“Next summer?”

“Next summer.”

That was the promise we made, her hanging out the window of her brother’s truck me standing with my bare feet on the running board. It had been the perfect summer, but now it was over. We both had to go back to school, a thousand miles apart. That was always how it was, summers together on the shore of the Carolinas and winters apart in our own respective cities.

“We’ll be back next summer and then after that were both off to college, together.” Mia whispered. Even though her brother was tossing bags into the bed of the truck and our parents were standing a dozen feet away to me she was the only one there.

We were interrupted by her older brother shouting “come on we gotta go, I need to be home tonight.” We all know he has been itching to get out of her for days.

“I guess this is it.” I mutter, planting a kiss on her lips.

“I love you Eli Landing.”

“I love you Mia Thompson.” The truck started and I jumped off of the running board, “I’ll see you next summer.”

“It’s a date.” She smiles sadly and the truck pulls away.

The rest of that day went by uneventfully; the rest of that year was uneventful actually. I packed up the car with my parents and left that afternoon, and then as soon as I got home I started counting the days until it was time to head back to our beach. At first being apart happened without a hitch, Mia and I talked all the time and I knew this could work.

I’m not really sure when everything went bad, I keep running it through my head and I can’t pin point an exact moment when it changed. It was sometime in late March; she started sounding more distant on the phone. She called less and less so I called more and more. She was pulling away from me and I was trying to pull her back in, I guess that was my problem. By June she had stopped returning my calls all together. We were two weeks away from going back to the beach; we would be together soon.

I dragged my feet through finals and then packed faster than I ever had before. I could barely sit still for the whole fourteen hour car ride to our beach. When we get there I immediately notice something is wrong. There is a moving truck in the Thompsons driveway and there is a for sale sign in the front yard. I walk over to the house to see what’s going on and find a young couple and a little kid all sitting on the front porch. Before I can say anything the man speaks,

“Hi you must be our neighbor.” he sticks his hand out for a handshake.

“Yeah I’m Eli I live next door. I was just wondering, do you know the Thompsons?”

“Well we sure do. They sold us this house, for a very generous price I might add.”

“Oh, um, ok well it was nice meeting you but I should go help my mother unpack.”

“Ok see you around, neighbor.” He grins.

Sold the house? I can’t believe this. I need to call Mia. I grab my bag and then rush up the stairs to my room. I toss my bag into the corner and flop down on the bed. How could she not tell me? Is this why she has been so distant? So many questions rush through my mind that I feel like I’m drowning. I pull my phone out of my pocket and dial her number. Instead of ringing an automated voice come on the line I’m sorry the number you are trying to reach has been disconnected. “f***!” I scream and throw my phone to the other side of the room.

The rest of that summer I tried to forget her. She obviously doesn’t want to hear from me. Instead I tried to do normal summer things: surfing in the morning, napping on the beach, riding my bike to the 1950s themed soda shop for lunch. None of it was fun to do alone. I tried to forget her but everywhere I went brought up a memory of her. I ended up spending most of my summer lying on my bed, throwing a tennis ball at the wall, and thinking about her. That summer we left the shore early. Partly because I needed time to pack before I headed to college and I think partly because my parents were worried about me. They never said it but I could see it in their faces every time they asked me to go somewhere with them. I guess they knew about Mia because they never brought it up.

For the next four years I went to school in New York. I had applied to a lot of schools there because of her but I guess she didn’t really care. When I got there I never tried to find her, I figured she didn’t want anything to do with me. Instead I did the normal college thing I had a lot of friends and a few girlfriends but none of them very serious. I could never move onto anyone else. I just went through the motions. After school I got three things; a diploma, and office job in the city, and an apartment. I was just some average unimportant guy in a big city, nothing extraordinary happened, still just going through the motions and still thinking about the girl that had become a ghost.

The truth was I missed her. It was pretty cliché but it was true. I loved her and she claimed she loved me but then she left me in the dust with no explanation and now I was hung up on some girl I hadn’t talked to for five years. I thought I was just stuck until one day she just walked back into my life, literally. It was a sunny day in April and the coffee shop that I frequented was packed. I grabbed my coffee off the counter and went to get out of the overfilled shop when someone bumped into me causing me to almost spill my drink all over them.

“I’m so sorry are you ok?” the woman turned around and suddenly I was looking into the same pair of bright green eves that I fell in love with when I was seventeen.

“Mia?” I cough out in utter shock.

“Eli? Eli Young? Oh my god, how are you?” She gushes. Obviously she wasn’t as devastated about losing touch as I was.

“Uh I’m good. How are you?”

“Oh I’m great. I didn’t know you were living in the city. When did you move here?”

I had to clear my throat before continuing, “About five years ago.”

“Oh why didn’t you call me? I would have loved to show you around.”

What the hell is she saying? I called her so many times she was the one that had disconnected her number. “Well I tried but you never answered you phone, or ever tried to get in touch with me for that matter.”

“Oh Eli, I’m so sorry, I just thought-“

“Thought what Mia? Thought I would be totally ok with you one minute telling me you loved me and then the next never talking to me again? Is that what you thought? Because you thought wrong.” All of the feelings I’ve had about her for the past five years suddenly come out. “I gotta go, I would say goodbye but apparently you don't believe in that courtesy.” I spin around and stomp out of the store.

“Eli wait it isn’t like that!” now we are both standing on the sidewalk in the sunshine.

“Then what is it?”

“My parents sold the house I didn’t have any control over it, I didn’t want that to happen but it was out of my control.”

“So instead of calling you change your god damn number?”

“I just didn’t know how to tell you. I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok just move on and leave me in the dust, whatever makes you happy.” Suddenly a man and a little girl walk around the corner.

“Mommy!” the little girl shrieks running and clinging onto Mia’s leg.

“Hey honey, who is this?” the man walks to her and plants a kiss on her cheek. That’s when I notice the ring on her left hand. The last little bit of hope I had that this is all just a big misunderstanding fades away.

“Oh just an old friend, I’ll meet you inside in a minute.” She glows at him. She looks so happy.

“Ok honey.” He grins at her. Then he scoops up the little girl and the both go into the coffee shop.

I could feel myself break into a million pieces. She found someone else. She had better people to talk to on the phone. “Are you happy?” I ask and a confused look crosses her face. “With him, are you happy with him?

“Yes, I am.”

“ok.” I really don’t know how to respond to her.

“Eli, I really am sorry I never called you, I never planned for it to be this way. I know you will be happy someday; it’s just not going to be me. You will find her.”

“Goodbye Mia Thompson.”

“Goodbye Eli Young.”

We both turned our separate ways. She went into the coffee shop and I crossed the street to head back to my apartment. Looking across the street into the shop at Mia and her new family I realize two things. The first is that everything happens for a reason. If her parents had never sold their beach house she would have never been where she is now. The second is that for the first time in years I feel truly free from the ghost of Mia Thompson. All I had to do was let go.