Jude's pov:
She says nothing. Why doesn't she say anything?
"It's true, Leya. I love you. I never told you and I always pretended to be normal because I was afraid of losing you. And I didn't want to, because I needed you, or rather I still do. When you just left, I really thought I had lost you. I wanted to close the gap you left behind as quickly as possible. I didn't want anyone to know you had such an impact on me. Emma realised pretty quickly that I could never love her, at least not the way I love you. I wanted her to come here with me so I wouldn't have to see you so often. Not have to see you like I thought you just went on without me in your life. But when I saw you, far from happy, I didn't know how to behave towards you and I quickly realised that it was a mistake to bring Emma into this. But you have to know that I didn't do it to make you jealous or to make you suffer. I don't know what else to say. But I'm sorry."
She still says nothing. Why do I always have to fuck everything up?
I think I know what that means.
"Okay. I understand.", I whisper and slowly turn around.
"No. Don't go," she says quickly.
So I slowly turn around again.
We just look at each other for several seconds. I thought she would say something now, but I was wrong.
"Why don't you say something about it?", I say again.
"I don't know what to say. I...", she starts a sentence, but towards the end she gets quieter and quieter.
She looks down and when she looks up again, she has tears in her eyes.
I don't understand. What did I say, that she must be crying now.
But before I can think any more about it, she takes a few steps towards me and finally hugs me.
I hug her back and we stand, together at last, on a mountain at sunrise.
Actually, I had always wanted it to be like this, but with her it doesn't matter.
With her, the darkest and coldest place would become the most beautiful of my life.
"I love you too," she whispers at last, but she still won't let go of me and I won't let go of her either.
"You have to promise me you'll never do anything like that again," she says as she finally breaks away from me and looks deep into my eyes.
I nod. "I promise. But you have to promise me something too."
"What?"
"Promise me you'll stay with me forever."
She smiles and another tear rolls down her face.
"I promise."
I wipe her tear away with my thumb and our eyes don't leave each other's for a second.
In that moment, it's just the two of us. Everything else around us disappears.
My face approaches hers until our lips touch.
It feels like the most right thing in the world. As if everyone has been waiting for this moment.
She puts her hands on my neck and I put mine on her hips to pull her even closer to me.
Now, having her with me like this, feeling what it's like to love someone, to be loved, I never want to live without that feeling again.
The feeling that only she can give me.
She is the only one and she always will be.
"I love you." she whispers as she pulls away from the kiss.
She doesn't give me time to answer, though, as she presses her mouth right back onto mine.
We stand like this for a while until it has finally become quite light and you can hear the first cars driving and the first people talking down in the city.
When we sit down on the bench and she puts her head in my lap and looks down at the sea, I can't help but watch her.
She is beautiful.
I know she often doubts it herself. Without a reason.
She's never said it before but you can tell by the way she acts.
The way she looks at other girls who aren't even half as beautiful as her and inwardly wishes she looked more like them.
Only no one knows that these girls look at her too and wish they looked more like her.
She always plays the confident, strong friend who is always there for you but has enough problems of her own.But that's Leya. The girl I love.
