Days turned into weeks, the distance between them continued to grow. She last heard his voice through the bathroom door, sobbing whilst crying out about the pain...about wanting to be happy. She wanted to console home. Wanted to make him feel better. --but she didn’t. Couldn’t. Not when she was the cause for the pain. Confusion turned to disbelief. Disbelief to concern. Concern evolved into guilt. Guilty for not saying, not feeling, what he wanted her to feel.
It wasn’t until the next day she reached out, a text asking a quick ‘how are you’. No response. He--they--needed time. She wanted to talk, wanted to explain. So, again, she texts him days later. Though, nothing. When she starts seeing him in class again, he....ignores her. A cordial, awkward acknowledgment here or there, but might as well consider her ignored.
At times she tries to call out for him, but he’s quick to disappear. Her texts remain without response. Calls declined. It’s like....it’s like he’s gone up and left her all over again. Abandoned.
“So, is this what it’s going to be like from now on?” she asks, finally catching him after class. Her hand holding onto his arm, grip tightening at any attempts of him pulling away.
“Fake niceties? Is that where we’re at? Friendship over because I didn’t say it back? Imagine if we really did date. One fight and what? We’d be over? Just because you shut me out when something goes wrong?” @richkicl
