Chapter Two: Eyes That Should Not Exist
1036 Words
He looked straight at me.
Or maybe through me.
I could not tell.
My breath caught as I stepped back from the window, my heart slamming against my ribs. The bracelet on my wrist burned like it knew something I did not.
It could not be him.
Jaden Cole was gone.
Buried in memories and newspaper headlines.
And yet…
I rushed down the stairs, two steps at a time, ignoring my mother’s voice calling behind me. My hands shook as I opened the front door and stepped into the sun. The light made everything too real.
He stood at the gate of the house next door. Taller now. Broader. His skin was richer, golden in the afternoon glow. His hair is a little longer. His face was more guarded.
But the eyes.
They were the same.
Brown, warm, stormy.
Like fire behind calm.
“Jaden?” I said, almost a whisper.
He blinked once. Slowly. Like he had heard it too many times in his head, but never thought it would be real.
“Tenisha?”
My knees almost gave out. His voice.
God.
It was him.
I stepped forward, feet unsure but pulled by a force stronger than thought.
“You’re... you’re alive.”
A slow nod.
“But they said... they told me you
“I know what they told you,” he said quietly.
I looked at the house behind him. Empty curtains. Silent walls. Then back at him.
“I waited,” I whispered.
“I couldn’t come back.”
“You disappeared.”
“I didn’t want to.”
I shook my head, suddenly dizzy with the weight of ten years. Of grief. Of confusion. Of trying to hate him and failing.
“Why?” My voice cracked. “Why did you leave me like that?”
He looked away, jaw tightening. “It’s not something I can explain in one conversation, Tenisha.”
“I don’t care. Start.”
He looked at me again, and for a moment, I saw it. The boy I used to sneak out to meet. The boy who kissed me under the mango tree. The boy who said forever like it meant something.
“I thought you were better off without me.”
“I wasn’t.”
Silence.
He opened the gate and stepped out, stopping just inches away from me. I could smell him now. Like the earth and old memories. My heart betrayed me, leaping toward him even as my mind screamed questions.
“I want to explain,” he said.
“Then explain.”
“Not here.”
I folded my arms. “Why not?”
“Because your mom’s watching us from behind the curtain.”
I turned. She was. Lips pressed tight. Eyes like knives. Watching. Judging. Protecting secrets that no longer wanted to stay buried.
“Fine,” I said. Meet me at the old bus stop. Eight o'clock.
He nodded once.
I turned around and walked back inside without another word.
I sat in my room for hours, staring at the bracelet, trying to understand what had just happened.
He was alive.
He was here.
He had not forgotten me.
But the question that haunted me was louder than all of that.
Why did he leave me behind?
Why did he let me believe he was dead?
Why did no one say a word?
Eight o'clock could not come fast enough.
I reached the bus stop early. It was the same as it had always been. Wooden bench. Rusted roof. Dust on the concrete. I ran my fingers over the initials we carved there so long ago. Still there. Faded but fighting.
T + J. Always.
Jaden arrived five minutes late. He walked slowly, like every step mattered. Like he was still deciding whether this was a mistake.
He sat beside me, careful not to touch. We stared at the road for a moment before anyone spoke.
“Where did you go?” I asked.
“A woman picked me up that night,” he said. “She told me to get in. Said I had no choice.”
I turned to him. “What woman?”
“Your mother.”
My blood ran cold. “What?”
“She said if I loved you, I would leave. That staying would ruin everything.”
I could not breathe. “That’s not true.”
“She said if I didn’t go, she would tell the police everything. That I would be blamed.”
My mouth was dry. My thoughts were racing.
“What would you be blamed for?”
He looked away.
“Jaden.”
“There was a man,” he said finally. “He came to your house that night. Your dad owed him something. Money. Respect. Something.”
I remembered. Loud voices. Crashing furniture. Screams.
“My dad tried to fight him,” I said softly.
“And I tried to stop it,” Jaden continued. “But your mom... she hit him. Not your dad. The other man. With a lamp. He went down. He didn’t get back up.”
My fingers went numb.
“She told me to run. Said no one could know I was there. That if the police came, they’d ask questions. That I had touched the body. Left fingerprints. That I would be the easiest one to blame.”
“So she made you disappear.”
“I didn’t want to leave you.”
“But you did.”
“I thought it was the only way to keep you safe.”
Tears burned my eyes. Ten years. Ten years of silence. Ten years of thinking, he abandoned me.
“She ruined everything,” I said.
“She protected you.”
“She destroyed me.”
He turned to me then. His voice is lower. “I never stopped loving you.”
I looked at him. Eyes full of pain. My heart is too tired to fight.
“I don’t know how to feel right now,” I whispered.
“Then don’t feel. Just remember.”
He leaned closer. Our foreheads touched. My hands trembled.
“I remember everything,” I said.
“And I never forgot,” he replied.
- Writer
