Chapter 2

Matthew's POV

I raised a hand to stop Gary before he could ask anything further. I knew he was confused. After years of chasing Shannon, it must have been hard for him to believe I'd suddenly given up.

There was no way I could explain what had happened to me. Even though Gary couldn't understand why, he took me to the train station anyway.

My scores were well above the cutoff for Belham University, and with my family's connections, getting in was easy.

I called my dad and told him my plan.

As expected, he was shocked and refused to agree. He even wanted to get Shannon into Belham University too. But when I held my ground, he finally gave in.

Once that was settled, I opened my chat with Shannon.

I'd sent her more than a dozen messages, and she hadn't replied to a single one. My last message had gone out at 9:50 am that day. Her last reply, a week ago, was a single "Yeah".

Over the years, I'd invented every excuse I could think of to text her and ask her out. The replies I got most often were "Yeah," "Oh," and "Can you leave me alone?" Or she'd just leave me on read.

I thought about telling her I wasn't going to Rocchi University, but she clearly didn't care, so I decided not to embarrass myself.

I took one last look at her social media. Her feed was nearly empty, just a few photos of her with Charles.

She'd never liked posting on social media. Once, I had used her phone to secretly post a picture of the two of us. She yelled at me and was furious with me all day.

Only now did I realize she didn't hate posting. She just didn't like having me in her life.

Looking at her bright smile in those pictures, I suddenly remembered that in the ten years we were together, she had never once smiled like that around me.

So she could smile after all.

I blocked her on all my socials and deleted our chat. For the first time, I felt completely at peace.

Then I opened my chat with Charles, who was also going to Rocchi University.

I slowly typed out a message. "Go pick her up. From now on, she's yours."

I didn't say who I meant, but he would know. Then I blocked him and deleted the chat.

"Shannon, I don't owe you anything anymore. From now on, we'll go our separate ways," I muttered.

Inside the train station, ten minutes before my train departed, my phone rang several times. It was Shannon calling.

I was a little surprised at first since I had always been the one calling her. But I hesitated only for a second before blocking her number.

After more than ten years of having me at her beck and call, she was probably just calling to chew me out because I hadn't shown up to pick her up.

I'd spent my entire previous life letting her treat me like a doormat. This time, I was cutting her out of my life for good. I wasn't about to let her ruin my mood right before I left.

…

Earlier that morning, at Shannon's place.

She finished putting on her makeup and got a call from Gary telling her he would be there at 10:30 am sharp. There was something uneasy in his voice, but she didn't notice.

Then her best friend, Helen Crawford, suddenly rushed in from the balcony, panting. "He's here! He's here!"

Shannon's eyes lit up. In my previous life, Charles had arrived at her house before I did. I had watched her climb onto the back of his bicycle with a beaming smile.

It wasn't until Gary and I pulled up a little later that she remembered she was supposed to go with me.

She got to ride in a luxury car most people could only dream of, yet a tear slipped from the corner of her eye once she got in.

The familiar ding-ding of a bicycle bell rang outside.

Shannon didn't even stop to put on her shoes before running downstairs to open the door, as if she were afraid the person outside would disappear if she took a second longer.

Charles saw Helen's text saying Shannon was coming down. He quickly took out a bouquet of roses, fixed his hair, and put on the smile Shannon loved.

The door opened.

"Shannon," Charles said with a smile.

But there was no response from her, and no embrace like he'd imagined. She looked right past him, scanning the street as if searching for someone else.

"Shannon, I'm here to pick you up. I brought your favorite jasmine."