I DON'T. [harvey mills]

Thirty.

I open the door to my apartment and yell, "Mae, guess what just happened?"

"What?", I hear her respond from her room.

"Emily just broke up with him"

"Is she okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"I think you should call her or something..."

"She doesn't know I know."

"Oh. How do you know, then?"

"I heard them talking at the lobby", I say while entering her room.

"Oh"

I sit on her bed and ask, "why do you think they broke up?"

"Maybe things just weren't going well between them"

"What if he really does like me and that's why they broke up?", I chuckle.

She laughs, "imagine"

"No, but really, though. What if he actually does like me?"

"Morgan..."

"It's possible. The other day, Emily told me she knew he liked me and not her"

"Well... I mean, what if she just got jealous because she knows you guys hang out every once in a while? Doesn't necessarily mean he really does feel that way about you"

I frown at her, "damn it, let me be happy for 2 seconds before you crush my hopes and dreams"

"Hey, I'm not saying that he for sure doesn't like you. I'm only saying that he might not. I don't want you to get your hopes up in case it doesn't come out the way you expect it to"

"I will not. But we also have to be positive. What if he does like me?"

"Yeah, what if he actually does? What will you do, then?"

•••

It's been 2 weeks and he hasn't talked to me, or answered any of my calls or texts. And every time I've ran into him, he avoids me and acts as if I didn't exist. He must hate me because I'm the reason why him and Emily are over. But there's also a reason why he let that happen. If he had actually felt for her what he said to, he would've convinced her to stay with him, but he didn't.

When I am about to get to the building, I see him walking towards the building as well. I can tell he's coming back from school because he has his backpack on his shoulder, and his earpods in. He's looking at his phone, and then he looks up and sees me standing there.
He looks away but doesn't move.

"I'm sorry, Harvey"

He looks confused, "What for?"

"Because I was the reason you two broke up"

He rolls his eyes, "not everything is about you, Morgan, so please don't assume it is"

"Harvey... I heard"

"From who?", he crosses his arms and frown, "See? You can't assume things you don't know. Things simply weren't working between us"

"No... I mean... I heard. I literally heard you two talking"

"Why? Did you know she wanted to break up with me? Did you want to see me getting broken up with? Is that so?", he says, raising his voice.

"I was walking by! Do I have to remind you that we live in the same building? Maybe next time go talk somewhere more private!"

"Alright... I'm sorry. How much did you hear?"

"Well... I heard her say she knew you liked me... and I also noticed how you didn't deny it"

He stares at me, speechless. And then says, "I can't do this. I'm sorry, I can't do this. You're too hard to deal with", and leaves.

"He'll come back", I hear someone say.

"Huh? Mae, what are you doing here? Were you eavesdropping on us?", I ask her

"No, actually I just got here. But we're going out to eat so mom wanted me to go find you"

•••

"So... how are things with Harvey?", my mom asks while we're eating.

"Harvey? How do you know about him. I don't... think... I... ever told you about him", I say while trying to remember.

"Yeah... I might've accidentally talked about him", Mae says.

"So are you two still together?", my mom asks. I look over at my dad and he just stares at the three of us, like he's waiting for us to let the cat out of the bag. Thank God he's not saying anything.

"No. What? We never dated. Did you say we were?"

"Maybe", she shrugs, "It kinda looked like it at times"

"Looked like it? So, in the past?", my dad intervenes.

"So you're not together?", my mom asks.

"No.", I sigh. "Harvey and I are not together and never have been. That's that. Now... can we please not talk about this right now?"

Whenever it comes to talking about boys with my parents, it's hard. Not because they are overprotective of me or anything like that, but because they get a little too obsessed with the idea of me having a boyfriend that they go a little too far with all their questions.

•••

"What happened tonight?", Mae asks when we walk into my room.

"I talked to him", I sigh, "I told him how I thought he liked me because he hadn't deny it when Emily asked him... he refused to say anything else after that"

"Okay now. He obviously likes you. Why's he still trying to hide it?", she said as she looked out the window. "I can tell he's got feelings for you... yeah... he's sitting on his bed. He looks sad."

"Wait, he's in there?"

"Yeah, come look."

We both look out the window and look at him for a few seconds, but then, he notices us, frowns at us, and closes the curtains.

"Great. You know what? I'll just leave it. I'm so done with trying to make this work."

"No, I'm not gonna leave it like this"

"I don't like the way this sounds... what's on your mind?"