Saying Goodbye

chapter 23

mikey pov (December 18, 2022)
"emma?" gabrielle yells.

"yea." i reply.

"she works at panda express in the mall?" gabrielle asks again.

"yea. she does." i reply.

"what the hell happened?" gabrielle asks.

"i talked to her after i ordered." i say.

"what did she say?"

(flashback)
"everything was going fine for me until basketball started at college. i did good at first but i just wasn't getting along with the team. the team didn't agree with me scoring as much in practice while there were people open on the wings. they basically chased me off the team. after i quit the team, they chased me from the school."
(flashback over)

"she explained that the team didn't like the way she played and wanted her gone, so they made it happen." i say.

"how did they chase her from the school?" leo asks.

"they pulled pranks on her in the dorms, told the coaches about shit she never did. they framed her for a lot of stuff they did. she started getting treated differently by the coaches, so she quit." i explain.

"damn." tom sighs.

"did she say anything to you about anything else?" gabrielle asks.

"no. she didn't. we only talked about basketball." i answer.

"really?" gabrielle asks again.

"yea. really." i assure her.

"ok." she turns around on leo's lap.

"did zeke leave for his family vacation already?" tom asks.

"yea." leo replies.

i can't tell them the truth. if they knew, they would look at me differently.

(flashback)
"so i saw on the shade room that you have a new girlfriend." emma says.

"yea i did." i reply.

"did? what happened?" she asks.

"i found out she had an obsession with me before meeting me. she said she got over it a couple years ago but i just can't wrap my head around it." i say.

"why not?"

"she had an obsession with me, and now it's gone? i don't believe it." i shrug.

"why would she tell you about her obsession if she wasn't over it? she was obsessed with you. why would she want you to know that?" emma asks.

"i get that, but she still had an obsession with me and didn't tell me until after we had sex. that's foul."

"that's exactly what i did, minus the sex part. i used you because i wanted to get my name out there. you were the best option for me. by the looks of things, she didn't use you. she loved you."