𝒯𝒶𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶 𝒮𝒽𝑜𝓉

PROLOGUE: 𝓜𝓲𝓪 🎕

      𝗜'𝗱 𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗵𝗶𝗺.
       It didn't matter how he prepared these next twenty minutes were going to rip his heart out and pulverized it. It was inevitable. 

"We haven't seen each other in a while." She sounded equal parts accusing an uncertain. He didn't blame her. If he were in her shoes, he would've given up on himself a long time ago. She hadn't which made him love her even more, but her loyalty made the conversation all the harder. He rested his forearms on his knees and clasped his hands together. He focused on the grain of the woods floors beneath his feet until it swirled in front of his eyes. "I've been busy." "With?" She asked the tone in her voice getting anger by the second. "Classes. Bar plans. That sort of stuff." "You'll have to do better than that." She said crossing her arms, his head snapped up at the sharpness in her tone. Looking at her turned out to be a mistake. His chest squeezed at the sight of her face and the hurt swimming in those beautiful brown eyes. It'd been two weeks since they were alone together, but it may as well have been two lifetimes. His dread mixed with a strange expression at being alone with her again, and it took all of his willpower not to sweep her up in his arms and never let go. "Tell me the truth." Her voice softened. "You can trust me" It would be so easy to pretend everything was fine. To give her the reassurances she wanted to hear and go back to the way things were. He did trust her-but the truth "I'm sorry." He wiped the emotion from his voice and  would shatter her. So he did the only thing he could do: he lied. "I'm sorry." He wiped the emotion from his voice and funneled it into the pit of despair swirling in his stomach. Could she hear it? The panicked 𝒯𝒽𝓊𝓂𝓅-𝓉𝒽𝓊𝓂𝓅-𝓉𝒽𝓊𝓂𝓅 of his heart beating against his rib cage, screaming at him to stop? "I didn't want to do it like this, but I don't think we should see each other anymore." Mia's face paled. His heart beat louder. "What?"
He swallowed hard. "It was fun while it lasted but the year is almost over and I-I'm not interested anymore. I'm sorry," 𝐿𝒾𝒶𝓇.  "You're lying." He flinched. She knew him like an opened book, too well. "I'm not." He tried to sound nonchalant when all he wanted to do was fall to his knees and beg her not to leave him. 
"You are. You said you loved me."
"I lied."
He couldn't look her in the eyes.
Her sharp inhale twisted his heart into a painful knot, he loved her. He really did, he wanted to tell her how much he cared for her.

 "Your full of crap." Her voice quavered. "Look at you, you're shaking." He clenched his hands into fists and forced his body still. "Mia." 𝒯𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝒾𝓉. 𝐻𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝑒𝒹𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝒶𝓎 𝒾𝓉, 𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝒶𝒹 𝓉𝑜. His breath came out in short pants, "I got back with my ex-girlfriend over the last weeks when you where gone with your friends. I didn't know how to tell you. I love her, and I made a mistake here with us." Her sob ripped through the air. Tears stung his eyes, but he blinked them back. "I'm s-" But she had cut him off before he could finish, "Stop saying that!" He flinched at the venom in her voice. She clutched her neck- lace with one hand, betrayal swirling in her eyes. "it was all a lie then, this past year." He dropped his gaze again. "Why.. Why did you pretend you cared! was this all some sick joke to you? Was this hole relationship a joke to you!" So this was what dying felt like, the pain. Frozen inside like a lump of jagged black ice. The regret over words he couldn't say and promises he couldn't keep. The loneliness as he slid into the dark, starless oblivion with no one left to save him.