The mattress dips slightly as Zach crouches down in front of me. Close. Too close. His hand twitches like he wants to tilt my chin up, but he doesn't—just hovers there, the weight of his presence suffocating.
"Caroline," he says, softer now, though the urgency bleeds through.
"Don't you think three years of silent treatment is enough? Cold shoulders, blocking me on everything... I get it, you're pissed. But damn—don't you think I've paid for it long enough?"
He leans in, eyes locked on mine. "Just tell me what I did. What made you hate me like this. Because you don't cut someone off for three years unless it's something big. So, what is it? What the hell did I do?"
His jaw works like he's chewing on the words before spitting them out. "I know I can be dense. I miss shit. I've always beenlike that. But I can't fix something if I don't even know what the hell I broke."
His voice drops, raw. "We used to tell each other everything. You used to trust me with everything. And now I don't even deserve a simple explanation?"
I let out a bitter laugh, sharp as glass. "Yeah.Used to.Which means not anymore. And trust me, Zach—there's nothingsimpleabout the explanation you think you deserve."
Zach flinches—barely, but enough. His brows knit, eyes searching mine like he's just been punched in the gut, and for a second, the defiance drains, replaced by something raw. Hurt. Confusion.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Forget it. Just leave me alone, okay?"
I push up from the bed, shoulders squared, moving past him. But his hand shoots out, fingers wrapping around my wrist, tugging me back just enough to make me face him.
"No." His jaw flexes, his grip firm but not painful. "I won't leave this room until you tell me."
"Fine!" The word tears out of me, sharp and shaking.
My chest heaves as I finally look him dead in the eye, every ounce of rage and betrayal I've carried for three years blazing through.
My glare could cut steel, my eyes daggers, my whole body trembling with fury.
"Three years ago. The day of prom." My voice is harsh, clipped, but already cracking at the edges. "I heard you, Zach. I heard you telling your friend how you were just going with me because no one else wanted to ask me. Like being my prom date was some kind of charity. A chore you got stuck with."
My throat tightens, but the words pour out, bitter, ragged.
"How I wasn't worth anyone's time because everyone else was out of my league, so the idea of being with me was laughable."
Tears burn hot in my eyes now, spilling even as my anger keeps me standing upright. "And how you didn't see me as anything more than a friend. How you never would. Because I wasn't girlfriend material—not for you. Because I wasn't your type, right? You don't date girls like me."
My lip trembles, but I force the final blow out, my voice cracking wide open. "If I remember right, the exact words you used were:'I don't date fat chicks.'"
My hands curl into fists at my sides, my whole face blotched with the fury and humiliation of dragging that memory back into the open—as raw and vicious as the day it happened.
"You know, Zach... it would've been fine if you didn't see me as someone you wanted to date. I never asked you to. I never expected you to." My voice hitching on every word.
"That? I could've forgiven. I could've lived with that." I drag the back of my hand across my wet cheeks, glaring at him through the blur.
"But the rest?" My throat burns, the words clawing their way out. "That was different. That was cruel. Degrading. Malicious. And the worst part—the absolute worst part—is that it came from you.Mybest friend of eighteen years. The one person I trusted more than anyone else in this goddamn world."
My voice cracks, raw and jagged. "You were supposed to be the one protecting me from that shit, not piling on. You were the one always telling me I was beautiful, that I didn't need to change a thing about my body, that I was perfect the way I was. You told me not to listen when people called me names, that their words didn't matter. To only believe yours."
I choke on a sob, clutching my stomach like I can hold myself together.
"So, imagine how it felt when the words that cut the deepest didn't come from strangers... butfrom you. You obliterated every good thing you ever told me in one day. Every kind word,every reassurance—it all turned to ash the second you opened your mouth and called me fat and unworthy. Do you even realize what that did to me?"
My whole body trembles, like I'm being hollowed out from the inside. "Your words didn't just hurt me, Zach. Theybrandedme. They sank into my bones and poisoned every part of me until I couldn't look in a mirror without hearing them again. And the sickest part?" I shake my head, bitter tears streaming.
"Even now, three years later, they still haunt me. Louder than anything else."
The silence after is deafening.
