My elbows dug into my knees. The thought of walking back into our small Detroit apartment, smelling the bleach from her double shifts, and watching her stretch every dollar until itscreamed hit me like a brick. But sitting there in the cold, I could not lie to her.
“I messed up,” I said quietly.
“How did you mess up? Did you lose the scholarship?”
“I got distracted.”
“Distracted by what?”
My gaze drifted out across the empty parking lot. “Someone. I met someone.”
I tried to keep it vague. No names. But I was running on absolute zero sleep, and the filter in my head was completely shot. Lying took energy I just did not have anymore.
“And this person made you lose everything?”
“No. It is my fault.” I dragged my free hand down my face. “I let myself want something I couldn’t have.”
Silence stretched across the line.
“Who are they?” she asked.
How do you even explain Karter?
“Someone from a completely different world. Rich. Entitled.” A harsh breath punched out of me. “But... he doesn’t give up. And he does not flinch when I push him away. And when I am with him, I stop thinking about the next bad thing. He makes me forget to be careful.”
I froze.I just said he.
My hand clamped around the phone, tight enough to crack the phone case. Squeezing my eyes shut against the wind, I braced for the dead silence to explode into a massive freak-out.
But my mom just let out a soft sound, a click in the back of her throat like a key finding its groove after years in the same lock.
“He?” she asked.
The wind bit at my face. “Yeah, Mama. He.”
“Okay,” she said. The word was soft, but there was zero judgment in her tone. “And this boy... he is the reason you are walking away?”
I swallowed hard against the lump in my throat.
“I scrubbed floors for years to get you out of this neighborhood, Lekha,” she continued, the deep exhaustion bleeding through the phone. “If you are giving up your future for him... this boy had better be worth it.”
A single tear tracked hot down my freezing cheek. She knew. She had caught my slip, and she was not pushing me away.
“He is worth it,” I whispered. “That is why I have to walk away. To protect him.”
“Oh, Lekha...”
“I’m sorry, Mama, I’ve gotta go.” I rasped the words out fast.
Hanging up quickly spared her from hearing my voice break.
The cold soaked through my thin jacket until my arms felt almost numb. I stared at the empty parking lot and was just about to start the long, freezing walk back to the dorms when a familiar black SUV turned off the main road and pulled into the lot. The headlights washed over me, blinding me for a second before the engine cut off.
A vehicle door slammed. Elliot emerged from the car. His breath puffed white in the air as he marched straight toward the concrete steps.
He had clearly come looking for me.
I stood up. Shifting my weight, I planted my feet flat on the pavement and dropped my hands to my sides. Every muscle in my body coiled, ready to take a punch. Honestly, I welcomed it. After the string of selfish, garbage decisions I had made over the last few weeks to drag myself and Karter into this mess, I fully deserved to get a tooth knocked loose.
