The Last Goodbye

“Oh Marco it’s nice to see you” I heard my mother greet him as I stood at the top of the stairs, debating if I should go down to greet them.

“It’s nice to see you too Mrs Margot and might I add that you look lovely as always” he complimented her and I rolled my eyes.

Marco always had the power to charm the pants off any woman and that’s why we found ourselves in this position.

“Oh you’re such a little charmer” she giggled as she let him in.

I stood on the stairs listening to their conversation, still deciding if I should join them for dinner.

My debate however was cut short when my mother yelled my name, demanding that I come down for dinner.

I took a deep breath and calmed myself before slowly descending the stairs to say hi to the sister that had betrayed me and the man I thought had loved me.

As I took one last breath and walked into the kitchen, the air was knocked out of me as I finally came face-to-face with Marco after 18 months.

“Hello Dani” he smile that crooked smile I used to love, as he greeted me.

“Don’t call me that” I shot back before I even had time to think it through.

“DANIELA” my mother yelled as everyone looked on in horror at my sudden outburst.

“Sorry” I mumbled before walking toward my seat at the table. I made sure I sat closest to my dad, just to save myself from another confrontation should I say something that my mother would disapprove off.

“So Marco is Melisa on her way?” my mother questioned once we were all settled and had begun eating their meals.

He smiled tentatively before answering.

“Uhm no. she’s still got some last minute wedding things that she’s dealing with”

“Oh how nice. She must be very excited about the wedding” my mother continued to question as I bit my tongue.

“Yeah. She says you only get married once so she wants it to be as extravagant and over the top as possible” he joked as my dad reached over to give my hand a reassuring squeeze.

“So where are you two getting married again?” I asked without looking at him.

He seemed to stutter a bit before answering my question.

“Uhm…uh… at the Dortmund Museum. We rented it out especially for the occasion”

If I thought the air had been knocked out of me earlier when I saw Marco for the first after 18 months I was exaggerating. His announcement completely knocked me out because he was getting married at the place that we had always called at our spot.

“The Museum?” I whispered as I finally turned to look at him with my glassy eyes.

“Dani…” he began to explain but I didn’t let him finish as I stood up and walked away, trying to hold in the tears that threatened to fall down.

I thought I could handle anything that this wedding threw at me but I turns out I couldn’t.

***

FLASHBACK

“OH MY GOSH could this be any more boring? I mean who wants to spend the Saturday afternoon looking at pics of dead people” Melisa continued to complain as we walked around the Museum.

All she had done in the 30 minutes we had been here is complain, even though she had promised to take me anywhere I wanted as payback for her stealing my earrings.

“Please Melisa, I’ve wanted to visit this place forever and I’d appreciate it if you respected my feelings towards this place. If you don’t want to be here you can just sit over there or do something else” I finally snapped before she shrugged and left me alone.

“I never want to come back to this dump of a place and don’t blame me if you die old and alone” she yelled as she walked out of the building.

I shrugged at her actions but couldn’t keep the smile off my face as it meant I could finally enjoy this place in peace.

I had been walking around for a few minutes, when I suddenly felt uncomfortable because it felt like someone was watching and following me. I brushed it off because every time I turned around there was no one behind me.

I eventually made it into the last exhibition, which required me to enter a dark room for five minutes where a narrative about German history flashed across the screen. As I got comfortable, someone hands covered my mouth, stopping me from screaming as he hugged my body and forced me to move to a dark spot.

I tried to fight him off but he was too strong that I just gave up as he pushed me against the wall. He eventually turned me over as I finally got to see what my kidnapper looked like.

“FUCK YOU MARCO” I screamed as he finally removed his hand from my mouth.

He laughed at my cussing before speaking.

“What is it about dark places that brings out the worst in you…especially towards me” he smirked as I looked at him threateningly.

“Maybe if you’d stopped sneaking up on me in dark places, I’d stop snapping at you” I joked as he just shook his head and laughed lightly. “And anyway how did you know that you’d find me here?”

His lips curved into a smile, I smile I had begun to fall in love with over the last few months, before answering.

“Well there are only three places I know you love to hang out at during the weekend. 1. Borrusia Park – and since we don’t have a game this weekend I knew you wouldn’t be there. 2. The library – school’s out so you don’t need to study. And finally this place – because I know that you’ve been dying to see all the pieces in here” he recounted as I bit my lip in surprised at how well he knew me.

“Well… uhm. Lucky guess” I shrugged before looking away from him.

“Yeah I am lucky” he flirted as I tried to get my hands to stop sweating. “So you want to see the rest of the museum or is there some other place you have to be?” he questioned.

I shook my head no, as I lead the way so we could see the rest of the artwork.

****

From that day on Marco and I spent every weekend together. Three months after that he finally got the guts to ask me out.

The museum became our favourite spot since it held special memories; like our first kiss and the museum was the place he took me when he initially introduced me to meet his friends. It was also the place we would come too whenever he had a bad game. He said pretending to be in another century made him forget about the reality he lived in.

I never would have guessed that the one place we had used to escape would now house the horror memory of my sister‘s wedding to Marco.