Boy Band Games: Why Don't We Edition ✓

S2: 53 | Pain and Suffering

"Don't let me go, 'coz I'm tired of feeling alone." - Harry Styles, Don't Let Me Go

Chapter Fifty-three

Zach Herron
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THE COLD WINTER air tore through my lungs as I walked on the cobblestone path on the way back to the cabin. My feet felt heavy and I wanted to do nothing more than to collapse.

My mind was clouded. It all felt surreal. Talking to her, hearing her voice for the very first time in so long- and her...

Breaking up with me.

They were all so surreal.

"Trina is that you?" I asked her during our phone call earlier. I remember feeling my heart race so inexplicably fast in my chest and my giddiness when I realized that my girlfriend had called me.

"Baby, can I visit you now? How are you? I really want to see you. I'm in Canada right now but I'll take the first flight tomorrow to see you- fuck I'll even rent a private jet right now-"

"Z-Zach.." Her hoarse, sickly voice cut me off of my ramble.

And suddenly, I was reminded by the fact that my girlfriend.. she's not okay.

"Z-Zach I-" She choked, coughing.

"Baby, are you okay? Do you have a nurse there?" I panicked.

"I'm fine." She gasped in a breath before speaking again. "Zach I have to tell you something."

My heart lurched uncomfortably in my chest as I heard her say those words.

Is she finally going to say "I love you"? She's never said those words to me before. I have, though. I've told her countless times that I love her.

"What is it baby?" I asked, hopeful.

"I'm breaking up with you." Her cold voice knocked the air out of me.

I was too stunned to even comprehend what she just said. "W-What?"

"Zach, we're over." She said in the same cold tone she did earlier. This isn't Trina. This isn't her. My Trina isn't like this. There must be some reason.. Her parents must be forcing her to say those words. They never wanted Trina to be involved with a low-life pop star.

"Are your parents making you do this, Trin? Baby, I told you we could get through to them."

"It's not them Zach." She coughed. "I-It's me. We're over. I'm so sorry."

I could hear her whimper silently on the other end of the call. She doesn't want to do this.. so why is she?

"Trina, don't do this. Please." Desperation clawed at my chest as tears poured out of my eyes. The pain was unbearable. I couldn't even breathe properly- my lungs felt so tight in my chest.

"Baby whatever it is that's in your mind, we can get past it. Is it those tabloids? The gossip networks? Are they making up rumors about me getting back to being a fuckboy?" I started to ramble on the possible reasons she may want to end our relationship. "You know you're the only one for me Trina."

My chest tightened. "Don't do this to me- to us, baby."

"I love y-"

"Zach-" I heard her break down into a sob. "Zach please don't."

"Don't what?" I felt pain rush through me like an endless supply of unwanted black lickerish in Halloween.

"Don't say that I love y-"

"I'M DYING!" She screamed, sobbing. I could hear the pain in her voice when she shouted.

I stilled.

"W-What?" My breathing became laboured. I watched my chest heave up and down recklessly and the breaths came out my lips in dangerously cold wisps.

"I have three months left to live. It's over for me, Zach." She confessed, making me choke back a sob as I pressed my wrist on my lips.

She sounded so vulnerable that I felt guilty for being so selfish by saying what I wanted to say and not letting her speak.

"The doctors said no one's kidney was compatible with my body. They tried everybody, all the donors, all the available ones they have in the organ banks- but nothing. They came with nothing. They wanted to at least try the kidney transplant even though it wasn't compatible with my body- but they were afraid that it would shorten my life even more." She explained, her voice wavering.

Then she said it again.

"I'm dying, Zach."

I could feel my heart clench in pain.

"And I can't let you get hurt when I die."

You're hurting me right now. Was what I wanted to say.

But I was frozen.

I couldn't even utter a word as I stared at the stars with anguish engulfing my soul.

"So please, Zach."

Then she said the words that crushed my heart into tiny little pieces, never to be fixed again.

"Let me let you go."

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