenagers were sitting on the edge of one of the large wooden quays in the local marina, their feet dangling just above the cooling water as their fingers were loosely intertwined.

Despite the metaphorically dark cloud hanging over their heads, it was a comfortable silence that had settled between them. The sound of the water, the faraway boats, and the few people who were still milling about were the only things that could be heard around them.

“What’s going to happen now?” the blonde, blue-eyed girl asked softly, barely glancing over at the boy sitting next to her as she broke the comfortable silence that surrounded them.

“I don’t know,” the equally as blonde, hazel-eyed boy said honestly, turning his head to fully look at her.

The girl was still dressed for summer in a flowy skirt and a plain tank top, a halter bikini visible underneath and the boy wore swimming trunks and a tee shirt with a faded Nike Swoosh on the front. Her soft, usually straight hair was falling in gentle waves around her shoulders thanks to the swim they took earlier during the day and he smiled softly as he drank her in, reaching out and pushing a lose strand behind her ear.

He might only have been 16 – technically his birthday wasn’t till October – but he still knew that he was lucky to have by his side. Considering how packed his schedule, his life, was with hockey, and school, and everything else, he was still surprised that she stuck around, stayed by him. She was special, and he wasn’t the only one in town to see it, and it wasn’t like they had a lot of free time to spend together.

“I don’t want things to get weird between us,” he added, brushing the pad of his thumb over her smooth cheek.

“I don’t either,” she smiled softly, leaning into his touch as she looked up at him, stormy blue meeting warm hazel.

“We’ll make it,” the boy stated frankly before leaning over and gently kissing the girl sitting beside him. “We’re going to prove everyone wrong, and we’re going to make it through this, because I love you.”

“I love you too,” the girl broke out in a wide smile, a slight blush spreading across her cheeks under his intense gaze. “We’ll make it,” she agreed softly.

Dropping her hand in favor of wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her into his chest. “Will you be there tomorrow?” he wondered softly as he gently rested his chin on top of her head. “When we leave?”

“Of course I’ll be there,” she assured him. “I already promised,” she reminded him with a soft smile. “Have you decided what time yet?”

“Around noon,” he sighed heavily, pulling her even closer to him.

“I'm going to miss you,” she admitted, keeping her eyes trained on the horizon where the sun was starting to dip into the calm water as she ignored the lone tear that was rolling down her cheek.

“I'm going to miss you too,” he pressed his lips against the top of her head, lacing their fingers together once again as they sat there, simply enjoying each other’s presence for one last time. Or at least that’s what it felt like.

The two of them stayed seated on that quay together long after dark arrived and they didn’t return home till long past their curfews. Any other night, under other circumstances, their parents would have grounded them both.

But this wasn’t any other night, it wasn’t any run-of-the-mill August day and their parents didn’t even say anything when they finally did arrive back home.



The following day, just like she had promised on a number of occasions during the summer, the blonde haired girl turned up at his house together with the rest of her family and she just barely managed to keep her promise of not crying when she waved him off, watching as the car with his whole family packed into it slowly drove down the long, grovel driveway.

Though as the car got further and further away from the house where the blonde boy had grown up, she couldn’t keep the tears from spilling over her cheeks.

He’d been drafted to play in the OHL, in a town on the other side of the province, an 18-19 drive away. And she had to stay behind.

Stay in the town where they’d both grown up.

It sucked, it really did, but like they’d promised the previous evening, they were going to make it.

And with rose-tinted glasses and child-like innocence, the future seemed a lot brighter than it actually was.

Because what the blue-eyed girl and the brown-eyed boy didn’t know when they were saying their goodbyes in the middle of that familiar driveway, was that the previous evening spent on the quays of the Thunder Bay Marina would be one of the last good ones in their relationship.