Page 135 of When the Storm Breaks
A slow breath pushes past my teeth.
He laughs again, but there’s something real behind it. “I shouldn’t have even said anything.”
And that’s it. That’s what makes the anger rise—molten, unchecked.
“Right,” I snap. “You shouldn’t have said anything. Not when I spent the last three months falling apart without her. Not when you and I both know he had something to do with this.”
The words are sharp and bitter—and true.
“But you handled it.”
I let that settle between us—heavy and poisonous.
“And I’m just supposed to be okay with that.”
His fingers curl tighter in his lap.
For a second, I think he’s going to say something real. Something that matters.
“I don’t know, Calla.” His voice is flat. Detached. Like he’s already walking away. He finally meets my eyes—expression like ice. “Are you?”
I don’t think. I don’t breathe. I just react.
White-hot anger flares through me, burning everything else away.
“No,” I snap, shaking. “Actually, I’m not okay with it.”
The tears I’ve been holding back have nowhere to go. Heat prickles beneath my skin, my pulse thundering in my ears.
My breath stutters—short, uneven—as frustration shreds through everything I’ve been holding in.
“I’m tired, Haiyden.” The breath catches hard in mylungs. “You pull me in, make me believe this is different—that you’re different—and the second things get real, you push me away.”
He keeps his focus on the seat, peeling at the fabric like he’s just waiting for me to stop.
I gesture wildly, my whole body trembling.
“You disappeared. No call, no text, nothing. You just left. And then you show up days later, drunk on my doorstep in the middle of the night, telling me you love me like that’s supposed to make it all okay?”
His eyes go wide.
And I know.
He didn’t mean it.
“No,” he starts, and for the first time, he lookslost—like he doesn’t know what to say.
“I didn’t disappear—”
“You did.” My voice wavers, but my words don’t. “You left, and I had to sit there, staring at my phone—hoping,no, praying—that you were alive. That you’d just fucking remember I exist.”
A laugh slips out, cold and bitter.
“What was I supposed to do with that?” My voice cracks. “Just sit around and wait for you to come back whenever you felt like it?”
His hands curl into fists on his lap. “You don’t get it.”
“Thenmakeme, Haiyden!”
