He starts picking up my clothes, folding them, but then his voice cuts sharp: “You never call me babe.”
I spin toward him with a pair of headphones and empty chip bags in my hands. “What?”
“You always call me Steve.” His tone is low, tired.
“I’ve always called you Steve.”
“Yeah. But we’re a couple now.” His arms fold, his eyes cutting into me.
“I don’t see the big deal.”
He rubs his hair hard and sits on my bed, his leg bouncing. “It doesn’t bother me that you call me Steve. I just don’t understand.”
“What?” I ask.
“Why you can’t love me even half as much as you love him.”
The words slice through me. And then it clicks—all of it. The looks. The silence. His attitude.
“You heard us.” My voice is barely audible.
Steven simply nods, his gaze fixed on the floor of my room.
I can’t breathe. “Steve, I don’t—”
“I waited for you to say, ‘We need to talk.’ But you never did. So I tried to fix us, hoping you’d realize you were in love with me.” He gets up just to kneel in front of me, his eyes raw. “Was he right? When he said you were in love with me now—was he right?”
“I love you, Steve. I swear.”
He nods slowly. “I know you love me. But you’re notin lovewith me.”
I fall silent. Because he’s right and I don’t want to say it out loud.
“I hear you crying, you know?” he says at one point and I look up at him, more confused than ever. “What?”
“You cry... every night.”
“I don’t... When?”
He smiles, but his eyes are sad, wounded. “Every night. You start crying as soon as you fall asleep, and every time you whisper his name. And every time I hold you, hoping you’ll say my name just once.”
I kneel down in front of him too, because I don’t deserve for him to do something like this for me.
I take his hands in mine and squeeze them, pressing a kiss to the burn scar on the back of his left hand. “I’m sorry, Steve. Please. Forgive me. I never meant to hurt you. I love you. I swear. You’re one of the most important people in my life.”
“I know but it’s not enough to be in love with me, Nova... I couldn’t make you happy the way you deserve, because I’m not the one you really want. Selfishly, I think I was the first to try to fill the emptiness he left with you. It’s okay, Supernova.”
He takes my face in his hands and presses a kiss to my forehead, but I can’t understand why he’s not angry.
“You don’t have to cry,” he whispers, wiping the tears from my cheeks.
“I’m sorry... I never wanted to hurt you,” I murmur, throwing myself into his arms.
It all happened way too fast. One moment we were lying on my bed together, and now we’re on the floor while I’m breaking his heart—and as if that weren’t enough, he’s the one comforting me when it should be the other way around.
“Nova, our problems started before Vincent came back. We both know it.”
“I know...” I whisper, lifting my gaze toward him.
