LOVE NEXT DOOR | Childhood Frenemies to Lovers |

CHAPTER EIGHT - TOO CLOSE TO PUSH AWAY

SERENA
My hands were shaking as I slammed the window shut, harder than I meant to. The noise echoed through the room, but it didn't even faze me. All I could think about was Tristan's words, his stupid, careless words.

"You always push until people break."

His voice was still ringing in my head. I replayed it over and over as I paced back and forth in my room. I couldn't wrap my mind around what had just happened. Tristan never talked to me like that. He never snapped at me like that.

I pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes, trying to keep the tears from falling. I wasn't going to cry over him. Not now. Not after everything. But his words had hit me in a way I wasn't expecting. Too much? I was too much for him now?

I let out a shaky breath and dropped down onto my bed, staring up at the ceiling. The stars we'd put up together still twinkled above me, soft and comforting. They were supposed to be a reminder of all the times we'd laughed and stayed up late, talking about everything and nothing. Now, they felt like a reminder of something I didn't understand—a shift between us I hadn't seen coming.

I sat up, pulling my knees to my chest and resting my head on them. Why was he acting like this? I couldn't help but feel like I'd done something wrong, even though he kept saying I hadn't. If it wasn't me, then what was it?

My heart clenched as I thought back to his face when I'd pressed him for answers. The way he looked at me... he wasn't just mad. He was hurt. But I didn't understand why. What was he keeping from me? What could be so bad that he couldn't just talk to me?

I closed my eyes, trying to calm the storm inside my head, but it wasn't working. Tristan and I had always been close. We were best friends. I knew him better than anyone. At least, I thought I did. But the person I'd just talked to wasn't the Tristan I knew.

He felt like a stranger.

I groaned in frustration, burying my face in my hands. I hated feeling like this. I hated not knowing what was going on. I hated that he was shutting me out when all I wanted to do was help. But maybe that was the problem. Maybe I'd been pushing him too hard, and he just... snapped.
Maybe you're suffocating him.

The thought crept in before I could stop it, and it made my stomach turn. Was that what he meant? That I was pushing too much, suffocating him with my need to know everything? I didn't want to believe it, but the way he'd looked at me...

I stood up abruptly, pacing the room again. I couldn't just sit here. I needed to get out of this house, out of this space that felt too small, too tight around me. I grabbed a sweater and my phone, barely noticing how shaky my hands still were, and headed downstairs.

The cool night air hit my face as soon as I stepped outside, and I took a deep breath, trying to clear my head. I started walking, not really caring where I was going. I just needed to move, to get away from the weight that was pressing down on me.

My feet carried me down the street, past familiar houses, past the convenience store, and I stopped only when I found myself at the park. It was empty, the swings swaying slightly in the breeze, and I made my way over to one of the benches, sinking down into it with a heavy sigh.

I stared at the ground, my mind still racing. I hated this. I hated that I couldn't just fix it, that I couldn't make Tristan talk to me. Part of me wanted to march right back to his house, climb through that stupid window, and force him to tell me what was going on. But another part of me, the part that still stung from his words, told me to leave it alone. To give him space.

But how could I, when the distance between us felt like it was growing by the second?

I pulled my phone out of my pocket, my thumb hovering over his contact. I stared at his name on the screen, my heart pounding in my chest. I should call him. I should demand answers. But something stopped me. What if I made it worse? What if pushing him right now only made him pull away further?