The Aurora Took Him, and Our Love Ended

Nolan missed our wedding to chase the Northern Lights with his protg.

He didn't even try to hide it. Every single guest sitting in the chapel had already seen his Instagram story.

Grateful to the universe for the dancing ribbons of light, and for you, looking more alive than ever.

The photo attached was a shot of Harpers silhouette beneath a sky exploding with neon green.

This wasn't the first time he had ditched me to chase the aurora with her.

During his graduation ceremony, while families were gathering in the auditorium, he bailed to fly north and meet Harper in Fairbanks, Alaska.

When I was tossing and turning in agonizing pain after my appendectomy, he was having deep, midnight talks with Harper on the black sand beaches of Iceland.

Their footsteps chasing the lights kept straying further and further away.

So far, in fact, that he couldn't even make it back in time for our own wedding.

I didn't scream. I didn't cause a scene. I calmly apologized to the guests, saw them out of the venue, and dialed Nolan's number.

"The aurora looks beautiful. I'd love to see it too."

"I'll take you next time," his voice crackled through the receiver, sounding distracted.

"Okay. Next time."

I agreed out loud.

But in my heart, I whispered the truth.

Nolan, there won't be a next time for the wedding, and there won't be a next time for the lights.

I hung up, opened my laptop, and booked a one-way ticket to Troms?, Norway.

Leaving in exactly seven days. Just me.

...

When Nolan finally walked through the door a few days later, I was on the phone with the venue coordinator, telling her not to bother holding another date for us.

I shook my head.

"Just cancel it entirely."

Our wedding had already been postponed three times.

The first time, I was the laughingstock of our social circle.

By the third time, the mockery had morphed into suffocating pity. I couldn't stomach it anymore.

Nolan strolled into the living room, a bright smile on his face.

"What are we canceling? Hazel, look, I brought you a gift."

Harper practically skipped in right behind him.

"It's an apology gift!" She pressed her hands together in a pleading, innocent gesture. "Please don't be mad at Nolan. It wasn't his fault he missed the wedding, the lights at the Santa Claus Village were just too gorgeous."

"If I hadn't dragged him onto the flight home, he never would have left."

Nolan reached over and affectionately flicked Harper's forehead. "Quiet, you."

I ignored her and took the flimsy postcard from his hand.

It was a stunning shot of the aurora. Flipped over, there was a single line of messy handwriting.

"Harper and Hazel, safe and sound."

It was Nolan's handwriting.

This was his little tradition. Every time he successfully tracked down the Northern Lights, he would write a wish on a postcard and bring it back as my souvenir.

"Harper and Hazel, may your dreams come true."

"Harper and Hazel, success in all you do."

"Harper and Hazel, a lifetime of peace."

...

Every single time, Harper's name was written before mine.

"Didn't you say you were going to take me to see the lights? When exactly is next time?" I asked, dropping the postcard into a wooden keepsake box, letting it join the stack of all the other wishes.

Nolan collapsed onto the sofa, groaning dramatically.

"Let's talk about it later. The transatlantic flight was brutal, I just need to sleep."

I didn't let it go. "How about we go next month for my birthday?"

Nolan glanced at the calendar on the wall. He looked genuinely conflicted.

"Harper and I already booked flights to Sweden for that week. We're doing a second run through the Arctic Circle."

"So, over the holidays then?"

"The light pollution is lowest during that season. Harper really wants to see the Blue Lagoon in Iceland."

His voice trailed off, getting quieter by the second. "I guess I just don't have the time right now."

I nodded. Message received.

Harper chimed in, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness. "Don't be mad at him, Hazel. We're astronomy majors. We have a natural calling for phenomena like the aurora."

"We even made a pact. Once we've seen all the auroras, we're going to chase meteor showers."

"Just lying side by side in the desert, watching shooting stars... doesn't that sound so romantic?"

She opened her mouth to keep twisting the knife, but Nolan softly cut her off.

"It's getting late. Come on, I'll walk you home."

Right before he walked out the door, Nolan suddenly pulled me into a hug.

His warm breath brushed against my ear.

"Hazel, I promise. I will absolutely carve out time this year to take you aurora hunting."

He affectionately ruffled my hair, turned around, and walked out.

A tiny, pathetic part of my heart softened.

But as he turned, my eyes caught sight of the ugly little plush keychain dangling from his backpack.

Harper had the exact same one swinging from her designer tote.

The softness in my chest instantly froze into solid ice.

That specific mascot character was a massive trend a few years ago. I bought a matching pair, begging Nolan to wear them with me.

He had vehemently refused.

"I'm a grown man. If I walk around with a childish toy on my bag, what are the professors and my lab partners going to think?"

Yet here he was, older and supposedly more professional.

