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Prologue
It had only taken three minutes for him to spit out the words and break her heart into two. Three minutes to wipe away the past three years of their relationship. That was over 730 days, countless hours, and almost a lifetime of memories.
He had shattered her heart into a million pieces.
And all for what? Good grades? His mother’s approval?
Was reality supposed to be that way? Was it wrong to live religiously by those epic love stories that had romantics believing that love prevails over all else?
Maybe she was ignorant. She had dismissed the things that she had learned in psychology about opposites not attracting. She had fiercely believed that their differences only made them more unique; more perfect. She was the extroverted one while he was the introverted one. She talked, he listened. She was the wild one while he was the level-headed one. But in the end, damn Sigmund Freud was right with all his psychoanalysis mumbo-jumbo. They were always right.
“Tessa…”
How could he do this? How could he put school before her? Of all the reasons he could have come up with, he had to choose school as his reason.
“Talk to me, Tess,” he murmured in his deep voice that had made her shiver when they first started to date.
She watched as he hesitantly touched her arm, hoping to shake her out of her reverie. She looked down at that hand and pulled away quickly as if it burned her. She had once found comfort in his hands; his arms… but now she wished that she could draw a line across the table where he couldn’t cross.
“So, it’s… over,” she said with a voice that barely sounded like her own. It was shaky as she tried to hold back the inevitable tears. It was ridiculous because he had seen her at her worst moments. He had seen her cry rivers and oceans of water; sobs that wracked through her body, shaking her from to the core. Yet, here she was, trying to protect her pride that he had seen break so many times; her pride that he had constantly picked up for her before.
He lowered his eyes as if he were ashamed to look at her. “I’m sorry,” he repeated for the umpteenth time. “I just can’t-… We’re just not good together…”
No, they were good together. They were perfect. They were Kyle and Tessa, the couple most likeliest to be married in twenty years.
“It’s because of your mom, isn’t it?” she asked, biting back a sob that she was determined not to let out.
Pursing his lips together, he avoided her gaze and looked around the kitchen as if he were searching for an answer he could give her.
“For God’s sake, Kyle. Tell me,” she pleaded.
“It’s me. Not my mother, not you, not anyone else,” he finally said, looking at her with unreadable brown eyes and a newfound firmness in his voice. “We’re over.”
His last few words seemed to set their relationship in stone. He said it with so much indifference in his voice that she wondered how many times he rehearsed those two words in front of the mirror.
All of this made her wonder if she was really that oblivious. Was she blind not to the signs of him wanting to pull away? But there weren’t any… This… This was all so sudden.
Fifteen minutes ago, they were one in the same; two people melded together. And now? Now she felt as if she was comprised of… well. Nothing. She just felt so damn empty.
Without another word, Kyle got up from his seat across from her and strode away from the table with his usual gangly lope as if nothing had happened. He casually put one hand in his jean pocket as he rounded the corner where she couldn’t see him anymore.
She wished that she could have called out to him. She wished that the lump in her throat wasn’t there so she could make him come back. He had left so many things unanswered for her. His reasoning was hardly closure to a relationship. She wanted to know where they went wrong, or if his heart hurt as much as her own when he said those words.
Upon hearing the front door gently shut, Tessa took several deep breaths. She willed herself not to cry, but the pain was too much. It felt like a fist was wrapped around her heart, squeezing out all her emotions at once.
There was no use in protecting her dignity now that he was gone, so buried her face in her hands and let her emotions take reign. Her whole body shuddered as she exhaled, letting out a mixture of a sob and a wail. The tears followed in streams down her face making her clutch at her stomach for air she just couldn’t get. She grasped onto the edge of the table as if it might help ground her emotions that were everywhere.
It all seemed so cliché. Break-ups on TV were all like this, but when it’s your turn you’re left simply speechless; gasping for air and hoping that someone will save you… anyone.