Too Late To love her💔💘

CHAPTER FIVE

The next day at school I saw Ethan with a girl.

Her name was Lily.

And she was everything I wasn’t.

Beautiful—without trying.

Confident—without fear.

The kind of girl people noticed the moment she walked into a room.

The kind of girl Ethan noticed.

I saw it the first day she transferred to Westbridge High.

She walked in, sunlight catching in her hair, laughter already following her like it belonged to her.

And Ethan—

Ethan smiled.

Not the fake one.

Not the careless one.

The real one.

The one I fell in love with.

“Who’s that?” one of his friends asked.

Ethan didn’t look away from her.

“Don’t know,” he said quietly.

But I heard it.

The interest.

The curiosity.

Something I had never heard in his voice before.

And somehow…

That hurt more than anything he had ever said to me.

Days passed.

Then weeks.

And just like that, Lily became part of his world.

I watched it happen slowly.

Painfully.

He walked her to class.

He saved her a seat.

He laughed with her—easily, freely, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

And me?

I was still there.

Still watching.

Still invisible.

One afternoon, I was at my locker when I heard her voice behind me.

“Excuse me?”

I turned, startled.

Lily stood there, smiling softly.

“Do you know where the library is?” she asked.

Her voice was kind.

Too kind.

“Y-yes,” I replied. “I can show you.”

She brightened. “Really? Thank you!”

As we walked, she talked.

About her old school.

About how nervous she was coming here.

About how everyone seemed so nice.

Nice.

I swallowed the word.

When we reached the library, she turned to me with that same warm smile.

“Thank you…?” she trailed off.

“Blue,” I said quietly.

“Blue,” she repeated. “That’s a pretty name.”

I blinked.

No one had ever said that before.

“Thanks,” I whispered.

“You’re really sweet,” she added before heading inside.

Sweet.

The word stayed with me.

Just like his words did.

But they didn’t feel the same.

Because when she said it…

It didn’t hurt.

Later that day, I saw them together again.

Lily and Ethan.

Laughing.

Close.

Happy.

And for the first time…

I understood something clearly.

He wasn’t cold.

He wasn’t incapable of being kind.

He just chose not to be that way with me.

And that realization?

It broke something in me completely.

Because it meant…

It was never about who he was.

It was about who I was.

And I would never be her.