It All Started with a Lie

Chapter 26

The loneliest moment in someone's life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

Chapter 26
Her POV
I say goodbye to Peter, tossing my duffel into my car after a long practice, not ready to go home. It is easy to ignore my life when I am dancing, when I have something to focus all my time and energy on.

On a good note, today's practice was the second best I have ever danced my solo. I try not to think about the first.

After I peeled myself off the pavement, wiped my tears, and accepted that Klaus left, I walked back to campus where An-Mei found me and called Peter to drive me home. When I got home, I mulled over calling him a dozen times until I was forced to shut off my phone because I will not beg for his love. I am tired of begging people to love me so if he wants to leave then I'll let him. I will not embarrass myself further by holding onto him.

I get in my car and against my own volition, check my phone. It is empty, no word from him or Richard.

He must have told her, right? He had to. He has no reason to keep it a secret now. Unless he really did never love me, and this meant nothing to him. He did love me. I saw how he looked at me. He had to. So why did he leave?

I toss my phone to the side, backing out of my parking spot. The most I have to look forward to is the fact that my house is vacant of any memory of him. As soon as Peter dropped me off at home, I packed all of his stuff into a box in a rage and hid it in the back of my closet. I didn't have the heart to get rid of it just yet. I tossed that stupid, beautiful ring in my nightstand where I'd never have to look at it again. But his necklace, I didn't have the heart to remove. So it stays where it always is, until I muster the heart to finally take it off and accept that he did leave. Coward.

Maybe he didn't want to tell Richard. Maybe that's why Richard hasn't called me furious yet. Or maybe this was all a lie, part of his and Regina's devious plan to pay for Richard's surgery. She is that kind of cruel, I wouldn't put it past her.

He loved me. I am sure. What I am not sure of, is if he told Richard. I know he has when I ascend the steps to my apartment and find Richard on the floor beside my door.

I consider turning around, finding a park bench to sleep on, to delay the inevitable, but she has already seen me. So I try another tactic instead. "Richard!" I cheer, plastering on a grin and pull her into an aggressive hug, over compensating for tensions between us. "Come in. I haven't seen you in ages." I saw her two days ago. "I can make you some hot chocolate, or tea." I don't let her answer what she wants, hoping that if I fill enough of the silence she won't have time to talk about what she really wants. "I have to tell you about the sorority." I don't have much to tell, they will give me my house ring soon, but I will make something up if it means keeping her here a little longer.

She listens to me, partly because she is my best friend and she loves me, and partly because she has no choice as I will not let her get a word in. I make her hot chocolate and then heat up a freezer meal for her, which she did not ask for. The entire time I do she has this grim expression on her face as she just watches me, periodically attempting to get a word out but I talk over her before she can.

"I bought that bread you like, conchas, I think you called them. I'll get you a piece with coffee milk." I say before rambling off a story about Peter and An-Mei that I have already told her. My heart hammers in my chest as I talk so fast I'm not sure she can even understand me.

As I mix a spoon of coffee into the warm milk, finishing my sentence and gasping for breath, she takes my brief pause to finally get a word in. "Claudia."