Page 15 of Let's Be Forever

Marc: I hope you have alcohol. We’re going to need it!

“I need to go.” I tilt my head from one side to the other until I hear a soft crack.

With my mother, I’ve learned to just let it be. She’ll throw a fit one way or another.

“If you change your mind about Florence, let me know. I’m sure she’d love to see you. Love you. Bye, sweetie.”

She wouldn’t. I found out a few months after Anna and I started dating that she was never interested in me. Like my mother, hers had been trying to set us up. It obviously didn’t work, but now that we’re both single, they’re trying hard to make something between us happen.

I hang up and smoke until Marc shows up. I’m stepping back inside when he’s dashing out of the elevator with a paper bag filled with who knows what.

“I’m going to need you to sit down.” The words spill out of his mouth so clustered together, I almost don’t catch what he said.

“What? Why? Why are you blowing up my phone like that? But also, thanks. Mom wouldn’t stop?—”

“Sylas, shut the fuck up and sit down.” He sets the bag down and opens my fridge, rummaging through it and huffing out a disgruntled breath. “You don’t have alcohol?”

“You’re freaking me out. What the hell is wrong with you?” I stand behind my kitchen island, watching him rifle through my cabinets. “I don’t have anything.”

“Seriously?” He spins, pinning me with an exasperated look. “You’ve been living here for how long and?—”

“I need you to calm down and tell me what’s wrong. I have a massive headache, and I can’t deal with you acting like this. I already agreed to go out to Neptune again next week.”

Marc stares at me for a long moment, frantic expression softening as his eyes roam over my face. He stands on the other side of the island and braces his palms on the edge of it. “If you had one more chance to speak with Anna, would you?”

“Yes.” I don’t hesitate to answer. “You know I would. Why?”

I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time imagining what I would say to her if I ever saw her again. Apologizing for starters, dropping to my knees, begging for forgiveness, and then doing it all over again. I’m not delusional enough to believe she’d forgive me, but I’d spend the rest of my life trying if it meant I’d get to be around her again.

“Well, I have good news. She’s here.”

I narrow my eyes. “Who’s here?”

“Anna. She’s here in Boston.”

My heart beats out of control at the sound of her name. It always does. It always has.

“Stop fucking with me.”

I hold my breath, desperately hoping he’s lying, but I know he’s not. He looks at me with so much sincerity.

White noise, it all becomes that. His lips move, but I can’t make out what he’s saying as I’m flooded with my last memory of her.

“Let me in, please.” Anna’s voice breaks.

“I have. I always have. I don’t know what else you want from me.” My hands tremble at my sides, but I quickly stuff them in my pockets before she can see.

“To let me in. To talk to me. To just open up to me and?—”

My head pounds viciously, in time with my heart. “How can I when we’re miles away from each other? I don’t ever see you. I hardly speak to you. You’re only here because I got hurt.”

She looks at me as if I slapped her. “I thought you understood. I thought?—”

“And I do, Anna. I do.” My vision doubles.Fuck, don’t throw up.“I’m proud of you. I’m happy you’re getting all these opportunities. You deserve them. But…” I trail off.

“Say it.” Her nostrils flare, eyes glossing over.

“We should break up.”