His Secret - Edward Cullen's Son

10

The week Landon dumped me was excruciating.

I couldn't sit in class or walk down the stairs without without feeling the urge to cry. Meanwhile, Landon didn't even seem to care. He just went on with life as if we had never been together.

The worst part was that I had to keep my feelings to myself. I hadn't gotten closure from Landon, and I couldn't talk about my feelings. I felt like I was in my own world of sadness.

On Sunday, I laid in bed and ate ice cream. This was the post-breakup activity that got me through Theo.

Someone knocked on the door then opened it. It was Valerie.

"Val?" I asked.

Valerie hugged me and sat on the side of my bed.

"I should've called, but I knew you'd say no, so I just drove here," she said.

"I wouldn't have said no."

"You would've. This whole week you've been so antisocial. Chelsea noticed it too."

"It's just my period," I lied.

Valerie could tell I wasn't being honest. She narrowed her green eyes.

"Is this about Theo?" She reluctantly asked.

I was surprised she brought him up.

We never spoke about Theo.

When he left, I wasn't the only one who was hurt. All his friends and family were devastated that he had chosen to run away and desert everyone. Valerie was one of the many childhood friends he had selfishly abandoned without a goodbye.

Similar to what she was doing now, Valerie always checked on me after Theo left. She knew how crushing it was for me. And now, she was still making sure I was okay, even though I had betrayed her...

"It's not Theo. I'm over that," I replied.

"I figured since his birthday's coming up, those old feelings might've resurfaced."

My heart dropped. I had been so wrapped up in Landon's drama that I forgot about Theo.

Theo was born early in November and I had never forgotten that before. This would mark the first year I wouldn't be celebrating it with him, and we had been celebrating it together since we were three years old.

"I hadn't even thought about that," I murmured as my eyes watered.

Valerie tightly hugged me, "don't be sad, Iris. I'm here for you. I'm willing to stay here all night and have a romcom marathon."

"I love you, Val."

"I love you too, Iris!"

I didn't need Landon in my life, I needed Valerie. I knew in that moment that it was a good thing I was single since my friends mattered more to me than anything. I internally promised myself to stop being selfish.

"Okay, I'll tell my dad to prepare popcorn," I quipped.

◍

October passed by quickly, and by the start of November I finally felt happy again.

I felt much closer to my friends and I had been doing extremely well in my classes. I spent my entire Halloween night dancing and I generally felt over Landon.

Well, I wasn't completely over him.

My heart still stung just at the thought of Landon. But these days I didn't cry over him as much, which was definitely progress. Whenever we saw each other at the mayor's office, we were cordial but distant. He hadn't spoken longer than a sentence to me since the break up, but I didn't want to talk to him anyways.

Tonight, I was sitting on my bedroom floor carefully gluing parts together for my geography project. I sipped from a bowl of soup while I worked.

A random clinking sound pulled me out of my work.

I examined the floors to see if something had fallen, but everything looked fine. I resumed working.

Clink.

I turned around again and still nothing. By the third time I heard it, I felt so irritated that I stood up and opened my door to see if it was coming from the halls but the halls were empty.

I sat down again and ignored the annoying sound.

Eventually, a sound I couldn't ignore came. It was the sound of my window latch being twisted open.

I instinctively grabbed my textbook to use as a weapon and turned towards my window to face the intruder.

But who I saw sneaking into my room was no intruder.

It was Theo Khan - back from the dead.