Something I didn't expect
376 Words
The question that stayed with me wasn’t what happened.
It was—
why him?
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Out of everyone…
why Sidney?
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It wasn’t hate.
Not really.
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I didn’t have anything against him.
He wasn’t someone I thought about often.
Not someone I compared myself to.
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But now—
he was there.
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In the one place I didn’t expect.
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And no matter how much I tried to ignore it…
it stayed in my mind.
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Part of me wanted to let it go.
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It made sense.
She was already with someone.
There was nothing to figure out.
Nothing to chase.
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That should have been the end of it.
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But it wasn’t.
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Because there was another part of me.
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A part I hadn’t really noticed before.
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One that didn’t want to walk away.
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One that looked at the situation and thought—
what if I didn’t?
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What if I stayed?
What if I tried anyway?
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What if…
I got in between?
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The thought came quietly.
But once it was there—
it didn’t leave.
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And that bothered me.
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Because it didn’t feel like me.
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I had never thought like that before.
Never looked at something and wanted to… disrupt it.
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But now—
it felt possible.
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Real.
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And that was the part I didn’t understand.
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So instead of sitting with it—
instead of overthinking it on my own like I usually would—
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I did something different.
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I told someone.
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Nathaniel.
And Josh.
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We met up later that day.
Nothing serious.
Just the usual.
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Nathaniel already had experience.
Too much, if I’m being honest.
At that point, he had… what, four girlfriends?
I didn’t even know how that worked.
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And Josh—
he was new.
A transfer student.
But somehow, we connected easily.
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With them, things were simple again.
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Less thinking.
More talking.
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So I told them.
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About her.
About everything.
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The walks.
The conversations.
Sidney.
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And for the first time since it all started—
I wasn’t just observing the situation.
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I was in it.
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Waiting to hear what came next.
- Writer
