The Heartbroken - S01 E201

Story 2 years ago

The Heartbroken - S01 E201

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 201

And the worst part was that I knew, at the back of

my mind, that this wasn’t the last time something

like this could happen. Things would only go from

bad to worse, and I knew this because I had lived

through it once before.

Hail didn’t know this yet, and judging from the way

her hands wouldn’t stop shaking, she was barely

keeping it together.

“Hey,” I said softly. “How did you know he

collapsed?”

I saw her swallow as she raised her eyes to mine. “I

was on the phone with him. He was calling to ask if

he could borrow my copy of Beatrice and

Virgil. Yann Martel wrote it too.”

“The guy who wrote Life of Pi?”

“Yeah. Then suddenly I heard something like, I don’t

know, a series of thuds and the phone crashing on

the floor I think. I called again and again, and finally

Philip picked up and told me about it.”

I could barely imagine what I would felt if I was the

one who was on the phone with when it happened.

She studied me for a moment, then, hesitantly, she

said, “Why is… why is Seth with you?”

“Oh.”

After what I’d just learned about Cedric, I’d almost

forgotten about Seth and the fact that we hadn’t even

talked for days. The whole conversation with him

earlier almost seemed like it had happened years ago.

I rubbed my clammy hands against my jeans. “He

called.”

Her mouth dropped open. “No way.”

I think she would have squealed a little if we weren’t

both preoccupied with worrying about Cedric. She

shifted in her seat, sitting up straighter as if to show

that she was going to listen attentively.

“He asked if we could talk, so we met up

at Snowflake.”

“What did he want to talk about?”

I thought back to the past hour, trying to remember

what exactly we were talking about before Hail’s call

interrupted the conversation.

Heaving a sigh, I shook my head. “You called before

we could talk about anything.”

At this, Hail fell uncharacteristically quiet, but there

was rigidness to her shoulders that told me

something was bothering her, so I asked her.

She gave me a look, one I couldn’t quite

comprehend, before taking a deep breath and

turning away. “Cedric told me.”

“Told you what?”

“Why he doesn’t get along with Seth,” she said.

My eyes snapped to her. “He did?”

“Yeah. Before we made up,” she elaborated,

fumbling with the hem of her sweater. “When you

were just starting to date Seth. I asked him why he

was so against it, and why he seemed to hate Seth,

and he told me.”

“Oh.”

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this. It never

occurred to me that it wasn’t only Seth’s secret to

share. It was Cedric’s as well.

“You think it has something to do with that?” She

looked at me cautiously, like she didn’t want to

hypothesize when there was no guarantee she’d be

right. “I mean, about why he wanted to talk to you?”

“I…” I trailed off, because I knew, somehow, that at

the back of my mind, I had been asking myself the

exact same question. In a firmer voice, I finally said,

“I think so.”

“For what it’s worth,” she said, looking me in the

eye, “he’s trying to be here for you, despite…

everything else.”She lifted a shoulder in a small

shrug. “I think that counts for something.”