Something Like Fate (editing)

The Final Chapter

The time had come to return Drew’s stuff.

“Refresh my memory about why you’re doing this?” Dina inquired. She was sitting on my bed, scrolling down my music on my laptop and using my scrunchie to tie up her hair, which was quickly grabbing my attention despite the fact she swore she would not take my belongings again. “You broke up like a month ago, remember.”

“Even more reason to give back his things,” I said, picking up the beanie hat he gave me and stuffing it in a Tesco bag. “Not everyone is as sentimental as you, Dina.”

“That’s not true,” she said. “I didn’t keep anything which belonged to Sean when we broke up. And we were way more serious than you and Drew. Anything was more serious than you and Drew.”

She huffed out a breath angrily. But the truth was that Dina was the only one who was sentimental about things ending.

“Dina,” I said, sighing. “I don’t want to keep the remembrance of anything in my life which doesn’t matter. It’s my chance for a clean start. Drew…we were never going to work out. He was just a distraction from” – I pointed to my mother’s picture–“everything. And I was his escape.”

“It might have worked out,” she softly said. “How can you be so sure?”

“Because he fucked another girl,” I said, shrugging. “Pretty sure that’s a big sign.”

“What are you going to wear?” Anna rolled her eyes, thankfully dropping the subject because it was clear I was never going to take it seriously. “You want to look cute, but then you also want to look a tad hot to show him what he’s missing out on, though that may be cruel.”

Dina put on a song from my collection on the laptop as the room filled with the beats of Sia while I bopped on over to my wardrobe. I flung open my wardrobe door, stopping to inspect my choices for a moment.

“To be honest,” I informed her, taking out my champagne colour silk slip dress, which I adored because it made me feel good as soon as the soft material hit my skin, “as long as he doesn’t look cuter than me then I don’t really care.”

“I bet the poor guy is putting in way too much hair product and practicing his lines in the mirror right now to make you realise that you made a mistake,” she told me, and when I shot her a significant look amended, “Sophia, he probably thinks it’s a mistake. I don’t. And as long as you don’t then that’s all that matters.”

“I know it wasn’t a mistake,” I replied.

“I really did get used to this one,” Dina exhaled as I slammed my wardrobe shut. “I guess this really is it, I so should have worn black.”

I stared at Dina incredulously. Yes, Drew was a decent guy, but he wasn’t my guy. What was the point of me mourning someone when it just meant that there was something better waiting for us? Spending the rest of your life with someone is a long time, that’s even if you last that long, so you want to make sure that it’s with someone vaguely cool. And I was never going to feel anything for Drew which compelled me to lose my sanity, so I had decided it was best to not waste either of our time. Actually, I was being incredibly mature about all of this. If anything, he should be thanking me for this. Yes, I liked that idea very much.

“We have to leave soon so quit moping. I still have to get ready and Lucy’s probably waiting for us at college. We have to get there before she eats all the cookies.”

An hour later, we arrived at college, where Lucy had saved us a table near the back of the café. “Why do you look so glum?” I asked, taking a seat opposite her. Lucy was sitting with her face in her palms, chunky rings adorning her fingers, and looked wistfully over to where the counter was.