He fully embraced that childishness, all because it was Harper asking.

It hit me like a physical blow.

He was perfectly capable of bending his rigid rules, just not for me.

I pulled out my phone and called my best friend.

"Which bridesmaid dress did you finally decide on? I'll just buy it for you so you can wear it to galas."

"Yeah. We're not doing it."

"Nolan and I are done."

The next morning, I was packing up the house, getting ready to list it with a realtor.

My phone buzzed. It was Nolan.

"Hazel, do me a huge favor. Can you go with Harper to the photo studio? She needs help picking out film prints."

I gave a soft hum of agreement and hung up, turning to face the realtor's overly enthusiastic smile.

"Miss, a property of this size, in this neighborhood? Your husband really spared no expense for your bridal home. He loves you so much."

I didn't bother correcting her.

It was true. Nolan bought this house in cash and put it solely in my name, making every woman in my office green with envy.

But I found out much later that Nolan picked this specific unit because Harper lived directly across the hall.

He had looked me in the eye and said: "Harper and I have been neighbors since we were kids. It's so nice that we get to keep that connection going into adulthood."

When it came to renovating the place, he hired a top-tier designer and told me to pick whatever I wanted.

But he personally spent weeks helping Harper remodel her apartment, sweating through his shirts, claiming he was helping her build her "dream home."

Snapping out of the memory, I gave the realtor a flat smile.

"I want it off my hands within a week. Price is highly negotiable."

...

When I walked into the vintage photo studio, Harper immediately linked her arm through mine.

"Hazel, your aesthetic is so much better than mine. Tell me which of these film shots I should post on my grid."

Harper wasn't just an astronomy grad student. She was practically a campus influencer with a massive following.

I had seen her aurora photos on my feed before.

Sometimes they featured a masculine hand holding hers.

Sometimes it was the broad span of Nolan's shoulders facing the snow.

Her comments were always flooded with people asking: "Is that your boyfriend? You guys are total goals, always traveling together."

She only ever replied with coy, blushing emojis.

She never admitted it.

She never denied it, either.

Sitting at my cubicle, it used to make me so sick to my stomach that I eventually threw her on my blocked list.

But I would come home to find Nolan staring at his phone with a goofy, lovestruck grin.

He would have her video edits playing on a loop, the background music echoing through our living room.

For months afterward, just hearing the first few notes of that song made me physically gag.

"Did you know a standard film roll only lets you click the shutter twenty-seven times?" Harper giggled, sliding twenty-seven glossy photos across the glass counter.

"Look, this is at the northernmost McDonald's in Finland!"

In the picture, the two of them were biting into the exact same french fry, their lips barely an inch apart.

"The local guide actually asked if we were married. He was so clueless, couldn't he tell?"

I pressed my lips into a thin line.

In the next photo, under a sky bleeding neon colors, Nolan and Harper were dancing a waltz in the snow.

He was in a sharp suit, she was in a flowing white dress. They absolutely looked like newlyweds.

"Oh my god, who printed this one?" Harper shrieked in fake embarrassment.

At first glance, it was just a massive burst of green light. But if you looked at the bottom of the frame, there were two pitch-black silhouettes.

Their profiles were completely merged. They were kissing.

The studio owner leaned over the counter, giving them a knowing, warm smile.

"Ah, to be young and in love. You kids really know how to do romance."

Harper's cheeks flushed pink. "Oh, stop it."

But her eyes flicked straight to my face, waiting for a reaction.

I stayed completely silent for a few seconds. Then, I burst out laughing.

"It really is romantic."

"It would be even more romantic if the guy in the picture wasn't my fianc."

The studio was packed with college students on their lunch break. The moment the words left my mouth, every single person froze, their ears practically growing antennas for the drama.

Harper's smug smile shattered.

The owner's warm expression instantly turned deeply uncomfortable.

"Ha" Harper stammered, trying to do damage control.

Before she could form a sentence, I pulled out my phone, aimed the camera at the kissing silhouette, and snapped a picture with the flash on.

"You should definitely post this one. Let's be honest, getting me to look at this photo was the entire reason you dragged me out here today, wasn't it?"

Without waiting for her to scramble for an excuse, I turned on my heel and walked out the door.

That night, Nolan's furious voice blasted through my phone speakers.

"What the hell did you say to Harper? She's been crying for hours."

"Nothing much."

Nolan's voice spiked in volume. "Hazel, I know you're holding a grudge. I know you're mad that I took her to see the lights instead of you."

"But that's only because she's tough. She doesn't complain, she can handle the freezing cold, and she roughs it without whining. That's literally it."

"There is absolutely nothing going on between us."

"Your little stunt today really messed things up for her. There are threads all over the campus forums calling her a homewrecker. You need to log on and clear this up."

