A Twist Of Fate (PREVIOUSLY A Purple Garden)

Chapter 35

Eight Years Ago

Lucas smiled to himself as he read the first sentence of the letter he held in his hands.

Congratulations! It is with great pleasure that we inform you that you have been accepted to the Biomedical Engineering program at the University of North Carolina beginning the fall semester of 2013.

He had lost count of how many times he had read it but it still seemed unreal. He was actually going to make something of himself.

Folding the letter back up, he reached down to pick up his backpack from where it sat on the floor against the wall of lockers. Shutting his now empty locker, Lucas sighed. While the thought of new beginnings was exciting, the thought of leaving what he knew was sad. It was bittersweet.

Walking down the hallway, he saw Sydney clearing out her own locker. The hallway was nearly completely empty aside from the two of them. As he approached her, he smiled. "Hey, stranger," he chirped, giving a small wave.

Gripping her locker door with one hand, she looked at him and pursed her lips. "Hey," she greeted, her voice flat. He knew her too well to not notice the sadness that filled her eyes. The thought of leaving must have upset her too.

This was the first time he had spoken to her since his promposal plan was a bust. Pushing that memory away, he cleared his throat. "I haven't seen you in awhile. How have you been?"

She looked away, returning her attention to her locker. "Alright. You?"

"Pretty good." He forced a polite smile as he went on to address the elephant in the room. "I heard that you and Jonathan worked things out. That's, um, that's great."

She froze for a moment, one hand in her locker as she grabbed a handful of loose papers. Pulling them out, she threw them into the trash can next to her. "Thanks." Closing her locker, she turned to walk away. "I need to get going."

"If you have a second, I have something I wanted to tell you," he said as he gestured to the letter in his hands, grinning as he started to unfold it.

"I really need to go," she said coldly as she tugged the strap of her backpack, gripping in her hand.

Looking at her, his eyebrows knit together as he tried to read her still flat expression. "Sorry, I don't mean to hold you up. Maybe we can catch up sometime when you're not busy-"

"Jonathan and I worked things out," she said, interrupting him. "Things are a lot better now between us."

Pursing his lips, he stared back at her for a moment. He was speechless as he fought to ignore what ached inside him. As he found his words, he swallowed hard against the rising knot in his throat. "That's great. I'm glad," he lied as he tried to fake a smile. "As long as you're happy, I'm happy for you."

Lucas couldn't help but take notice her hesitation. "I am," she finally breathed out. He tried to search her eyes but she avoided his gaze as she gripped tighter on the strap of her backpack. 

"Then good," Lucas replied. He pressed his index finger and thumb together as he mindlessly reinforced the crease of his folded acceptance letter in his hands. 

"Yeah," Sydney said softly. He saw her hand drop down to her stomach where it stayed for a moment before falling to her side. Maybe she just wasn't feeling well. 

Something tugged at him as they continued to stand there in a silence that seemed to only drag on. He could feel that something was off. "Syd, you know you can talk to me, right?" She met his gaze with her own, her eyes warmer than any other part of her expression. "I'm right here."

As he took a step forward toward her, she stepped back, turning her figure just enough so that she wasn't facing him directly. Her gaze broke away from his as she looked at nothing in particular, just anywhere but at him. "We talked through things, Jonathan and I, and we figured out what we both needed to work on. Looking back on it, Lucas, our friendship," she said, gesturing between her and Lucas with a wave of her hand, "wasn't appropriate. It was incredibly disrespectful to him for me to have been as close to you as I was."

Lucas opened his mouth as he prepared himself to disagree with her. She sounded like she was reading a script, like this wasn't her nor what she really wanted to say. Or did it only seem that way to him because that's what he wanted to believe? Either way, she wasn't wrong and he couldn't argue with her. He knew that he had crossed lines with her during their friendship. He had been selfish with the way he felt towards her. As the silence got heavier, Lucas instinctively took a step back, his breathing suddenly feeling easier as he put more space between them.

"I'm sorry," she finally said, her voice so soft that he almost didn't hear her. As he carefully looked toward her, he was surprised to find her already watching him.

"I am too." After a moment, he cleared his throat as he quickly tucked his folded up acceptance letter away into the back pocket of his jeans. "I gotta get going too, actually." Silently, she turned to walk away, leaving him behind her where he stood still. "Take care, Syd!" he called out.

She stopped for a moment, and Lucas hoped she'd turn around and look at him one more time. Leaving him to feel more alone than he ever had, she silently continued down the hallway, not sparing as much as another glance back at him.