NICO + LIVVY = 4EVER
A childish sentiment. A promise they’d made when they hadn’t understood what forever wasor how it could be destroyed. “Remember when I carved this?”
“Yes.”
“You said the only bad part of our relationship was that it was so easy. We slipped from friendship to lovers so quickly. We never had to woo each other.”
Her lips trembled into a smile. He doubted she was aware of how wistful it appeared. “Could you blame a girl for wanting a grand declaration of love every now and again?”
“No. I could never blame you for anything.” His hand dropped away from the tree. “Why’d you agree with me, that night?”
“What night?”
“The night we broke up.”
Her guffaw was loud. “I don’t want to talk about this.”
“Why not?”
“It wouldn’t change anything.”
“The past can never be changed.”
“Right. So why bother tearing it apart now?”
One feeling.“Someone smart told me talking about stuff can help.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Has a pod person taken over your body? I’d like to speak to Nicholas, please.”
“Livvy, I’m not going to move until you tell me why you agreed with me back then.”
“Then I’ll walk home,” she snapped and pivoted.
“Why don’t you want to talk about this?”
She stopped, her shoulders hunched. He kept forgetting how small she was. Her personality was so big. “It’s not something I like to think about.”
“I need to know.”
She looked at him. Annoyance, fear, and, finally, resignation flitted across her expressive face. “What you said made sense. Being together would have been too hard after everything.”
No, he hadn’t said being together would be too hard. He’d said it would be impossible.It’s impossible for us to be together now. They won’t let us.“Did you want to end things?”
“No!”
He couldn’t breathe. “No.”
“No, okay? I wanted to fight. I wanted to fight for you, and I wanted you to fight for me, and that didn’t happen, because that shit only happens in fairy tales.”
He was choking under the weight of their history. “You lied. You told me I was right. You agreed it would be impossible.” Every time he’d doubted himself, he’d tell himself she’d wanted their breakup too. That it had made rational sense, even without his father’s meddling.
“Fighting for someone only works when the other person wants to be saved. I couldn’t fight for you knowing that you’d already given up.” Her smile was bittersweet. “Nothing’s impossible until you quit, remember?”
Chandlers aren’t quitters.
She took a deep breath as if to brace herself. “You did quit, didn’t you?”
“I had to.”
