LOVELORNED

LOVELORNED CHAPTER TWELVE

Chapter 12: The Truth

The air in the archives felt too thin.

“I’m the reason Lily was at Navy Pier that night.”

Caleb’s words hung between us.

I couldn’t breathe.

“Explain,” I said. Voice flat. Because if I screamed I wouldn’t stop.

He rubbed his face. He looked 17 again. Broken.

“It was my fault,” he said. “Not directly. But I started it.”

He pushed the stack of papers toward me. Old emails. Printouts.

Subject: Lily J - Scholarship Interview

From: Caleb Reed

Date: 4 years ago, 3:02 PM

_“Ms. Johnson,

I know this is last minute but my editor needs me in Chicago tonight.

Could we move the interview to Navy Pier? 8 PM?

I’ll make it worth your time. There’s a story here I think you’d love.

-Caleb”_

My hands shook.

“She was meeting you?” I whispered.

“She was supposed to,” he said. “She emailed me that morning.

Said she was bringing her sister. Said you needed to hear this too.

She said you were writing about grief and I was writing about love and maybe we could help each other.”

I remembered that day.

Lily: “Come with me to the pier? It’s for school.”

Me: “Can’t. Finals.”

I said no.

Caleb continued.

“I got there 10 minutes late. Traffic.

I saw her standing by the water. Alone.

I called her name. She turned.

And then...”

He stopped. Swallowed.

“A car. Running the light. On the pier road.

It swerved. She pushed me out of the way.”

The room tilted.

“She pushed you?”

“She pushed me,” he said, tears finally falling. “I was looking at my phone. Mad that you weren’t there.

If I had been paying attention. If I hadn’t asked her to come...”

He broke.

“I’ve replayed it every night for 4 years, Maya.

She died saving me.”

I dropped to my knees.

The papers scattered.

All this time I thought the world took her.

I thought it was random.

It wasn’t.

It was me saying no.

It was him being late.

“I’m so sorry,” he choked. “That’s why I was at the curb.

That’s why I couldn’t tell you.

How do you tell the sister of the girl who died for you that you loved her first?”

Silence.

Just the hum of the lights.

I picked up the journal from the floor.

Flipped to the last page.

Lily’s handwriting: “Don’t be mad at the boy with green eyes.”

She knew.

She forgave him. Before it even happened.

I looked at Caleb.

He wasn’t looking at me like an author. Or a stranger.

He was looking at me like a boy who’d been drowning for 4 years.

I didn’t hug him.

I didn’t yell.

I just said, “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“Because I was a coward,” he said. “And because I was scared you’d blame me.

And you should.”

I stood up.

Picked up the key.

“What’s this for?”

“Lily’s locker,” he said. “At the high school. They never cleared it out.

She left something for you in there. She told me.

Said ‘give it to her when she’s ready to stop being mad at the world.’”

He stood too.

“I’m not asking you to forgive me tonight,” he said.

“I’m asking you to let me help you open it.”

Outside, it started raining again.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Chapter 13: The Locker