Chloe's World

I start over

The next day, I saw Mason.

I had told him to meet me at the beach, in the early morning.

When he arrived, I was standing by the edge of the ocean. I let the cold water rush onto my feet. My eyes stayed glued on the purple sky.

When he came up to me, his hands were shoved into his pockets. His head was bowed in shame. I could tell that he didn't want to look at me.

My eyes wandered over to him. I gave him a small smile. "Hi."

Mason sucked in a breath. I felt sorry for him. I knew that he was ashamed. I knew that he felt bad about everything that had happened.

He plopped down into the sand. I took a seat next to him. For a moment, none of us said anything. We both knew what was going to happen.

"I'm going to be leaving New Jersey," Mason said, breaking the silence. "I'm going to live with my uncle. He's a good guy. I promise you that."

I nodded and let out a sigh of relief. I was happy that Mason wouldn't have to stay chained to Derrick anymore.

"I messed up," Mason sighed as he picked at the sand. He wouldn't meet my eyes. "I shouldn't have let Derrick go after Sky. And I shouldn't have let Derrick hurt you. Or Tyler. I should have done something."

"You weren't the only one who had made mistakes," I muttered. "I messed up everything. I mean, I shouldn't have let Sky go off with Derrick. I shouldn't have led you on. I'm an idiot."

Mason laughed, which was a refreshing sound. "We both are."

"Yeah."

"Hey," Mason's voice made me look up at him. I was happy to see that he was smiling. "We need to break up, right?"

I nodded.

"Yeah. I knew it."

"Mason," I said as I brushed a piece of hair out of my face. "I do love you."

"I do too. But..."

"You didn't love me enough to change."

Mason nodded. "Chloe, you are so great. Really. And you make me smile. And you make me happy. But when it came down to what was right for you and what was right for me, I chose me. I wanted to keep selling drugs. I wanted to keep drinking my life away. I wanted to make my brother proud. And I was just hoping that you would go along with it."

I took Mason's hand and gave it a squeeze. "I know. And that's ok. Because, at the end of the day, you weren't making me a better person either."

Mason shook his head, showing me that he agreed. I smiled a little. "Mason, we deserve better. We deserve people that push us to do better things. We deserve to be happy. And we deserve to escape our dark worlds."

Mason pulled me in for a hug. And I knew that was it. We were over. But we were happy about it.

"I'm going to find someone," Mason whispered in my ear. "I'm going to find someone who makes me happy. And I will find somebody who will make me a better person."

He let me go and for the last time I stared into his hypnotic blue eyes. "And you are going to find somebody too."

And with that, he stood up. And I watched him walk away, hoping that only good things would come to him.

Tyler had woken up.

When I had gotten the call from Josh, I immediately told him to pick me up. He did and we drove to the hospital.

I ran down the white hall. My pulse was racing. I needed to see him. I needed to see him alive and well. I wanted to see him smiling. I wanted to hold onto him and never let go.

When I finally got to his room, I flung open the door.

I saw him. He was sitting up straight. He was breathing without a tube in his nose.

Relief ran through my body. But it was suddenly replaced by the feeling of despair when I saw Miranda holding onto him for dear life.

I watched as she sobbed over him. I watched as she kissed his forehead over and over. I watched as he hugged her back.

He didn't even see me.

And I knew that I had lost him. I had lost Tyler and Mason in the same day.

At that moment, I was letting Tyler go. I knew that he would be happier with Miranda. She was part of his world. She wouldn't cause him to get stabbed. She wouldn't bring him through the depths of hell. He would be happy with her.

He would be safe with her.

So I turned around. Josh watched me walk away. He didn't bother to call out my name.

He knew that I wouldn't come back.