Love at Second Sight

Chapter 13

Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.

~Hermann Hesse

***

His thumbs traced circles on her back over the T-shirt she was wearing as the sobs turned into whimpers. Staying with her at her worst was the best damn feeling Zac had ever experienced. He wanted it to be like this, always. This was wonderful, beautiful.

She looked at him. "Thank you. And...I—I'm sorry." She began to pull away, but he tightened his grip on her lower back.

"Stay," he whispered.

She smiled at him. Try hard to believe him, her sister's letter had said...but she just couldn't. Who knew he wouldn't break her heart all over again?

He could sense that there was more. He didn't know how, he just could. "Tell me?"

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. "Yeah. This is already one of the best days of my life. Make it better."

"Best? Seeing me cry and listening to my sob stories doesn't seem best in any way."

"No. But getting to hold you close when you are at your worst is."

She gave him a smile so soft it stopped his heart and then swelled it to twice its real size. Believe him, her heart told her. No! Just...no.

"Well then, after a month or so, my mom snapped. She started bringing home random guys—I guess because she couldn't really accept my dad's death completely and wanted desperately to forget how her life had flipped in one single day.

"I couldn't cope up with it all that well, either. I developed an eating disorder. Eventually I put on a lot of weight. I was taking help and working out and all that—none of it seemed to help. Later, Dave told me that it happened only gradually, and took a lot of time. He instructed me to monitor my eating habits and try to control my urges.

"Well, four months later my mom decided that she could no longer stay in L.A. It was becoming too much for her to handle. So we decided to shift. And because I'd already received my BU admission letter—which was one teeny-tiny bit of good news in a very long while—Boston it was. We were completely settled by November—"

"The first semester started in September, if I remember it right."

"Interrupting as always," she remarked. He smiled sheepishly and mouthed a 'sorry'. "No problem. And yes, you're not wrong. It did start from September, but I'd requested them to let me join from the spring semester. Because of all...you know?"

"Yeah." She didn't need to spell it out, he understood.

"Are you sure you want to hear what's ahead? I'd suggest you do not," she added knowing that what was to come was their first encounter. The one he didn't remember the slightest.

"I want to. Please..."

She sighed. This was going to get terrible; she knew.

Well then. "Mom continued her, um...conquests in Boston too. It kinda disturbed me, because my mom and dad used to be inseparable and then she snapped into someone so different. Someone I didn't really like, and couldn't recognize, you know? So I decided I'd be my own aloof person and not pay much heed to it. Then, I started my classes in Jan...and I made my first—and only—friend in college within just two weeks. Khalid." A smile graced her lips at his mention. He'd been there for her when no one had been.