Page 32 of Fame & Chaos

Because that night, Indi was the one falling apart.

This time it was me.

I felt hollowed out from the inside. Like Indi had reached into my chest and ripped something vital out with her bare hands. Every dream I’d built around her over the years felt stupid and pathetic.

I’d finally had her.

And somehow I’d still lost her.

Living in the same house with her after this was going to be torture.

When I finally heard the front door slam downstairs, I dragged myself upright off the floor. My face was wet with tears, and my eyes hurt from crying so hard, but eventually anger started cutting through the pain.

Hot.

Sharp.

Blinding.

Because part of me felt led on.

How could she spend months kissing me like that, touching me like she loved me, sleeping with me, letting me believe we were building toward something real… only to tell me the next morning she didn’t want a relationship?

I pulled myself together, got dressed, and headed to school. I was already late, but I had an exam, and no matter how wrecked I felt, I refused to let heartbreak destroy my future too.

Indi had already shattered my heart.

She wasn’t taking my education with it.

The entire walk to school, I stayed furious.

At her.

At myself.

At the stupid hope I’d allowed myself to feel.

Fine.

If she wanted friendship, then that’s all she was getting from me.

Nothing more.

I realize now how immature I was being, but at eighteen years old, running on heartbreak and adrenaline, anger felt easier than grief.

Anger kept me standing.

As long as I didn’t see her today, I’d survive.

Probably.

I made it through the exam somehow and absolutely smashed it, mostly because focusing on history was easier than thinking about Indi curled in my bed whispering my name the night before. But the second I walked out of the classroom, reality crashed back in.

Along with two girls attaching themselves to either side of me.

“Hey, Caleb,” the blonde on my left chirped while wrapping herself around my arm. “Is it true Colter Slade is your uncle?”

Normally, I despised talking about my family at school.