Just before creative-writing class, I saw Kit in the hallway. As I froze in my footsteps, it struck me how amazing it was that I could spot him so easily despite the crowd. Though he looked incredibly glum as he put his books in his locker, he was still striking and breathtakingly handsome.
I quietly came to stand beside him and leaned against the locker beside his. When he slammed his locker door closed, there I was, calm and collected. I could tell he was taken aback by my sudden presence, which I took advantage of immediately.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you broke up with Brooke?” I demanded. I couldn’t believe how forlorn he looked. Seeing his face for the first time without a smile, the depth of his sadness in his brilliant blue eyes was both shocking and devastating at the same time. It actually hurt to see him looking like this.
“My breaking up with Brooke is my business and has nothing to do with you,” he said in an incredibly clipped and British voice. I flinched, his neutral tone cutting deep into my soul.
“You’re wrong. It seems that you two broke up because Brooke insulted me and you defended me, so that makes it my business as well,” I pointed out, trying to collect myself.
Kit shook his head. “I broke up with Brooke because I don’t have the feelings for her I’m supposed to. And I have those feelings for someone else. Or had them.”
“Who?” I was confused.
Kit shifted the books in his arms and looked at me like he was searching for something he’d lost. “The girl I’d glimpsed in you when you were trying to hide who you were. That girl. But that girl doesn’t exist, does she?” he asked hollowly just as the bell rang.
He turned on his heel and strode away. Watching as he disappeared, I could feel another slash on my heart as tears threatened to overwhelm. No, she didn’t exist.
Or at least, I don’t want her to exist, I whispered softly as I followed him into the classroom. The words floated towards him, after him, yearning to make him understand. However, in the chaos of the hallway, they dissipated, getting lost forever in the realm of hurt and lost love.
- An adaptation from A year in Europe;