Wonderland

❄B51❄ The Confrontation

Chapter Fifty-One

Brayden's POV

The Confrontation

December 10

I stood outside of the HUB, near the dog statue, at 3:50pm, waiting for Heather. When the minutes ticked by and I saw no trace of her anywhere, I started to worry. It was unlike Heather to be late.

Calm down, maybe she bumped into Isabelle, I thought. I'll give her another ten minutes before I call her.

"Brayden?"

I did a double take when I saw Berkeley approaching me. "Berkeley?" I said, confusingly. What was she doing here?

"What a coincidence; I didn't think I'd bump into you," she said, anxiously, rubbing her arm.

"Yeah, same here."

"What are you doing?"

"Waiting for someone," I said, warily. I looked away from her and scanned the passersby for any sign of Heather.

"Oh."

A stretch of silence seemed to come between us. I even forgot she was still standing beside me if she hadn't spoken again. "Look, Brayden, can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Hm?" I said, distractedly, still looking for Heather.

"It's about our fight," she said, quietly.

I snapped my eyes over to her. "What is there to talk about?" I wondered. "What's done is done, right?"

"Are you still mad at me?"

"No. Like I said before, what's done is done." I felt her touch my hand. I jerked it back, alarmed. She flinched, her face mirroring hurt.

"So is this it?" she said, her voice quivering.

"What's it?"

"Us."

"Let's be real here, Berkeley: Was there ever even an 'us'?"

She looked as if I had just slapped her.

"I'm just saying it like it is," I said, without feeling any remorse whatsoever. I no longer held the same feelings for her as I used to. She disgusted me now.

"You know I didn't mean anything I said that day," she said.

"Oh, really? You surely seemed to have meant it when we were fighting."

"That's because I was angry! People say hurtful things when they're pissed!"

"But they must contain some truth to them, right? Or else why would you have said them?"

"Brayden, I'm really sorry."

"Can you just go? I'm kind of done with your bullshit for the day."

"You know Heather's not coming right?" she spat, bitterly. I could hear her holding back a sob. Her words sounded heavy. Heavy and spiteful.

I froze.

"She's not coming, Brayden. So stay here all the fuck you want, but she's not going to show up."

"How do you know?"

She looked at me with her big blue eyes just then, eyes that contained something that she knew but I didn't—something that she and Heather both knew.

And that was when it dawned on me. "Oh my god, Heather," I groaned, slapping my hands over my face. I knew it was too good to be true. I knew Heather wouldn't just boldly ask me out.