“Don't give me that. College applications are done, what could you possibly be busy with? You're coming, or don't ever call me class president again.”
Five o'clock. I got to the restaurant and found the private room.
I raised my hand to knock, then let it drop.
Not nerves. I'd heard my own name.
“……That night you danced the first dance with Jayden. Weren't you worried Daryl would get jealous?”
Nora's voice carried through the door, light with laughter, completely unconcerned：“Why would I be? I saw it coming a mile away.”
“That temper of his needs to be put in check more often.”
“He's so controlling. Doesn't give me an inch of freedom.”
“I danced with someone. So what? It's not like it killed him.”
Someone followed up：“But what if Daryl actually gets mad? He's a catch. There's got to be plenty of girls after him, right?”
Nora laughed again.
“Daryl and I have been together since we were kids. Fifteen years. I know exactly what kind of person he is.”
“Relax. He throws a little fit, sulks for a few days, then he's fine.”
“Same thing happened last time I insisted on going to the movies with Jayden.”
A pause. Then she added, voice even brighter：
“Even if the sky fell, he'd never break up with me.”
“That, I am one hundred percent sure of.”
I stood outside the door.
No heartbreak. No anger. Just one thing.
Tired.
The kind of tired you feel after walking a road so long you've forgotten when it started, and you've finally, finally reached the end.
She was right. I'd fought. I'd made scenes. But I had never once said the word breakup.
Every time she crossed a line, every time she treated my limits like a spring—push down, let go, watch them snap right back—every time she grinned and said “you won't actually be mad, right?” I swallowed it.
Not because I had no temper. Because I loved her.
But now I understood.
In her eyes, my patience wasn't tolerance. It was proof that my limits could be pushed back forever.
She'd taken everything I gave her and read it as evidence that I could never leave.
I was about to turn and go.
A hand clapped my shoulder from behind.
“Daryl. Why aren't you going in?”
Jayden stood there, smiling at me.
Before I could answer, he'd already reached past me and pushed the door open.
Everyone in the private room turned toward the entrance.
Nora was sitting directly across from the door. The seat beside her was empty.
She saw me, froze for half a second, then smoothed her expression back into place and even managed a smile.
Jade was the first to react, standing and waving me over：“Daryl! Get in here, come on, we've been waiting for you two.”
Jayden half-pushed, half-steered me into the room.
Jade grabbed my arm and started pulling me toward the empty seat next to Nora.
I said I'd rather stand.
Jade wouldn't have it. "Class president outranks you. Sit."
She pushed me down into the chair.
Nora glanced up at me and said softly：“You came?”
Casual. Like nothing had ever happened.
The Givenchy bracelet was back on her wrist.
Platinum chain catching the light, the dark-green enamel pendant resting against the slender bone of her wrist.
But right next to the bracelet, there was a faint indentation in her skin.
Left by the cheap bead bracelet.
The two marks sat side by side.
One fresh. One fading.
I didn't say a word. I dropped my head and ate.
Chopsticks picked up a piece of sweet-and-sour pork, chewed mechanically, swallowed.
The table was loud around me.
Jade was pouring drinks, someone was cutting cake, someone else was calling for the birthday girl to make a wish.
Nora was talking with Jayden. Her laughter drifted over in fragments.
I didn't look at them. I didn't speak.
