Between Two Points

Chapter 34: Let Him Choose

The air felt heavier now.

Like the weight of her words had settled into my chest, making it impossible to breathe.

"Then make him choose."

I wanted to laugh, bitter, hollow, and empty.

As if it were that simple. As if love were just a matter of asking. As if hearts could be swayed by mere ultimatums.

I looked at Aerin, at the girl who had been the storm before me, the girl who had left but was never truly gone. The girl whose name still lingered in LJ’s silence, in his hesitations, in the spaces he never let me fill.

And suddenly, I understood.

She wasn’t my enemy.

She was my mirror.

Both of us had loved the same boy.
Both of us had wondered if we were enough.
Both of us had been left waiting for an answer that never came.

I swallowed past the ache in my throat, past the sharp sting of reality pressing against my ribs. "Sa tingin mo, pipiliin niya ako?"

Aerin didn’t answer right away.

And that silence? It was the loudest answer of all.

A part of me had expected it.

A part of me had already known.

But knowing didn’t make it hurt any less.

"Leo is…" She trailed off, her gaze distant, unreadable. "He’s not cruel, Alliah. But he’s also not the kind of person who lets go easily."

I forced out a quiet laugh, though it trembled at the edges. "So, ano ‘yun? Ako lang ‘yung hawak niya habang hinihintay niyang bumalik ka?"

She flinched. Just a little.

And that told me everything.

Aerin sighed, looking down at her hands. "Maybe he cares about you. Maybe, in another lifetime, he would’ve loved you the way you deserve."

I felt my breath hitch, my fingers curling into fists.

In a another life, huh?

"But not in this one."

The words didn’t need to be spoken. I felt them anyway.

Something inside me cracked.

Maybe it was the last bit of hope I had been holding onto.
Maybe it was the quiet lie I had been telling myself, that if I just tried hard enough, if I just stayed long enough, he would see me.

But I wasn’t sure I wanted to be seen only when it was convenient.

I stood up abruptly, the chair scraping against the floor, the noise cutting through the quiet tension between us. Aerin looked up, startled, but I couldn’t meet her gaze.

"Salamat," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "Sa totoo."

Then, before she could say anything else, before I could break down right in front of her, I turned and walked away.

Out of the café.
Out of that moment.
Out of the illusion I had built around LJ and me.

But no matter how far I walked, no matter how many deep breaths I took the truth stayed with me.

LJ had always belonged to her.

And I had only been borrowing him.