To be so lucky {H.S.} ✔️

Chapter 24

People say that time will always heal a broken heart, like having your heart broken is the same as breaking a bone.

I broke my arm once. I was six years old, and my mom had just dropped me off for my first day at school. Feeling anxious about being separated from my mother, I had tried to climb the railings around the school facilities, and I almost succeeded before my backpack got stuck, and I fell flat on the ground. I wore a cast for a month.

There is no cast for a broken heart. There are no doctors to take out the invisible spear buried in your chest.

At first, people walk on eggshells around you, avoiding the name of the one who did the damage, like the plague. Like, if they not saying his name, would make you forget the person that was once the center of your whole Universe.

But eventually, to no fault of their own, people will get tired of your sadness, like you not feeling better is a personal choice. Like you want to feel like shit. And, without even realising they're doing it, their tiredness makes you feel guilty. Like it's your fault that you're hurting.

I'd called Jenna on a hunch, figuring no one would even think to look for me at her place. We hadn't spoken in years, probably since we both finished college, but I knew I could still count on her, as she could count on me. Us not getting together was a side effect from life, not due to a broken friendship.

Jenna had been incredible, giving me a roof to sleep under, and taking care of me until I was ready to face the world. She'd even taken over the task of calming down Ava, when my friend called me in distress because Harry had reached out to her, losing his mind, to ask if she knew where I was. She didn't even know I had left at the time.

I don't know how she did it, but Jenna managed to convince everyone to stay put, to let me heal, to not try to convince me to go back, or even to talk until I was ready for that. Ava had been hurt, she wanted to be there for me, but she'd given me space.

Yes, Jenna had been an extraordinary friend, and I would never be able to repay everything she'd done for me. But even Jenna's kindness had a limit, and when a whole month had passed, and I was still mopping around, doing nothing but sleep and cry, she was done.

"I called Ava, today." She told me, sitting on the opposite end of the sofa I was curled up in, watching The Notebook for the thousandth time.

"Yeah? What for?" I kept my eyes on the screen. The scene where Noah asks Allie what she wants was coming up. Suddenly, Ryan Gosling's face froze, and it took me a few seconds to understand that Jenna had paused the movie. "Hey! I was watching that."

She closed her eyes, inhaling deeply. "Nina... You know I love you, and I honestly don't mind having you here for as long as you need to. But I'm worried, and so are your friends back at home."

Sitting up, I gave her an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Jen. I don't want to be a burden. I can leave if..."

Putting her hands in her head, Jenna grunted. "Did you even hear what I just said?"

"I'm..."

"Damn, I'm sorry Nina. I just... I don't know how to help you. I never asked you exactly what happened, because I just figured it was none of my business, but... Is that relationship you ran away from, damaged forever? Isn't there a way that you and Harry can fix things up?"

"I don't think so, Jen..."

"Why not? Ava told me he still calls her every single day, hoping to finally hear from you, to know where you are."

My heart twisted in a knot, but I shook my head, unwilling to let thoughts of a suffering Harry fill my mind. He had tried to call me countless times after I left his house, leaving me voice messages, sending me texts, asking me if I was okay, where I was... Eventually, I'd turned off my phone, and never turned it back on. He was probably just feeling guilty for how things ended between us, anyway. He would move on eventually.