Chapter 6
“It’s good that he’s a doctor. If you ever get sick, you’ll have someone to take care of you,” my mom said, looking way too pleased with herself.
I shot her a look. “Mom, I haven’t even seen him in years. Why would he come back just for me?”
She just smiled and handed me a dress. I pulled it on, only realizing something was up when she started snickering.
White. I groaned. “Really?”
Before I could change, she shoved me toward the kitchen. “Go help with dinner.”
I walked in and stopped short. Skylar Glover. The little kid I used to chase around had grown up. A lot. He was taller than me now, lean and toned, nothing like the soft, chubby-cheeked boy I remembered.
I blinked. “Doctors are busy, right? How do you even have time to work out?”
His ears turned red as he stirred the food. “Yeah, I’m busy. But I make time.” He glanced at me. “Jayla, can you pass the seasoning?”
Still thrown, I handed him the salt. His ears darkened even more and the next thing I knew, he was pushing me out of the kitchen. “Go keep my mom company.”
At dinner, Ms. Linda and my mom kept throwing hints so obvious they might as well have set up a wedding date.
Skylar and I kept our heads down and focused on eating. After dinner, my mom suddenly shoved a dog leash into my hands. “I didn’t walk Chip today. My legs hurt. You two go.”
The night air was cool and Chip was having the time of his life playing with the other dogs. Skylar handed me a bottle of water, watching me carefully. “You okay? You’ve been forcing a smile all night.”
I exhaled, the weight of the past few weeks settling on my shoulders. I had been pretending for my mom’s sake, but I was exhausted.
“It’s… been a lot,” I admitted. And for the first time, I told him everything.
By the end, I stared at the ground, my voice barely above a whisper. “If we’d never been together.. would things have turned out differently?”
Skylar was quiet for a long time before finally saying, “Don’t regret your choices and don’t blame yourself for the past. Back then, when you stood at that crossroads, you loved him. It was real.”
He let out a breath, his voice calm. “Just keep moving forward. The road you take will always become yours.”
Something in me finally loosened. I let out a small laugh, feeling lighter for the first time in a while. Later that night, after Skylar walked me home, I sat on my bed and glanced at my phone. I hadn’t checked the monitoring app in a week.
When I opened it, the screen flooded with unread notifications.
Chand had been going back to the rental house every few days for the past two weeks. He curled up on the tiny bed, looking out of place but not caring. He just buried himself in the blankets.
His fingers went slack and a wine bottle slipped from his grip, rolling across the floor. The place was a mess; empty bottles scattered everywhere.
He murmured my name, voice thick with alcohol and two silent tears slid down his face. I didn’t know what I felt watching him get up, swaying on his feet. He stepped over the broken glass, leaving bloody footprints behind like they didn’t even register.
Then, he grabbed a tube of glue and started piecing the shattered vase back together, carefully, bit by bit.
Every day, he brought home fresh flowers and placed them inside. On the tenth day, Sandra showed up, screaming at him.
Chand didn’t argue. He just grabbed her wrist, shoved her outside and slammed the door in her face. She pounded on it, her voice breaking.
Then, silence. By the twelfth day, Chand had stopped leaving the apartment altogether.
