The freezing rain felt like needles against Adrian’s skin, but he barely registered the cold. He stood on the cracked curb outside the Starlight Diner, the heavy downpour soaking instantly through his grey cotton hoodie. His eyes were fixed on the empty intersection where Mara’s taillights had disappeared into the grey haze of the storm.
His chest heaved with shallow, jagged breaths. The image of Mara’s face—so devoid of the warmth she had cautiously begun to show him, replaced by a brittle, terrifying emptiness—was burned into his retinas. He had shattered her. The realization was a physical weight, pressing down on his lungs until he felt he was suffocating.
He had to fix this. He didn't know how, but he knew he couldn't walk away.
Wiping the rain from his eyes, Adrian turned away fro