He let out a heavy, long-suffering sigh.

"The solar activity is peaking this year. It's the best time in a decade to see the aurora."

"I swear to you, once this year is over, I'll settle down. We'll get married quietly, and I won't ever make you feel left out again."

The phone slowly slid away from my ear. He was still lecturing, but the words were just white noise.

He knew.

He knew how utterly humiliated I felt standing alone on that wedding stage. He knew the panic of explaining his absence to the guests. He knew the absolute shame of facing both our families by myself.

He knew all of it.

He just actively chose to look the other way.

There was no universe where I was going to log online and defend Harper.

Because of that, Nolan initiated a one-sided cold war.

He didn't come home for two days.

I used those forty-eight hours productively.

I officially resigned from my job, signed the closing papers for the house, and returned the diamond ring and the bridal jewelry.

When the dust finally settled, I sat on the empty couch and scrolled through my phone. Harper had just updated her timeline.

"To the best thing in my life."

The photo attached was Nolan, standing in her kitchen, holding a spatula and cooking her dinner.

Vague. Suggestive. Borderline romantic. Classic Harper.

The very first time I saw a post like that, Nolan and I had an earth-shattering screaming match.

"What are our mutual friends supposed to think when they see stuff like this?!" I had demanded.

Nolan had just pinched the bridge of his nose, looking at me like I was a hysterical child.

"She's younger than us, Hazel. She doesn't overthink things the way you do. Stop being so petty."

I had cried so hard that night I was hyperventilating until my lungs burned.

But looking at her blatant provocation now? I felt absolutely nothing.

"You really grew up, Hazel," I whispered to myself in the quiet room.

"You're finally ready to go chase the lights on your own."

A minute later, I posted my own update.

It was an old, grainy photo from years ago. A solitary telescope sitting on the roof of an abandoned campus building.

It was the night Nolan and I met. There was a once-in-a-century meteor shower. I sneaked up to the roof, totally surprised to find another astronomy nerd waiting in the dark.

We kept each other company.

When the shooting stars finally painted the sky, they masked the frantic beating of my heart.

That photo had been locked in my hidden folder for years.

Whenever my career hit a wall, or whenever Nolan broke my heart, I would pull it out to remind myself of the boy I fell in love with.

But tonight, I let it go.

I was double-checking the locks on my camera tripod when the front door clicked open.

Nolan stumbled in. He reeked of expensive alcohol, his eyes slightly glazed.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw me adjusting the tripod.

"Isn't that for low-light photography? Where did you get that?"

"I got tired of waiting for you. Figured I'd buy my own gear."

He choked on whatever he was going to say.

Clearly, he remembered the argument from the other night.

Then his eyes drifted to the massive hardshell suitcase sitting by the door. His brow furrowed.

"What's all this?"

"Business trip," I replied smoothly, barely missing a beat.

"It's a long assignment, so I had to pack heavy."

Nolan visibly relaxed, nodding in relief. Riding the liquid courage, he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me, pulling my back flush against his chest.

His messy hair brushed against my neck.

He lowered his voice, coaxing me like a petulant child.

"I'm waving the white flag, Hazel. Let's stop fighting, okay?"

"That photo you just posted... that was your way of saying you miss us, right?"

I let out a soft chuckle.

If I hadn't looked in the mirror and seen the violent purple hickey blooming on his collarbone, maybe his little act would have worked.

He hadn't been home for two days, and he walked in wearing another woman's mark.

His embrace was physically warm.

But the blood in my veins felt like liquid nitrogen.

I smoothly pushed him away without a trace of anger.

"I'm visiting Professor Bennett tomorrow. You need to come with me."

He nodded instantly.

I was tying up loose ends. It was time to say goodbye to the people who actually mattered.

Professor Bennett was our advisor in undergrad. He treated us like his own kids.

He was supposed to be the officiant at our wedding.

But you can only ask a man to officiate a ghost wedding three times before it becomes an insult.

He was furious, and I needed to apologize in person.

But the next afternoon, as I stood on Professor Bennett's porch, Nolan was nowhere to be found.

I waited in the biting wind for thirty minutes before my phone buzzed.

"Harper caught a nasty flu. She's on an IV drip at the urgent care and I can't leave her alone."

"Tell Professor Bennett I'm really sorry."

I didn't bother replying.

What was the point of being angry?

It wouldn't change the cold, hard fact that if you put Professor Bennett and me on a scale, we didn't weigh half as much as Harper did to him.

When I walked into the house alone, Professor Bennett let out a heavy, mournful sigh.

"I knew it."

"What happened to that boy? How did he turn into this?"

