Page 95 of The Facade

The sick feeling twisted my insides again. “Yeah?”

He nodded, the muscles in his jaw clenching.

I held my breath as I waited.

He was going to break up with me.

Why else would he say he needed todosomething before he went to bed?

“I was talking to my dad earlier this evening and he had some bad news.”

“Bad news regarding your mom?” I guessed, wondering how the bad news would lead him to breaking up with me.

“Yeah.” He sighed and looked at the painting of the beach that I had on my wall. “I, um, well…” He let out a long breath. “There’s not exactly a nice way to put it, but he basically told me that we only have a week before she slips into a coma.”

“Only a week?” I asked, putting a hand to my chest. “But I thought she had another month or more.”

“So did I,” he said, his gaze flickering to mine. “And I just…” He looked at the beach painting again, seeming like he wanted to say more, like he was trying to explain how the timeline could have moved up so suddenly. But after struggling for a moment with his bottom lip trembling, he just shrugged and wiped his eye.

And the sight of him like this, so helpless and broken, shredded my heart.

“I’m so sorry, Mack.” I went to his side and touched his arm. “I’m so sorry.”

He sniffled, and when he looked at me, he had tears streaming down his beautiful, bronze cheeks.

He wiped his nose. “I just thought I’d have a little more time, you know?” He shrugged, scrubbing his palm across his cheek to wipe away the tears. “Like, it’s just happening so fast and even though I knew we only had a few weeks left, I guess I just thought there was a little more time than this.”

“I think we were all hoping for a lot more time,” I said.

“Anyway,” he said, seeming to remember something. “That wasn’t the only thing I needed to talk to you about.”

“It wasn’t?” I asked, a foreboding feeling hollowing out my chest.

“No.” He sat up straighter and cleared his throat. “I, um, after my dad told me the news, I got to thinking about everything and how precious time is right now, and how I’ve been spending it lately and well…” He let the words drift off, as if unsure how to say what he wanted to say.

And when I saw the look of regret in his brown eyes, I knew what was coming. Knew the fairytale I’d been living in this week was coming to an end.

I braced myself for his next words, telling myself that whatever he said next I could get through.

So I waited for him to continue. After another long pause, he said, “And since time is such a limited resource right now, and I only have a finite amount of it left to focus on my mom, I need to remove all of the distractions right now.”

“And I’m a distraction?” I asked, the words hurting me probably more than they should, given that I knew the circumstances he was saying them under.

“Yes,” he said. “I mean, no.” He gave his head a shake. “I mean, I just…I just think it’s best that we be friends right now.”

“Friends?” I asked, suddenly not liking the word very much.

He must have sensed how I was feeling because he quickly said, “I’m not breaking up with you right now. I just need some distance.”

He said he wasn’t breaking up with me “right now,” but did that mean he was planning on doing it someday?

I pushed those thoughts away. But then he was looking at me like he was worried I was going to take this badly and he’d have to deal with an emotional ex-girlfriend on top of everything else already overfilling his plate. So even though my heart was breaking inside because I was pretty sure this was just the beginning of the end, I put on a brave face and said, “I understand.”

“Y-you do?” He narrowed his eyes, like he wasn’t sure he believed me.

I plastered on what I hoped was a reassuring and not at all heartbroken smile onto my lips. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be okay.”

He studied me again, and I almost thought I saw a hint of regret in his expression. Like he wasn’t as sure about this “break” as he’d been when he first came here.

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