If Only (GxG)

Chapter 57 Park But Different

A/N
Hi everyone, I'm back! Firstly, I'm so sorry for the wait. I wanted to do this properly or not at all. I hope you're all still here with me. Buckle up, buttercups, there's some drama ahead. I actually made myself cry fr writing this, so I'm off to eat some chocolate.
—Lucky x

🎶Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls🎶

『 °*• ❀ •*°』
Alison's POV

The air carried a sharper chill than the day before, the kind that whispered of early autumn even beneath the soft stretch of morning sun. The breeze wound its way between the trees and slipped beneath the cuffs of my sleeves, light but invasive, leaving goosebumps in its wake. London was already shifting, its colours deepening into amber and rust. Leaves curled on the branches, their tips brittle, ready to let go. The light had thinned, a quiet gold that fell across the pavement like a fading memory.

It was the kind of morning that might once have filled me with something warm. Something hopeful. A new page. A clean breath.

But today, it felt like a clock ticking down.

I saw her before she saw me.

She sat on the far bench by the willow trees, the ones just beginning to shed their grace. Her back was straight, her posture unnaturally still, as though she had planted herself there and then forgotten how to move. She wore black jeans and a grey coat that looked too thin for the wind. Her hair was pulled back carelessly, tied in a low knot like she hadn't had the energy to do more.

She wasn't looking at anything.

Just staring, eyes glazed, fixed on a point in the distance that clearly wasn't really there.

Something inside me twisted at the sight of her—this version of her. Hollow. Remote. I almost turned around. Almost let myself believe it would be easier to leave quietly, to not hear whatever she had come here to say.

But I didn't.

Because I had come to fight for us. Even now, with every crack widening between us, I believed we could find our way back.

She heard my footsteps in the gravel and stood, brushing her palms down the front of her coat like she needed something, anything, to do with her hands. She offered a smile, but it was thin and hollow, gone before it even formed.

"Hi," she said.

I swallowed the knot rising in my throat. "Hi."

Then, without warning, she spoke again. The words came flat, quick, like she had rehearsed them in her head and just wanted to be rid of them.

"I've come to a decision."

The sound of it split through the quiet like glass breaking. A strange buzzing filled my ears, static that made the edges of the world blur. My stomach dropped, a sick lurch, as if the ground itself had shifted beneath me.

A decision? I didn't even know there was a decision to make.

She still wouldn't look at me.

"I don't want this anymore," she said. Her voice didn't crack. Mine did, inside my chest. "This relationship. It's not... it's not what I want."

The words didn't register at first. They floated in the air between us, senseless, impossible. Like she'd spoken another language. I blinked at her, trying to connect the sentence to something real, but there was nothing to grab onto.

The wind moved a branch behind her. A bird trilled high above. Someone laughed distantly across the park.

And I sat frozen, not understanding the shape of the world anymore.