- 14.
Jason and Brianna broke up later. I don’t
know why.
Brianna transferred to another class soon
after. Jason became a different person. He
stopped hanging out with his old friends and
devoted all his attention to me.
He bought me breakfast every morning, saved me the best dishes at lunch, and walked me
home after school, saying he wanted to
protect me.
It was like we were back in elementary
school. No, he was even nicer to me than he
was back then.
I asked him what he was trying to do. He just shook his head, his eyes filled with sadness.
Finally, he said he just wanted to make it up
to me, to take care of me.
Honesthe
く
Then, my parents‘ company offered them a
transfer to Seabrook, my mom’s hometown.
We decided to move before my senior year.
I didn’t tell anyone, just sent a few close
friends a goodbye message over the
weekend.
Jason was the last to know. I don’t know how
he found out, but on the day we left, he
chased after our car for a long time.
I sat in the passenger seat, watching him in
the rearview mirror.
Watching him run, reaching out, as if trying to
say something.
Watching his tears, his pale, desperate face. “Geez, Jason, what was that? Didn’t you see your little princess is about to cry?”
“That’s…Ashley! I…”
The wind was too loud, swallowing his final
く
words.
Finally, the figure that had been a constant in
my life for so long stumbled, got up,
trembled, and grew smaller.
Smaller and smaller, until he was just a blurry
dot in the distance.
Then, he was gone.
I heard about Jason occasionally from old
classmates.
Some said he was heartbroken and
withdrawn. Others said he became reckless,
dating countless girls. Some said he changed
completely, burying himself in his studies, focused on getting into a good college.
I didn’t pay attention. After graduation, I got
accepted into a university in a coastal city,
eager to start my new life.
Coincidentally, Ethan ended up at the same
university He saw me and started
<
eager to start my new life.
Coincidentally, Ethan ended up at the same
university. He saw me and started pursuing
me relentlessly.
For the first two years of college, I’d get
anonymous gifts for my birthday, sometimes
a handmade doll I’d mentioned wanting, other
times a piece of clothing I’d been eyeing.
I kept them all, unopened, tucked away in a
corner of my dorm room.
Then, in my junior year, I said yes to Ethan.
We made it official on social media, at his
insistence.
The annual birthday gifts stopped.
And that was okay. They should have stopped
a long time ago.
This was the end.
