Page 90 of The Prospect

“What am I doing here?” She’s practically breathless as she speaks. “What are you doing out here?!” She throws the question back at me. “Your mum told me that you were gone? That Amira left alone? What happened? Is everything okay?!”

“Hazel…” I hate to see her this way, so distraught—confused. It propels me to run a hand over my face in an attempt to avoid making direct eye contact. It’s no use though. I’m compelled to lock onto her once bright, now troubled eyes and suffer, knowing I’m the reason for it.

“You don’t need to worry about me or Amira, okay?” I try my best to appease her, but I know it’s no use. “I just…needed to escape for a little bit. Get some fresh air. That’s all.”

“All the way out here?” Hazel’s quick to counter in disbelief. “Surely something happened, Green. Tell me. Please?—”

“Hazel.” I take a reluctant step in her direction. “Go back to the house, okay? It’s your birthday. You should be with Hart, not all the way out here fretting over me. So go, okay?Go.”

I attempt to walk away, yet as I turn on my heel, Hazel shouts, “No!” Stopping me in place.

I look back at her in an effort to plead, but it’s no use. She doesn’t let up.

“I’m not going back. I refuse. Hart isn’t the one I need to be with right now, Green. The only person I should be with isyou.”

Her remark forces me to hiccup. I know she doesn’t mean what she’s saying in the way I wish she did, but still, I can’t help but feel a spout of optimism as she steps forward.

“I had to make sure you were okay,” she tells me without a slither of doubt. “How could I go on with my night knowing something could be wrong? That’s absurd. You realize that, right?”

I suck in a controlled breath as I gesture up and down my frame. “I’m fine,” I tell her. “So, you didn’t need to come after me. You…you wasted your time.”

Hazel stays put, visibly unsatisfied by my remark, as she shakes her head in dismay.

“Right.” She purses her lips into an unamused laugh. “Wasted my time. Is that so? So, tell me, Green, was you coming after me all those years ago a waste of your time as well?”

“Of course not.” I’m quick to retaliate. “Why would you even say that?”

“I don’t know.” Hazel shrugs her shoulders in defiance. “You tell me because apparently there seems to be a double standard happening here. Apparently, you coming after me is okay, but when I come after you it’s a waste of time? I mean, for God's sake, Green…” she’s practically yelling by now. “I know things are weird between us, but that doesn’t mean that even for onemillisecond, I stopped caring about you! I mean, as if I ever could…”

Her voice fades into nothing, and now, as I stand frozen in place, all I’m left with is the echo that lingers and the visual of her.

When I first locked eyes with Hazel in the hustle and bustle of Ms. Murray's classroom, it felt like everyone else disappeared, and at that moment, it was just her, me, and those three primary colors.

Yellow: sunshine. Hazel has always been the brightest light in my life. The person who picks me up when I’m down and reminds me that no matter what, you can always find a light in the darkness. She’s been that for me—a light, a beacon of hope, whether she’s known it or not.

Blue: the color that accurately describes what life is like without her. Dull, sad. Missing a radiancy that you can only gather in her presence. She makes me laugh like no other, smile until my cheeks cramp beyond measure and possesses me to feel emotions that, deep down, I never thought I was capable of.

But most importantly, red: a single shade that I can only surmise as one feeling—love.Love looks different to everyone. I know that. Love isn’t always instantaneous or linear, sometimes love takes time to grow—evolve, to make itself known. But the best part of red is the fact that once you see it, you can’t unsee it, and now, standing in front of my eyes, all I can see is this glowing aura of red that surrounds Hazel as a voice tells me not to waste another second away from my happiness.

“You know what, Green? Just forget about it.” Hazel shakes her head in defeat, stumbling back a few steps. “You’re right. I shouldn't have come all this way. I wasted my time. I wasted my?—”

“Amira and I broke up.” The fact comes out so abruptly that it forces Hazel’s face to falter and her brows to crease, but it stops her from leaving and that…that means I’m off to a good start.

“You broke up?” she responds, voice full of uncertainty. “What? Why? Did something happen?” She can’t seem to stop the questions from spewing out of her mouth. “I…I don’t understand.”

“I do,” I confess, finding the confidence to take a slow, calculated step in her direction. “The two of us just realized we weren’t right for each other.”

Hazel opens her mouth to speak, but nothing comes out at first. “What made you come to that conclusion?” Her voice is shaky. “I thought she was the one you wanted? I mean...isn't she the one that inspired this whole plan to begin with?”

“You wanna know what I think of the plan right now, Hazel?” I ask rhetorically, watching as she gulps. “That it was bound to fail from the start. It was never going to work.”

“But…” she stutters. “It was going so well. I don’t understand? What changed?”

I finally manage to reach her side. Her confused, lost side, and it pains me, but what pains me even more? Holding back from the truth a second longer.

“What changed, Hazel…” I begin, “is that somewhere along the way, instead of falling for Amira, I fell for my best friend.”

Hazel’s eyes widen and without an ounce of hesitation, I watch as her hands begin to tremble.

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