Happier With You | ✓

Chapter 14

I got his text at 6:13 PM.

"Can you meet me at the park in 25?"

Just ten words, but they hit harder than they should have. Something in my chest tightened. I didn't know why-but I knew.

I stared at my phone for a few seconds too long before I replied:

Okay.

It took me twenty minutes to get there. Ten debating if I should even go. Another ten walking there. I told myself I was imagining things. That maybe he just wanted to talk. But I knew. I knew the second I saw him sitting there on that bench, hunched over like the weight of the world was pressing down on his back.

He looked up.

And I knew.

"You're late." Cody said quietly. Not annoyed. Not even teasing. Just... tired.

I sat down beside him, careful like if I moved too fast he'd vanish.

"I know." I said. "I'm sorry. I-"

"It's not just this time." He said, cutting me off. His voice was calm. Too calm. "You're always late."

My heart stopped. "Cody..."

"And I get it." He went on, still staring ahead. "I get it. You have a life. Friends. Family. You're not sitting around waiting for me to fall apart."

"Cody, don't-"

"I think we should break up."

And just like that, everything in me shattered. Like glass. Like bone. Like breath leaving lungs.

"What?"

My voice barely made it out. I could feel my world tipping sideways. My pulse in my throat. My stomach hollow.

"I'm sorry, London." He said, finally looking at me. His eyes were red-rimmed, glassy, like he hadn't slept. Or maybe like he hadn't stopped crying. "I love you. I love you so much. But I don't want to hurt you anymore."

"You're not hurting me." My voice cracked. "You're not. Please. Cody, we're okay. We're-"

"I'm dying."

"No.." I whispered. "No! Don't say it like that. Don't say it like it's already over."

"You know it's true."

"I don't care." My voice was trembling. "We can fight. You're fighting. And I'm staying. I'm staying with you."

Cody turned away. His hands shook as he buried them in his hoodie sleeves.

"I can't let you watch me disappear."

"Cody-"

"I don't want you to spend the rest of your life in a hospital room holding my hand, praying I open my eyes."

My heart ached so badly it felt physical.

"You don't get to choose that for me." I was crying now. Hard. "You don't get to decide what I can handle. YOU DON'T GET TO."

He finally met my eyes again.

And it wrecked me.

Because there was so much love there.

And so much fear.

"You'll move on." he said, so softly it nearly broke me in half. "You have to. One day, you'll meet someone who doesn't scare you half to death every time they get a headache. Someone who gets better instead of worse. Someone who doesn't make you cry like this."

"I don't want someone else." My voice cracked like thunder. "I want you. I want your dumb jokes and your bald head and your hoodie that smells like cinnamon gum. I want every version of you, even the broken ones."