After he ordered, I pointed at myself. “Guess what I feel like right now.”
He took a sip of water, a small smile playing on his lips. “What?”
‘Cinderella before the fairy godmother shows up.”
He burst out laughing. When Leo laughed, two faint dimples appeared, making him look sunny and warm.
Looking at him, I suddenly thought of Bill.
I hadn’t thought about him in a long time.
He had a dimple too, but he rarely smiled. Mostly, it was just a slight upturn of his lips.
I used to poke his dimple and tell him, “You should smile more. You’re really handsome when you smile.”
After Wendy transferred, his smiles became more frequent. Sometimes sweet, sometimes doting.
Looking back now, I realized a simple, universal truth.
He just never smiled that way for me.
Our dinner started as the sun reached its peak splendor and ended after the sky had turned a deep indigo. When we stepped out of the restaurant, the plaza was bustling with people.
‘Tessa Shaw, I had a really great time today.”
I looked up at him, and he was smiling down at me.
“It’s my birthday today.”
“What!” I stared at him, shocked. “It’s your birthday? I should have treated you! Why didn’t you tell me soon- er?”
He sighed, putting on a pitiful expression. “I was afraid if I told you, you wouldn’t have come to dinner with
me.”
“Of course I would have,” I insisted.
19.08
Chapter 2
I hopped off the bus and practically ran to his apartment complex.
But when I got there, movers were hauling furniture into his apartment.
I froze, my heart plummeting.
I slowly approached a woman standing nearby. “Excuse me,” I said softly, “do you know what happened to the person who used to live here?”
“Oh, he moved out. I think it was a few days ago.”
“Oh. Okay.”
I nodded numbly and turned away.
I sat on a nearby bench, the reality of Leo’s departure slowly sinking in.
Why would he leave without a word?
Weren’t we… friends?
My vision blurred. The gift bag in my hand felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.
Why is it that as soon as I get used to someone being here, they leave, just like everyone else?
I set my jaw, angrily wiping away a tear. I tossed the gift bag into a nearby trash can and walked away.
That night, a heavy rain began to fall. I stared out the window, my phone open to Leo’s contact page. But couldn’t bring myself to press the call button. What would I even say if he answered? Why did you leave
without telling me?
For him, I was probably just a fleeting interest, a girl he chased for a little while. Not someone worth an expl
anation.
I felt like a complete joke.
Falling down again and again, and never learning my lesson.
A sharp knock on the door jolted me back to reality.
When I opened it, a drenched, disheveled Bill was standing there. He looked at me, his face a mixture of
misery and hurt. “You forgot it was my birthday, didn’t you?”
If this had been the old Tessa, would she have forgiven him? I don’t know,
All I knew was that the current me felt nothing. A sad, empty void.
I remembered a quote: That moment when he stood before me, and I could no longer summon a single em-
otion for him. Not love, not even hate.
His eyes were red-rimmed. “Tessa, it’s my birthday. You promised you’d always be there for my birthday.”
Chapter 2
“Happy birthday,” I said, my voice flat with exhaustion. “Is that all?”
19:08
“I’m sorry, Tessa. Are you still mad at me?” He suddenly grabbed my hand and slapped it hard against his
own face.
I winced. The force of the impact sent a stinging shock up my arm.
He tried to use my hand to strike his other cheek, but I wrenched it away, my voice cold. “If you’re going to have a meltdown, go do it at your own house. Don’t do it here.”
Bill’s skin was pale, and a deep red handprint was already blooming on his cheek.
I didn’t care if it hurt. I was only afraid of the trouble this could cause me.
He opened his mouth to speak, rainwater dripping from his chin, his voice bitter. “Tessa, I was wrong. I… I don’t know why I acted like that. By the time I wanted to fix things, you were already gone. I went to Westw ood to find you, but I saw that guy talking to you by the window, and I got so angry. What I said that day… I didn’t mean it…”
“Forget it,” I sighed, a wave of weariness washing over me.
Bill stared at me, his face pale.
I let out a hollow laugh. “That post on the Confessions page. With your family’s resources, Bill, it wouldn’t have been hard to find out who really wrote it.”
At my words, he lowered his head, his face contorted in pain.
“But you already guessed who it was, didn’t you? We grew up together. You, of all people, should know I’m not the kind of person who would stoop to something so low.”
“Bill, you didn’t disbelieve the rumor. You chose to believe it was me.”
“Wendy wanted everyone to know she was your girlfriend. She wanted to draw a line in the sand between us to prove that the new girl was more important than the one who had been by your side since childhood. And you let her. You indulged her lies and her drama.”
I watched his pained expression with cold detachment. “You made your choice a long time ago. Why are you here now?”
“Tessa, I’m sorry.” He reached for me, but I stepped back. “I was wrong. I was so wrong. I didn’t know what I was doing back then.”
“After you left, I realized I can’t live without you. I… I missed you so much. Every single day, I thought about you. I went to Westwood, I waited outside, I tried to find you, but I could never see you, Tessa.”
Tears streamed from his eyes as he repeated his apologies.
I lowered my head wearily and closed my eyes. The boy who had walked with me through so many stages of my youth had finally become someone hateful.
19.08
Chapter 2
The old Bill would never have treated me this way.
He was no longer the boy who would shield me from the rain with his jacket, standing tall and declaring, “It’s
okay, Tessa, I’m here.”
That boy was gone, lost to time.
“Bill!” Wendy’s tearful voice called out from a short distance away. He didn’t even turn his head.
Suddenly, she was begging me. “Tessa Shaw, Bill is all I have! Please don’t take him from me! I’m begging
ļ
you!”
She was a dancer, her body thin from years of dieting. Her pale face, streaked with tears, was the very pictu
re of pitiable beauty.
“Shut up!” Bill roared. “I told you, we’re done! Get lost!”
“What did I do wrong? Just tell me, please! I love you so much, I don’t want to break up…”
I had no interest in watching this soap opera unfold. I simply closed the door.
