Constellations [Short Story]

One more year. I'd have to be without him one whole year. So much can change in that time.

"Am I supposed to be convinced now?"

"Actually, yes."

"Pity."

He was silent for a while.

"Fine." He said. I heard the resign in his voice and my heart sank. Pain from the casualty I'd just suffered at his hands spread from my chest outward. I froze, not sure I could talk. Seconds elapsed before I found my voice.

"Fine?"

"Yes. Fine. I don't want to have to convince you to go with me, Haley. You should want to." He paused. "I could list a million reasons why you should come, but you wouldn't want to hear any of them because your mind is already made up. I don't want to waste my time. Or my hopes." He said to me. I wasn't sure I was hearing him correctly. 

Was he...giving up?

On me?

After everything we'd been through he wasn't even going to put up a good fights?

Oh hell yeah, we'd had our ups and down. We went together like...oil and water. He was so optimistic and surreal. He believed in everything and everyone. He was loyal. He was trusting-perhaps too much so-and he always gave everyone the benefit of the doubt.

I didn't. I knew what people were like because I knew how I was. People only cared about what they cared about and if there was something in their way they'd be glad to run you over like you were already roadkill. I wasn't naive. I wasn't under the impression life was a fairytale. 

At least, not until I met him.

He made my life a fairytale. He made me happy. He fixed the broken part I wasn't even aware had shattered. Watching my parent's marriage fall apart, I'd secretly fallen apart myself. I was vulnerable. I was so alone. And he saw me. He fixed me. He made me the believer he was.

He was my fairytale. My knight in shining armor. 

And he was giving up on me.

"Where are you going?" He asked. He watched as I stood and brushed myself off. As I turned to leave he jumped up. "Haley!"

"What?" I snapped.

"Where are you going?"

"Home. I am going home because I was obviously wrong about this."

"About what?" He asked, desperate.

"Us!" I took a deep breathe. "I was wrong about us. I am not as important to you as I thought."

"Why, because I don't want to convince you? God, Haley, what do you want me to say?"

"I don't know." I turned to him. "Oh, wait, I do know. I wanted you to tell me that you wanted me to be there because, even though we've only known each other for a few months you can't imagine how you ever made it as long as you did without me. I wanted you to tell me that you wanted me to come with you because you're going to miss me more than you've ever missed anyone. Because...because..." My breathe was labored, and my heart beat irratically. I couldn't finish the sentence because my throat had swollen up. I was scared to say it. It was so improbable.

"Because I love you?"

Oh God. Oh, no. He said it.

I stood facing him, tears rolling down my cheeks, face down. My fists were clenched at my sides and I tried to steady my breathe. I didn't say a word.

"That's what you wanted me to say? You wanted me to tell you that I'm in love with you?"

I was having heart palpitations.