The Heartbroken - S01 E145

Story 2 years ago

The Heartbroken - S01 E145

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 145

“The drive home was pretty much

uneventful,” I said to Hail the next day. “Seth

dropped me off and Isabelle thanked me

for meeting her.”

We agreed to meet at Cofee Overdose

before heading to the hospital so I can visit

Hail’s mother.

It had been a while since we last hung out

here, so when we walked in earlier, we

were thrilled to know that Chris the hot

barista had noticed our apparent absence.

“I was wondering where you’d both

disappeared to,” he said, already fixing our

orders before we could even tell him what

they were.

I had just finished telling Hail about the

night before and everything that happened

during the dinner, and the expression on

her face matched the expression on Alyssa’s

face whenever Seth and I did something

“sweet” in front of them.

“You know what’s funny?” Hail asked me.

“You used to hate Seth. You used to say he

was disgusting for being the player he was

and everything.”

I looked down at my half-eaten blueberry

cheesecake, almost unable to believe that

I’d been so narrow-minded back then. “I

was wrong.”

She nodded, smiling at me. “Yeah. I guess

you were.” There was a hint of hesitation in

the way she peered up at me, but she said,

“You know, I’d always thought you and

Cedric were, I don’t know, the real thing?”

She wasn’t the only one, I thought, and

before I could say something in reply, she

was speaking again.

“Don’t get me wrong.” She raised both

hands, giving me a hurried glance. “I mean,

looking at you and Seth, it’s just… you look

good together. And I mean that on a

deeper level. Like, your whole character fits

with his. Like you’re meant to be. It’s… it’s

pretty amazing.”

I took a deep breath and looked her in the

eye. I’d been thinking a lot about telling her

the truth between me and Seth. There had

never been secrets between us before this,

and even though she refused to tell me why

Cedric broke up with me, I understood her.

It wasn’t her secret to tell.

But this one between Seth and I was mine,

and I couldn’t stand the thought of her

rooting for the two of us when there was

never really anything to begin with.

“What is it?” she said. “You have that look

on your face.”

My brows furrowed.“What look?”

“The one you usually have on your face

when you’re trying to decide if you should

tell me something or not.”

I didn’t even know I could look like that,

and the thought of Hail knowing me so well

reminded me of the fact that Hail knew me

—really knew me—and despite the fact that

we hadn’t talked for so long, that didn’t

change.

“I don’t have anything to say,” I said.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “I’m not

buying it.”

To be honest, I wasn’t afraid of her ratting

me out. I knew she would never tell anyone,

especially Cedric. Hail had always been

better at keeping secrets than I was, but

there was something about letting anyone

know it was all fake that made me feel

uneasy, like telling her it wasn’t real would

result to it being less real.

And that was ridiculous, because it wasn’t

real. I’d been so used to Seth—to the idea

of “us”—that sometimes, even I forget that

it was all fake; and the truth was that just

easier to pretend that “we” were real.

Letting someone know the truth would

somehow take that away.

But that didn’t make sense, because why

should I care?