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I nodded, but words escaped me. I was too scared to say the wrong thing. Too scared I’d break down. I glanced around, trying to find the exterior cameras that I now knew were out there, but they were impossible to detect. I wondered if Seren knew they were everywhere.
“Are you gonna make me guess?” he asked.
I shook my head, but words still wouldn’t come out of my mouth.
“Grace? What’s going on?”
I pulled in a deep breath and forced myself to answer. “I just found out I got the summer internship in Tampa.”
“That’s great,” he said.
“And I leave tonight.”
He frowned, seemingly hating the news as much as I did. “Oh.”
I nodded.
“Were you just gonna leave without saying goodbye?” he asked.
“I thought it might be easier that way.”
“Easier?” Anger grabbed hold of his features. “Easier for who?You?”
“Come on, Seren. You knew we were both leaving soon.” It killed me to say that. Killed me to lie to him like that. But what was the alternative?
“So, this is how you planned to end it?” he asked, his voice growing louder. “Just leave without saying a damn thing?”
“I didn’t want you overreacting like this,” I said, needing to blame it on something.
“I’moverreacting? Well, you’re not fucking reacting at all! What the fuck, Grace?”
“You know I want to go work withdolphins,” I said, hoping he caught on to my choice of words.
“So, what? Am I selfish now? I’m trying to keep you from your dream because I don’t want you to leave?” he said, totally missing my point.
“No, I meant, you know working withdolphinshas been my dream just like football has been yours. We can’t hold our dreams against each other.”
“I may be a lot of things, Grace, but at least I’m not a coward.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, my bottom lip beginning to quiver because he was getting angry and hurtful. And, though I knew what I was doing was necessary, I hated that it was bringing outthisversion of him.
He glared at me with the same coldness I hadn’t seen from him since when I first arrived. “I was wrong about you. You’re nothing like Kiki or the other girls at Windham Prep because at least they don’t run. They say what they need to say. Good or bad. You’re taking the easy way out.”
“There is no easy way out,” I said, meaning that more than he would ever know.
“So that’s it,” he said matter-of-factly. “We’re done.”
No. Not even close. I love you. I love that you love me. I love that you don’t want me to leave. I love that you’re mad because it means you care about me.“Yes.”
“Well, fuck you.”
His words stung, hitting way below the belt. He should’ve been fighting for me to stay, not letting me go. “That’s mature,” I said, equally pissed at him for not seeing through my words.
He grabbed the bench by the side of the door and with all his might chucked it with a roar until it sailed across the basketball court. “That’smature,” he assured me.
“You don’t have to make this any harder than it already is,” I said.
His lips tightened in disgust. “Doesn’t seem like it’s hard for you at all.”
