[✓] reconnected , c. besson

↦ chapter 12

2:14 pm, thursday | ꕥ
(miranda's pov)
"it was my fault you shut everyone off."

"MIRANDA?" corbyn said and looked at me in disbelief. i blinked multiple times to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. shit, they weren't. "corbyn! hey! it's, uh, been a while!" i said tripping over all of my words.

are you kidding me?

corbyn looked at me with a stern expression. "yeah, it has." he said solemnly. we both stayed quiet for a bit before i started speaking again. "so... how has your life been?" i asked him. "it's alright." he said "thanks for the drink and all, i better head out." he began to walk out and i didn't bother to stop him. he clearly wasn't interested in trying to have a conversation, and to be honest, neither was i.

i sighed and continued to do my job. that was an odd interaction.
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once work ended, i walked out of the space and began to head somewhere. not home, not the store, somewhere entirely different.

after the interaction that happened earlier, i was left confused and with a ton of questions. i needed to go somewhere and get my mind off of everything. this was all just too much for me.

once i finally reached under the bridge, i stared at the passing cars in the distance. i came here all the time with my friends when i was still in school. although i couldn't remember exactly who i came here with, i do remember that we had a lot of fun together.

the water passed calmly, allowing me to sit on a nearby rock and breathe in clean air. leaves rustled from both sides of me. i began to think about the two questions that were on my mind all day; "who was that girl corbyn mentioned over the phone?" and "why did he look so uninterested when talking to me?" my thoughts were soon interrupted by someone speaking behind me.

"came here too?" a voice said. i whipped my head around and saw a dark figure standing there. they stepped forward into the light, revealing the same boy i saw earlier. corbyn.

i turned my head back around and continued to stare off into the distance. he made his way next to me and sat down, staring as the city buzzed with busy people working their night shifts. corbyn sighed. "miranda, can we talk? i can tell that something has been bothering you." he said, looking at me. i dropped my head and sighed before turning and looking back at him, our eyes locking for the second time today.

"yeah. i don't want to run away this time, i have a question that um... i kinda want you to answer." i said to him. he turned his entire body so that he was fully facing me. "ask away." he responded. i took a deep breath.

"who was that girl you mentioned over the phone? you know, your girlfriend." i asked and flinched a bit, expecting that he wouldn't want to respond to something like that. he chuckled and began to speak.

"me and her? yeah, it's not anything serious. i kinda just dated her to uh..." he cut himself off. "to what?" i asked him. "to.. well... get my mind off of you i guess." he said. i turned my body to face him and he took a deep breath.

"miranda, from the moment i met you in 5th grade, i loved you. you were my best friend, and i was yours. we were so close, and when we started dating, that just gave me even more of a reason to love you. you're sweet, you're gorgeous, you're funny, you're perfect." corbyn stopped to take a deep breath.

"that night when i fucked up and you left, i couldn't stop crying. i kicked myself every single day for losing you. you were the greatest thing that happened to me, and it was my fault that you were hurt. it was my fault you shut everyone off. it was my fault that you stopped coming to school." corbyn choked up and blinked back tears of sadness. his breathing hitched and he attempted to swallow the lump stuck in his throat. of course, he failed.

corbyn began to sob uncontrollably in the middle of trying to speak. i ran over to him and held him in my arms. he put his head in my chest and cried. it hurt me so much seeing him like this, he was genuinely hurt and i couldn't bare to look at it anymore. he finally controlled his sobs and they quieted down, the sound of him sniffling filling the air.

"i still love you, miranda. i never stopped. you still mean so much to me. please, just give me a chance to prove that i've changed." corbyn spoke in a raspy voice, all tired out from crying.

i sighed and messed with a few strands of corbyn's hair. my mind was racing, but i figured that i needed to tell him how i was feeling. i was tired of shutting everything out and pretending i was okay.

"corbyn.."

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