Helen’s smile tightens. “You’ve known her for, what, five minutes? This isn’t about her, is it? This is about you being bored.”
I let out a short, humourless laugh.
“She makes me smile, Helen. She makes me laugh. Do you know how rare that is for me? You barely made me twitch a muscle in my face.”
Helen’s eyes flash and she steps closer, voice dropping into something silkier, nastier.
“Oh, I made you twitch, darling,” she sneers. “Plenty of times. Just not the muscle in your face.”
I almost laugh, but it’s not amused, and I’m done being polite.
“That’s a bodily function, Helen. Get over it.”
Her mouth falls open, the realisation hitting like a sucker punch. Then she laughs, brittle, the sound of someone trying to hold the upper hand even as it slips through their fingers.
“What, so you’re…” She waves a hand, too casual, like she’s swatting away a fly, “…you’re in love with her or something?”
I don’t say a word.
Her smile falters.
“Jesus Christ, Tyler,” she hisses, the bite creeping back into her voice. “You’re in love with the jester.”
I let the words hang there. Don’t deny them. Don’t flinch.
Helen searches my face, waiting for me to laugh, to tell her she’s wrong, to give hersomething.
I give her nothing.
When I finally speak, my voice is calm. Steady.
“We’re over, Helen. Goodbye.”
I turn to head down the corridor, pushing through the quiet, to find an exit.
And stop.
There’s a man leaning casually against the wall just a few feet away, taking up more space than he needs to. Blond hair catching the light, annoyingly so. Karl, I realise after a beat. The guy who danced with Hayley yesterday.
His expression is unreadable.
No way he missed that little performance, and I can already hear the commentary in his head. Better than anything onEastenders.
I give him a curt nod, all I can manage, and push through the door into the night.
Cool air hits my face, crisp enough to clear the suffocating floral cloud of Helen’s perfume.
I keep walking. No plan. No destination. Just anywhere that isn’t here.
Away from Helen.
Away from the castle corridors, the music, the picture-perfect happiness spilling from every doorway.
Away from everything that feels too loud, too staged, too much.
I need space.
Clarity.
