NAHANAP KO ANG PAG-IBIG SA BISIG NG AKING KAAWAY

Three days later, Sienna Holloway came home dragging her suitcase, with Nolan Prescott right behind her.

"Nolan's dying of thirst, get him some water!"

Neither of them even took off their shoes before they sprawled across the couch together. Their legs overlapped as they shouted orders at me without a shred of self-consciousness.

"Bro, soda water."

"Jace, I want some juice."

Without saying a word, I grabbed a juice box and a bottle of soda water, then set them down in front of them.

Nolan took the juice without thinking, popped the straw in, and handed it to Sienna. Only then did he pick up the soda water and chug it.

Meanwhile, Sienna took a handkerchief and started wiping the sweat from his face as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

I stood off to the side like hired help whose only job was fetching drinks.

After she finished her juice, Sienna finally looked up at me. "We're almost out of soda water in the fridge, right? Order another case, or Nolan won't have anything to drink next time he's over."

She'd been home for ten minutes and said a total of three things, with two of them being about Nolan.

Not once did she ask about my parents, whether they were still here, whether they were upset, or how to make things right. She only cared whether there was enough soda water for Nolan, but never thought to ask whether I had enough beer.

I pulled out my phone, tapped a few times, and swapped out my entire beer order for soda water. I even held the screen up in front of her face. "Happy now?"

Perhaps Nolan noticed the look on my face, as he chimed in with a laugh to smooth things over. "She's just being nice because I'm your best friend, and we're practically family. You're not gonna get jealous over that, right?"

I almost laughed. My actual parents came ten times, and she wouldn't even show her face. Yet here she was, fawning all over the friend who was "practically family". She really did think I was an idiot.

"Jace's upset, and you're not even going to say anything?" Nolan gave Sienna a playful tap on the nose.

She scoffed, stretching lazily. "Relax. Compared to you, he's easy. Give him the cold shoulder for a few days, and he'll get over it on his own."

Then she tilted her chin toward me, perfectly sure of herself. "Isn't that right, Jace?"

"Sienna!" Nolan shot to his feet and pointed at her in mock outrage. "I won't let you talk about him like that. Apologize!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry."

"That's more like it."

As their laughter rang in my ears, my chest ached with a dull, heavy pain. On the surface, he'd been standing up for me, but I finally understood that I was just a pawn in whatever game the two of them were playing.

After Nolan left, Sienna finally remembered my parents existed. "Where are they?"

She didn't even look up from her phone when she asked that, and there was also a smile on her lips that I couldn't quite read.

"Gone."

I pulled out a suitcase, laid it open by the desk, and started packing my things into it piece by piece.

She didn't say anything for a long time. In the end, all I got was a single, "Okay."

Okay?

My parents were in their 70s, yet they had to endure airsickness to fly back and forth more than ten times to see her.

Every time I picked them up at the airport, their legs were shaking, but they never once complained. All they wanted was to meet her, and she stood them up.

She didn't apologize or explain. Instead, she just gave me that casual, lighthearted response.

This whole relationship had always been too crowded for three people. It looked fine on the outside, but the truth was that there hadn't been room for me in a long time.

That was fine, though. I wasn't planning to wait around anymore.