Embellished With Lies

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I had never been more grateful to hear the lunch bell in my entire life. I had a feeling that I completely bombed Mr. Martin's test. Unfortunately, this was just something that he was going to have to accept. After all, I did virtually disappear from this world for a month;  I don't exactly think that it's fair to expect me to remember the stupid plotline of some book.

I couldn't even tell you the title of it if you asked.

"Hey," Leo began as we got into the lunch line, "what did you get for number twelve?  Because I, uh, originally had C, but I changed it to F at the last minute."

"Is that the one when it was talking about the letters or something?" When Leo nodded, I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know;  I think I got B for that one."

"No, it's definitely​ not B," he corrected me. "That was the answer to number seven. We discussed that in class yesterday."

I shrugged my shoulders once more. "Then I at least got two wrong."

Today, the school was serving meatloaf for lunch. To be completely honest,  I couldn't care less. It was better than eating gorbs and such, even if it wasn't by much.

Once we paid for our meal, we set our trays down at our usual lunch table by the rest of the junior varsity baseball team.

Even though I would never, ever admit this out loud, I couldn't have been happier to hear the voices of my friends that it wasn't even funny. It was kind of like seeing my phone last night. I didn't know how much I appreciated something until I didn't have it anymore.

I feel like this was a giant life lesson.

Funny.

"Stop that, Kirk!" Leo shouted, cringing as Kirk poured several ketchup packets into his mouth as a result of a recent dare. "That's fricken' disgusting."

I wasn't even bothered by the constant bickering of the team. Usually that would put me on edge, but today I just couldn't be bothered.

"Shut up, Leo," Kirk deadpanned.

"You shut up," Leo countered,  rolling his eyes and focusing in on something else to nitpick. "Derek, are you gonna eat that?"

I chuckled and was about to poke my fork into my lunch when someone sat on my lap.

That someone was named Caitlyn.

"Hey, baby," she murmured, cupping my face in her hands as her eyes swept over my features. "I'm sorry you lost the game last night."

Oh yeah. I had completely forgotten that the night I left was the one when I had lost the game.

It's kind of funny how something can escape your mind.

"Hi, Cait." A thought popped into my brain, and I didn't necessarily need or want it to be there,  but once I had remembered it, there was nothing that I could do. "Can we... Um... Can we talk?"

"Of course!  About anything you want," she answered, sending me a sweet smile.

"Can we talk alone, maybe?" I inquired, trying to be anything but rude. "There's something really important I need to tell you."

"Oh, uh, yeah," she replied, her tone became more nervous. "Anything you want, I guess."

I stood up and grabbed her hand, ignoring all of the oohs that followed. I led her a corner of the cafeteria that was moderately empty. 

"What's up?" she asked, her hands on her hips.

I studied her face; I couldn't tell what she was thinking. It had been what felt like a lifetime since I had stared into her light eyes. The overwhelming feeling was almost enough to make me ditch my original plan, to scrap my idea and engulf her in a long embrace and a bucket full of kisses.

However, once I got a grip on my emotions, I knew what I had to do.

"Caitlyn?" I began, biting my lip.

"Yeah?" she replied, her eyes hopeful.

"I'm breaking up with you."

Her entire expression dropped, and my heart broke for her. "What? I thought everything was going so well?"

"I'm sorry," I murmured. "It's just something that I have to do."

"Oh, it's just something that you have to do, huh?" Her voice became increasingly louder as the seconds ticked by. "I love you, Matthew. Was I not enough? Was I not good enough for you?!"

"No, it's not any of that, I swear," I told her. "I just realized something over...  Over the past couple days. You did nothing wrong."

My heart was dropping as I watched her fall apart in front of me. "I don't believe you."

"It's true, Caitlyn," I told her. "I honestly hope that you will find someone much better than me. Just because we're not together anymore doesn't mean that I no longer care about you."

"Go die in a hole," she muttered before she angrily stomped off.

I had never felt so alone until that moment.

"What happened?" Leo asked me as I sat back down next to him. "Did you two..."

"Break up?" I finished his sentence for him. "Yeah, we did."

"I'm sorry," he told me after being silent for a minute or so. "Why?"

I coughed. "I guess we weren't working out, that's all."

No longer than I had nearly stuck a forkful of meatloaf into my mouth, I noticed Molly wandering around outside of the school.

Molly was wandering around outside the school.

She was here.

I jumped out of my seat and rushed to go see her.

"What are you doing here?" I asked as I approached her, a wide smile on my face.

She smiled in response as she began to explain. She told me that she had missed me so much since I had been gone, so she climbed into the mirror in hopes to find me and Tessa. She ended up appearing in our garbage can (Tessa and I threw out her Cinderella hand mirror as fast as humanly possible) and ended up here.

"How long has it been?" I inquired.

"Oh, it has been years, Matthew," she smiled. "I could not wait any longer to see you." She paused. "Anastasia and Drizella smashed the mirror, you know."

"Yeah?"

"I suppose that I love you too much to go home."

That was all I needed to hear before I brought my lips to hers. In that moment,  we were the only people in this world, her world, or any other world that may exist.

-----

This is the ending of Embellished With Lies...  Is it bad that I'm almost crying? 

What did you think of the ending?  Was it sufficient for your liking? 

What did you think about the book as a whole?  What was your favorite?  Who was your favorite character? 

Thank you so much for sticking with me throughout this crazy book;  I really appreciate it!

Please comment and vote! Check out my other books, too!

I love you all!

Xoxo Madi