Page 85 of Clichés & Curses

I kept my gaze on the sunflowers, trying to come up with an answer. ‘I don’t know,’ I finally said. ‘But I think we would’ve been able to get past this if I did say no, without letting this whole thing come between our friendship.’

Nina was quiet once again, seemingly letting my words sink in before she said, ‘Then, tell him no.’

‘What?’ I said, whipping my head over to her.

‘I mean, from what you’re telling me so far, you only told him the reasons why you couldn’t date him. But you haven’t yet rejected his date offer,’ Nina explained.

‘You think that’s what I should do?’

‘I think you should do whatever you feel is right.’

I let out a sigh.

Nina was right: I could still somewhat salvage the friendship and write it off as a rough patch in the road.

But why did the thought of giving a definite no to Colton hurt?

The rain started to slow into a drizzle on Friday night and fully came to a stop as the sun came up the next day, leaving behind a cool breeze in the air—allowing everyone to take advantage of the weekend outdoors before we started a new week.

My Saturday was spent deep cleaning the apartment with Nina. After she came home from training and we had lunch together, it was time for us to conquer our main task of the day. Each of us started from our own room before heading to the kitchen and finishing off in our living room. The day ended with us ordering takeout and watchingClueless.

While Saturday was spent being productive, on Sunday we indulged in rewarding ourselves as we both slept in, tired from the previous day. We spent the whole day chilling in the apartment, only leaving our humble abode for a last-minute dinner plan with Claudia and Lily.

Having all four of us together was always enough to cheer me up out of whatever sadness I was feeling, and for a while it didwork. But as we headed home and I lay in my bed that night, I couldn’t help but feel the ache still lingering there.

Still no text from Colton, and none going out from me either.

I knew I would still see him eventually; we were still partners for ASL class after all, and we still had a fair number of weeks in the semester left.

I truly believed we could still go back to being friends, despite what had happened.

But why did I have this feeling that might not be the case?

Monday and Tuesday passed by in a blur, and the next thing I knew, I was already on my way to ASL class.

As I got settled into my seat, a feeling of nervousness rose within me. I scrolled through my phone, while I waited for the minutes to tick away until the class started, with my eyes occasionally snapping up to the door every time I heard the sound of it opening.

The seats in the classroom started filling up one by one, but the seat beside me remained empty, even when Mr Albert entered the classroom and our ASL class began for the day.

It was unlike of Colton to be late to a class. After that first one, he had been on time ever since, but I wouldn’t put it past him to have a mishap and be late again today.

But as the minutes started to tick by, the nervousness I was feeling slowly switched over to confusion with a touch of sadness.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

Fifteen minutes.

And as the clock struck half-past the hour, it finally dawned on me what was happening.

Colton wasn’t late; he wasn’t coming.

The realization hit me so hard that I couldn’t even focus on the rest of the class. I was so over my head that I didn’t even notice the class was over and students were already leaving their seats. I quickly packed up my things before leaving the classroom, searching for an empty sitting area somewhere for me to gather my thoughts.

I know I am an overthinker, though I was trying really hard right then to not jump to conclusions headfirst. But the fact of the matter was, Colton had missed the class that day, the first class held after what went down last Wednesday at ‘the spot’.

There was no use in me dwelling on this any further—coming up with reasons on why he wasn’t there that day, not when I could ask him straightaway.

---