The Heartbroken - S01 E189

Story 2 years ago

The Heartbroken - S01 E189

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 189

“Italian, actually,” I told her,

grinning at the wide-eyed stares

they’d given us. “We asked.”

They insisted on ordering, so Hail

and I let them. When they asked

what we wanted, Hail just replied

with a mysterious, “Don’t worry.

Chris knows,” which I think might

have made them kind of amazed

and jealous at the same time.

“I missed them,” I told Hail.

“What about Seth?” she dead-

panned. “Admit it. I’ve seen the way

you look at him at lunch.”

I didn’t get a chance to defend

myself—not that there was a lot I

could say in defense—because

when I opened my mouth to reply,

Alyssa and Lily were setting back

into their seats, still giggling from

the encounter with Chris.

For the first few minutes, it was

hard to discuss anything that didn’t

involve the all-too-mysterious Chris,

especially since we were all

practically in love with him, but I

knew it was only a matter o time

until one of us decided to

acknowledge the elephant in the

room.

Sur enough, a half hour later, Alyssa

finally said, “I wish you guys would

eat with us again.”

Her lips were pulled ever so slightly

downwards and her eyes were

trained on the plate of unfinished

apple crumble pie in front of her,

and already I knew where this

conversation was heading.

“We miss you, too,” I told them,

then, I cleared my throat and said,

“How… how’s Seth?”

It was really nothing but a harmless

question, but I didn’t miss the look

Alyssa exchanged with Lily. There

was something about that brief

look, a note of hesitation, that

made the curiosity burn even

stronger.

“He seems kind of distracted lately,”

Lily replied after exchanging

another look with Alyssa. “We

know something’s bothering him,

but he’s closed off as usual.”

“We think it has something to do

with your ‘breakup,’” Alyssa added,

“but it’s like something else is

bothering him.”

I blinked, trying to process this

information as Hail, who always

liked analyzing situations through

details, asked them to elaborate on

his behavior.

I didn’t tell them that I knew what

was bothering him.

His dad was coming home

tomorrow, and to Seth, this was

probably something he wasn’t

looking forward to. I remembered

this because the deadline for the

entry on the writing contest’s

elimination round was also

tomorrow

“The other guy you sit with,” Lily

suddenly brought up. “He was the

guy who got into a fight with

Seth?”

The mention of the fight made me

cringe. The memory of Cedric

throwing a punch at Seth and

everything else was still as clear as

glass in my head.

“Yeah,” I replied, looking down at

my hands, which were resting on

my lap. “He’s my ex-boyfriend.”

Alyssa gave me hesitant look before

asking, “Are you guys back

together?”

I took a sip of my chocolate chip

frappe, trying to loosen the

tightening on my throat, but I knew

it had nothing to do with thirst. I

shook my head. “No, we’re not.” I

set my drink back on the table.

“We’re just friends now.”

Hail must have noticed my

discomfort, immediately steering

the topic to something else that

involved neither Seth nor Cedric.

Much to my relief, Alyssa and Lily

were more than just happy to help

Hail when she asked them if they

could help her shop for a dress.

We hadn’t told anyone about the

cancer at all. Cedric didn’t want

word to go around. There were

some times when I almost told my

mom, especially because she

noticed that I’d been sort of upset

lately. She assumed it had

something to do with Seth—and

maybe it did, in a way—but it had

more to do with Cedric’s condition.