The Valentine's Note

Chapter 35

"Do you mind if I steal her for a bit?" he asked Tyler.

"Uh..." Tyler's eyes shifted to look at me before looking back at Seth. "Sure."

Tyler let go of my hand and moved away. We exchanged a glance before he left the dance floor. Seth reached for my hand and wrapped his other hand around my waist. My gaze shifted from Tyler's to meet Seth's. The familiarity that his deep eyes gave off twisted my stomach into knots and unlocked something in my heart.

"You didn't let me finish earlier," he spoke up. "I was about to say that you look ravishing."

I tried to pull away from him. "Seth, let me go."

"Why?" he asked, an innocent look on his face.

"Because I don't want anything to do with you anymore," I said through my teeth.

"Ava, I've tried so many times," he pleaded. "I'm sorry. Just let me explain myself to you once. Let's get out of here, we can go to some coffee shop and talk things out. We can still work things out."

"Why? Why do you want to work things out?" I questioned. "So that you can use me again?"

"I want to work things out because I love you," he said, his last words coming out a whisper. "I love you so much. Every passing day that we haven't talked has been killing me inside. I can't live without you."

In that moment, a split second of sympathy surfaced for him inside of me. However, I wasn't going to forget what he did. I still don't know whether I can trust him.

"Let go of me, Seth," I said, my eyes focused on his chest.

I expected him to protest and I was ready to break free from him but he didn't. Instead, he loosened his grip on me and just like I asked, he let me go. Surprised, my eyes flickered up to meet his and I could see the pure pain in his eyes.

No. Don't fall for it. Not again.

I spun around and walked away from him and towards where Tyler went.

For the next hour, I quietly sat in a seat next to Kian. Tyler tried to talk to me when I came back from my dance with Seth but I gave him really short responses. Eventually, one of his friends came looking for him so he excused himself. Kian could sense that I didn't want to talk so let me be.

"Hey you," Kyla said as Derrick and her walked towards us, slightly sweating. "What's wrong?"

"Seth," Kian answered for me.

"What did that ass do now?" she asked, grabbing a chair to sit down next to me.

"What is he doing now?" Kian said, pointing at the stage where the DJ was.

All our heads turned to see Seth standing on the stage with a microphone in his hand.

"Hey guys, sorry to interrupt your fun," he said into the microphone, causing all eyes to turn to him. "I just have something I want to say. So, there's this girl...and I happen to really, really love her. But I was dumb and foolish and selfish and I made a stupid mistake that pushed her away from me."

A few heads turned around to look at me and I wanted to dig a hole and shrivel up in there. I felt tears forming in my eyes and I found myself furiously trying to blink them away.

"I think I've come to the realisation that there's nothing more I can do to try and get her to talk to me; to try and get her back. But I just want her to know that I truly am sorry for what I did and I agree that there's nothing I can do to that will make up for my mistake. I never, ever meant to intentionally hurt her. All I want her to know is that I love her and that if she gives me a second chance, I will never ever let her down."