Accepted Hearts

Chapter 17 / Unwanted

Chapter Seventeen
Unwanted

With every step Malia took, her heart felt heavier and heavier. The fact that butterflies and flurries weren't swarming her insides made her decision all that more clear.

David Williams wasn't the one for her, he shouldn't have been. Yet, he was the first call she answered after five days of radio silence.

Not Jalen's concerned calls, not Lyndon's thousands of calls, texts, and lengthy voicemails, and not even her little sister's messages.

She chose David, and as she opened the door to his flashy sports car, catching her reflection in the mirror and hating herself even more for how she looked, she knew clinging to him of all people was a terrible idea.

"Hey, baby," he said the second she opened the door. His eyes never left her as she sat in the passenger's seat. "What happened to you?"

There was a mocking tone to his words, showing he wasn't genuinely concerned. "Just another day where my world comes crashing down and I have to pretend everything's fine."

David laughed, picking up on her sarcastic tone, but in no way understanding that she truly meant the words.

"I heard you moved out," he said, and she turned toward him, watching as he motioned to the apartment building behind her. "I'm assuming this is your new place?"

She nodded, keeping her eyes on the laid back posture he had, one hand in his lap while the other loosely held the gear stick between them. He was so unbothered, appearing completely fine, yet she felt choked the longer she sat there. Maybe calling him was a bad idea—a really, really bad idea.

"Are you living alone, or someone else is there?"

There was an edge to his voice, and for the briefest second, his grip on the gear stick tightened. She didn't know what was going through his mind, and right there and then, she realized she didn't care.

These last five days had been her own personal version of Hell. She was never in the right headspace during this time of year, but there was something different about it now. Besides the grief and guilt that usually coursed through her, there was a hollowness in her chest.

She felt at fault for everything wrong in her life, and as she looked at David, she realized he wasn't anything but another mistake she made and kept making.

"Whatever," he said with a laugh, brushing off the fact that she hadn't answered him. "I'm used to you picking and choosing when you wanna talk to me."

Funnily enough, he was wrong. Malia never really chose when she'd speak to him, it usually always happened in her moments of weakness. When all of her self-doubt and pity piled on too heavily for her to handle, and she needed someone else there to take the weight.

But he'd never been good at truly taking it on, and maybe that was because she had never fully let him in.

"Are you gonna talk, or you're just gonna keep sitting there staring at me?" David teased, shifting slightly closer with a smile that had once made her weak in the knees.

Malia flashed a smile of her own, or the best version of one she could've mustered. "I've always preferred looking at you over talking to you."

A slight chuckle came from him at her words as he briefly glanced away, then he licked his lips and looked at her once more. "I wouldn't blame you for wanting to try memorizing my every feature before I'm gone."

She knew he meant when he goes off to Brown University soon, but part of Malia did pause and scan his face, feeling like this very well could've been the last time she had him this close.