“Julie … if I could stay with you, I’d never leave.” “But you did leave.” “I know … I’m sorry.” “You never said good-bye…” “That’s because I never thought I had to…”
Even out of context, this passage always gets me. The thing about goodbyes is you can never prepare for them. Something interesting about the prologue is it almost didn't exist. When I sold the book to my publisher, the story immediately starts with Julie throwing out Sam's things a week after his death. However, my editor asked me, "so how did they fall in love?" This became one of my most challenging chapters to write, as I had to tell Sam and Julie's entire love story, from the first day they met to their last, in a few pages. I believe love doesn't happen all at once, but in small moments that add up to something meaningful. Like remembering someone's drink at a coffeeshop, or dancing together for the first time in the parking lot during the school dance. Of course, the last page needed to pull Julie back to the present in order to work with chapter one (which didn't really change). So in some ways, the prologue is a short version of the entire book. It's a love story between two teens that ended too soon.
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