LOVELORN

38|Vague answers & predicaments

.　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

"MAI, CAIO, this is your fault," I complained, tilting my head back with a dramatic groan.

"What is?" Mai questioned, giving Red kisses on his head, the wagging tail showing his appreciation.

"My state of confusion."

Mai made an exaggerated gesture for me to 'go on'. "Elaborate, please."

I recapped the events of the past few days. From the moment in her room when I could have sworn she was looking at me with some emotion I couldn't quite place, to the adorable little notes she'd left in my locker since Tuesday. It didn't say her name on them, but I recognized the handwriting and it couldn't be anybody else. One of them had a lyric from one of my favorite songs, the other was about a memory she loved with us, the one I'd gotten yesterday, on Friday, was just about me. They'd all made me grin like an idiot. It was so sentimental that it was nearly too much to handle.

On Thursday we'd gone to her house for the project again and I'd asked about the notes. She'd just shrugged, but we both knew that there was no one else who would do this for me. It made me wonder if she'd stop if, when, things went back to normal again. I didn't want that to be the case, I really didn't.

"That girl is obsessed with you," Mai said when I'd concluded the story, as if it was a fact. Caio nodded his head in agreement. "She fucked up, though. So it's up to you if you think you can move past that. Personally, I still stand by the fact that she's in love with you."

"Do you not remember the whole 'dating my brother' thing?"

Caio's head whipped in my direction. "She did what?"

I grimaced. "Shit, I forgot I hadn't told you that. It's okay. I'm over it."

Next to me, Mai gave me a 'really?' look. "No, she's not."

A look of disbelief was plastered all over Caio's face. "That's a messy fucking situation. How did it happen? How did you find out? I need to know like...everything."

"Tell me about it," I said, rubbing my eyes with my palms.

I proceeded to tell him the story from start to the current. For the main part, he listened attentively, but occasionally he would interrupt to ask a question or two. By the end of it, Caio was hugging me.

"You're stronger than me because I would not be able to hold that in for so long," Caio told me, giving my shoulder a squeeze before letting go of me.

"Well, I barely did. But having some distance between us made things easier. But now...I don't know. It's all so confusing."

"Do you feel like you can move on from this?" He asked.

That was what I'd been asking myself for months. I wished I could answer 'yes' without hesitating, but I couldn't. Zora was trying, but she shouldn't have ever had a reason to need to earn my forgiveness. Most things I would easily forgive, but this was more than just something small we could promptly move past.

However, some of that anger and hurt I'd been harboring had begun to simmer down. That was progress, right?

"We'll see."