He poured me a cup of tea, shaking his head. "He used to worship the ground you walked on. When you wanted those artisan pastries from across the city, he biked for thirty minutes in the rain and waited in line for two hours just so you could eat them fresh out of the oven."

"When Professor Lawsonthat absolute creephinted you should sleep with him for a grade, Nolan risked expulsion just to break the guy's nose."

"When you two used to come over for dinner, he would stare at you so hard he dropped two of my antique plates."

"How did it come to this?"

"Yeah," I murmured into my teacup. "How did it come to this?"

But I quickly forced a bright smile onto my face.

"Professor, I'm moving abroad. I probably won't be coming back."

"There's a whole world out there. Auroras, oceans, deserts... I want to see all of it."

"My flight is in two days. Please, don't tell Nolan."

Professor Bennett's eyes shimmered. He reached across the table and squeezed my hand.

"Okay, kid. Go see the world. I support you."

Nolan was so checked out he didn't even notice my belongings slowly disappearing from the house.

Before I knew it, it was my final day in the city.

I went to the bridal boutique to return my dress as agreed.

I carefully ironed out the silk, folded the heavy fabric, and slipped it into the garment bag.

I stared at it for a long, quiet moment.

A massive, sweeping train, hand-beaded pearls, absolute princess glamour.

I had put this dress on for three different weddings that never happened.

I finally forced myself to look away.

But as I turned, my eyes caught two familiar figures standing in the VIP fitting area across the showroom.

Harper was wearing a custom-dyed, deep emerald green wedding dress, twirling in front of the massive mirrors.

Nolan was sitting on the velvet sofa, looking at her with absolute adoration.

Noticing my stare, a salesgirl walked up next to me, sighing dreamily.

"Aren't they just the cutest couple?"

"They've been in here multiple times. They didn't want any of our classic collections. They demanded a custom gown inspired by the Northern Lights."

"We thought they were crazy at first, but the guy totally backed her vision. He threw money at our designers, spent hours in consultations... we're all dying of jealousy over here."

A violent tremor wrecked through my chest.

When I came to try on my dress, I came entirely alone.

Nolan and Harper had been somewhere in Norway, chasing the lights.

I had video-called him, holding up two different veils, asking which one he liked better.

He had squinted at the screen, annoyed, and muttered, "How am I supposed to care about fabric when I'm looking at a literal cosmic miracle? Just pick whatever."

Dragging myself out of the memory, I let out a slow exhale and walked directly toward them.

The head designer was gushing over the fit.

"That green is a custom dye! We blended the hues from three different atmospheric phenomenons. It is literally one of a kind!"

"Wow, that sounds amazing."

My voice sliced through the room. Every head snapped in my direction.

The moment Nolan saw me, his pupils shrank to pinpricks.

"Hazel..."

Harper immediately plastered herself to his side, hooking her arm through his and leaning heavily against his shoulder.

"Hazel! Oh my gosh, Nolan is just doing me a huge favor."

"Yeah, I wanted to design an aurora dress for my portfolio, and he's just playing my model."

Nolan looked completely panicked.

I just offered a polite, distant smile.

Suddenly, Nolan's eyes dropped to my hand. "Hazel, where is your engagement ring?"

I followed his gaze to my bare finger.

"Sent it in to get cleaned," I lied without batting an eyelash.

"I've got to run. You guys have fun fitting."

I gave Nolan one last, profound look.

Then I turned on my heel and walked out the door.

"Hazel, wait"

Staring at my retreating back, a horrific sense of foreboding slammed into Nolan's gut. Without thinking, his body jerked forward to follow me.

"Nolan, we're not done with the measurements yet!" Harper yanked on his arm, physically pulling him back.

But Nolan's mind was completely scrambled.

The look in my eyes kept replaying in his head on a terrifying loop. Something fundamental had shifted, and he couldn't put his finger on it.

It felt like... when Hazel looked at him just now, there was absolutely no love left.

Meanwhile, I was already at the airport, boarding a transatlantic flight to Troms?.

I leaned my head against the cold window pane and closed my eyes.

Once again, forced to choose between me and Harper, he chose her.

Only this time, there was no sourness in my chest. There was no desperate resentment.

Still, a single, stray tear slipped down my cheek.

The man sitting in the seat next to me quietly offered a tissue.

"Here."

"Save the tears for Troms?. They say the Northern Lights are worth crying over."

I stared at the handsome stranger's face, a genuine smile breaking through the gloom.

"You're going to Troms? to chase the lights too?"

...

Hours later, after Nolan finally finished indulging Harper's wedding dress fantasy, he walked into the house.

He was greeted by hollow, echoing silence.

"Hazel?"

He called out tentatively.

No response.

A suffocating wave of panic crashed into his chest.

Where the hell was Hazel?