Chapter 2
781 Words
Lately, Clara had been dodging me nonstop. Every single morning, the second I rolled out of bed ready to drive her to campus, she was already gone.
And when classes let out in the evening, she would always text me ahead of time, telling me not to bother picking her up.
Every time I pressed her for an answer, she would brush me off with an annoyed, evasive reply. She was busy finishing her graduation thesis. That was all.
I just shook my head and did not push the matter any further.
While Clara was busy "finishing her thesis", I was busy going on blind dates.
What was the best way to get over one relationship, after all? It was to jump straight into a new one, right?
Clara did not return my feelings, and my pining only left her stressed and confused. So the only choice I had was to try to let her go.
The blind date I had been seeing was named Iris Sterling.
She looked like a sharp, put-together office lady on the surface, but deep down, she was just a big kid at heart.
She was always dragging me to all the places I only went to when I was little.
We played marbles, hit up the arcade, and then she would badger me nonstop to go play the claw machine.
"Here, try this," she said, tossing a kebab skewer right to me, then immediately zooming off to another stall to buy fried cheese curds.
Before I had even finished chewing the skewer in my mouth, she stuffed a piece of fried cheese curd right in. "Try this," she said. "It is totally authentic, I swear."
I scarfed down the mess of food in my mouth, but when she turned to bolt for the caramel apple stall, I yanked her to a stop. "Can we go home and let me change out of this first before we keep wandering?" I asked.
Iris raked her eyes up and down my whole body, then said, "It is fine. You look really good this way. Come on, keep going!"
I could not help but laugh watching her plodding along ahead, stuffing her face nonstop.
Over these past couple weeks, I had hung out with Iris pretty much every single day.
Then one afternoon, while we were strolling down the street together, I ran into Felix completely out of the blue. And the girl walking right beside him was not Clara.
I tugged Iris back before she could walk past him, and she blinked up at me, confused.
I whispered who Felix was to her, and she immediately rolled up her sleeves. "s**t, that guy is two-timing, isn't he?"
I calmed her down quickly. "He knows what I look like. Go check what is going on first, okay? We do not want to accuse him wrong."
Iris shot me a quick OK gesture.
I hung back in a corner out of sight, watching her walk over and brush lightly into the girl next to Felix.
Felix instantly wrapped an arm around the girl's waist. "Emily, you okay? Did that hurt?"
The girl shook her head. "I am fine, Felix."
Felix helped Emily—so that was her name—sit off to the side, then noticed Iris was alone. He rolled up his sleeves, jabbed a finger right in her face, and ripped into her. "Are you blind? Didn't you see my girlfriend standing here? You bumped into her. What are you going to do to pay for it?"
He shoved Iris roughly as he yelled.
Iris had just come straight from work too, and she was wearing heels. After a couple of hard shoves, she lost her balance and slammed hard onto the pavement.
Felix spat a glob of phlegm right onto the ground at her feet. "f**k, what are you playing at? Just cough up the money already, I've got to take my girlfriend to the hospital to get checked out."
He reached down to grab Iris to yank her up.
I could not hold it in any longer. I burst out from my hiding spot and wrenched Felix's arm backward hard. "What the hell do you think you are doing?!"
Felix twisted around with a grunt of pain, and when he saw it was me, he froze solid. His words stumbled out all broken. "Ethan... I-I... I did not mean this... I... y-y-you just listen to me, let me explain."
I glared daggers at him and wrenched my hand away from his. "Don't you ever let me catch you anywhere near Clara again."
I helped Iris to her feet, then turned and headed straight for the hospital.
- Writer
