Status: Complete
Oh, Brother
Sera
I’d never sobbed so hard or so much in my life. I cried until I was completely emptied out, and at the end of it I felt no better, just spent. Reece stayed with me the whole time.
She was the best friend I could have asked for.
But after a few days spent moping around my dorm room, the time to hide from the world was over. Classes were starting.
And who should be in my very first class but Tyler? Imagine my shock. I literally froze in the doorway, and several people collided into me because of that. They complained loudly, but it was like I’d forgotten how to breathe and like I’d just learned how at the same time. It relieved the ache in my heart, just seeing him.
Our eyes met and I felt something in me shatter. His expression was so cold. How could he hate me so much? Sure, I’d done wrong, but I really thought he would understand. Or at least that he’d be able to forgive me eventually.
I wasn’t strong enough for this. I couldn’t handle facing him.
Why was he going to school here, anyway? Last I’d checked, he was a student at Oxford, an ocean away.
Had he followed me here?
And he told me… he’d said he loved me. That obviously wasn’t true. If it was, he wouldn’t have stayed away for so long; he wouldn’t still be pushing me away now.
Even so, the thought that he had felt anything for me at all, no matter how briefly, was a salve to the wounds he’d torn in my heart. It didn’t heal them, but it made them bearable.
The next day, I was able to face him. I took a seat in the front row so I wouldn’t have to see him and I did my best not to look back at him. It mostly worked, too.
And if I flirted with the boy next to me, it was completely subconscious and not in any way a plot to make Tyler jealous.
Or maybe it was. I wasn’t a stranger to the way a boy’s mind works. Jealousy was a tool that could end many a fight.
I didn’t expect a reaction, though. I didn’t expect it, but I sure got one.
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(Tyler)
What was Sera doing with him? Why was she flirting? And most of all, how did she suddenly get over me?
I couldn’t allow it.
She couldn’t walk all over me and my emotions and then move on to the next boy. I wasn’t done with her yet.
I cornered her after class a week into the fall session, backing her against a wall and putting my hands on either side of her. I saw that ass, the boy she’d moved on to, walking down the hall towards us.
He had to know she wasn’t available. That she was mine. I kissed her again.
And it was the same as the last time. The same melt-your-brains, leave-your-insides-in-a-puddle, kiss.
When she pulled away and looked at me, her eyes were clouded. “Does that mean you forgive me?” she asked. I was shocked by the desperation in her voice.
“No.” It was an effort to keep my voice hard.
“You said, before, that you loved me.” I didn’t know what to say to that. She refused to meet my eye, and after a long minute of silence, she whirled around, ducked out of my arms, and fled.
Shit.
I chased after her, my body moving without my mind’s permission. Who was hurting whom? Maybe I’d taken this a step too far. Maybe I was as much in the wrong as she.
She was the best friend I could have asked for.
But after a few days spent moping around my dorm room, the time to hide from the world was over. Classes were starting.
And who should be in my very first class but Tyler? Imagine my shock. I literally froze in the doorway, and several people collided into me because of that. They complained loudly, but it was like I’d forgotten how to breathe and like I’d just learned how at the same time. It relieved the ache in my heart, just seeing him.
Our eyes met and I felt something in me shatter. His expression was so cold. How could he hate me so much? Sure, I’d done wrong, but I really thought he would understand. Or at least that he’d be able to forgive me eventually.
I wasn’t strong enough for this. I couldn’t handle facing him.
Why was he going to school here, anyway? Last I’d checked, he was a student at Oxford, an ocean away.
Had he followed me here?
And he told me… he’d said he loved me. That obviously wasn’t true. If it was, he wouldn’t have stayed away for so long; he wouldn’t still be pushing me away now.
Even so, the thought that he had felt anything for me at all, no matter how briefly, was a salve to the wounds he’d torn in my heart. It didn’t heal them, but it made them bearable.
The next day, I was able to face him. I took a seat in the front row so I wouldn’t have to see him and I did my best not to look back at him. It mostly worked, too.
And if I flirted with the boy next to me, it was completely subconscious and not in any way a plot to make Tyler jealous.
Or maybe it was. I wasn’t a stranger to the way a boy’s mind works. Jealousy was a tool that could end many a fight.
I didn’t expect a reaction, though. I didn’t expect it, but I sure got one.
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(Tyler)
What was Sera doing with him? Why was she flirting? And most of all, how did she suddenly get over me?
I couldn’t allow it.
She couldn’t walk all over me and my emotions and then move on to the next boy. I wasn’t done with her yet.
I cornered her after class a week into the fall session, backing her against a wall and putting my hands on either side of her. I saw that ass, the boy she’d moved on to, walking down the hall towards us.
He had to know she wasn’t available. That she was mine. I kissed her again.
And it was the same as the last time. The same melt-your-brains, leave-your-insides-in-a-puddle, kiss.
When she pulled away and looked at me, her eyes were clouded. “Does that mean you forgive me?” she asked. I was shocked by the desperation in her voice.
“No.” It was an effort to keep my voice hard.
“You said, before, that you loved me.” I didn’t know what to say to that. She refused to meet my eye, and after a long minute of silence, she whirled around, ducked out of my arms, and fled.
Shit.
I chased after her, my body moving without my mind’s permission. Who was hurting whom? Maybe I’d taken this a step too far. Maybe I was as much in the wrong as she.