Page 1 of As the Years Pass

Prologue

Emmet

Eighteen years old…

Please don’t go…

“Adam!” I call out, my voice breaking. “Please…”

He stops with his back to me, standing perfectly tall as if this is so simple. As if all of this means nothing to him, and walking away from me—fromus—is so fucking easy.

My chest aches and I swear if he goes—if he gets into his car and leaves me here—I won’t make it. He’s been to my house a thousand times, and he’s left a thousand times, but something about today feels permanent. If he leaves today… it’s different.

Adam turns to me, that same stoic look in his eyes I used to love so much. It’s easy to love when it isn’t something that’s being forced on me. When he looked at other people like that—indifferently—it was fine, because I knew he cared about me. I was the one whomattered. But now that look is turned on me, and I can’t bear it.

He stares at the ground and spears his fingers through his dark hair.

Fingers that once caressed every inch of my skin as his lips spilled failed promises.

Did he know then that he would break them all?

A sob escapes me, and I want to run to him, jump into his arms, and never let go. I want to grow roots and sink them into his skin so he can’t leave me.

But I know it won’t matter. He’s made up his mind, and once he does that, there’s no changing it—which is also something I used to love about him, because I was part of everything he wanted.It was never a worry in my mind that I would be anything less.

He promised he wasn’t going to do this. He told me he would choose me. So many nights, we laid there together, and he told me the only thing that mattered was us and the way he feels when we are together.

Nothing elsemattered. Nothing.

Yet here we are. He’s about to walk away, and there is nothing I can say or do to stop him.

“Adam,” I say again, gritting my teeth but unable to stop the tears. They blur my vision, and I blink them away. The breeze blows, cooling them as they trail along my cheeks.

“You knew this would happen,” is all he says. So calmly. So simply.

How can he be like this?

“No!” I shout. “No, you told me you would stay.”

He shakes his head, sighing. “I told you I wanted to stay.”

“So then stay.” Another sob racks my body.

I don’t care how pathetic or desperate I sound. I would do anything for him—havedone everything. Yet… it’s not enough. He’s still leaving me.

“You know I can’t.”

“You can!” I scream as I close the distance between us. I ache to reach for him, to touch his skin, but I don’t think I can handle that rejection. Not now. “You just don’t want to.”

His face doesn’t change—not even a flicker of hurt. How is this so easy for him?

“Then I guess maybe I don’t.”

It’sthosewords that have me stumbling back. He gives me one last, long look before walking away and getting into his car.

I stand there, unable to breathe, as the taillights disappear into the dark.

Chapter One