Chapter 2 Skylar's Pov

I should’ve trusted my gut. That tight pull in my chest that told me, Don’t go. The ache behind my ribs that whispered, Stay home, Sky. But I didn’t because again, like last night, Caleb had texted me to come. 

“Come tonight. Please. Let’s have a do-over.”

A do-over. As if all the damage from last night could be erased by a kiss and a shallow apology. As if I hadn’t cried myself to sleep questioning whether the person I loved even liked me anymore.

Still, there I was—again—walking up the steps of another off-campus house with my long braid swishing down my back and a sinking feeling in my gut. As usual, the house throbbed with bass-heavy music and the drunken energy of twenty-somethings trying to forget their midterms, their loneliness, their lies.

Red solo cups littered the porch like fallen soldiers. People spilled onto the lawn, smoking, laughing and slurring lyrics to songs that didn’t mean anything. I hated it already.

The second I stepped inside, the heat and noise swallowed me whole. The floor vibrated. The air reeked of beer, weed, and sweat. Strobe lights blinked overhead like my own personal warning signs.

Turn around. Leave. Run.

But I didn’t. 

Instead, I pushed through the crowd while clutching my cup of watered-down punch like it was an armor for me. I scanned faces, shoulder-checked drunk strangers and tried not to drown in the smell of vodka and bad decisions.

“Where the hell is he?” I muttered to myself tiredly as I walked towards the kitchen.

The music grew louder as I got closer and then—

I saw him.

Or more accurately, I saw them.

Caleb.

And Tara Kline.

Tara with her bleach-blonde hair in a high ponytail, nails sharp as razors and her tiny cheer skirt riding scandalously high on her thigh.

And Caleb—my Caleb—pressed against her like gravity demanded it. His mouth fused to hers like he was trying to forget every promise he ever made to me.

My heart didn’t break. It shattered.

The sound in the room faded into a high-pitched ringing as I looked at them. The crowd around me blurred at the edges. My feet stopped moving and my body burned—frozen from the outside, but molten inside.

I couldn’t look away.

I couldn’t unsee it.

Caleb’s hand was on her hip. His tongue was in her mouth.

It was like I never existed.

Someone behind me gasped loud enough to cut through the music. “Wait…isn’t that Caleb’s girlfriend?”

Another voice whispered too loud, “Holy shit. That’s her. That’s Skylar. She’s literally watching him cheat. Holy fucking shit!”

Every part of me locked into place as I watched the scene in front of me—my breath, my spine, my pulse.

But my voice? Oh, my voice didn’t falter. Right now, it was the only thing that started moving for me. 

“Would you like to explain what the hell you’re doing?” I said to them in a voice that was loud and furious and it sliced through the room like a blade.

They broke apart instantly.

Caleb blinked like he’d just woken from a dream he didn’t want to end. His lips were red. His hair was messy. But his face…God, his face wasn’t even guilty. He didn’t look shocked or panicked that I had seen them. He just looked... bored.

“Sky,” he said flatly like I was an inconvenience at the moment. “You here already? It’s not what it looks like.”

“Oh?” I snapped at him in fury that caused my voice to rise the more. “Because it looks exactly like you’re trying to eat her face.”

Tara smirked just then in response. It was a smug, self-satisfied little twitch of her glossy lips that made my blood boil.

Caleb finally stepped back from her and wiped his mouth. Then he looked at me like I was the problem and shrugged.

“She kissed me,” he said to me in a low voice. “And honestly? You’ve been acting like a damn lunatic lately. It’s exhausting. You’re always... too much.”

My stomach dropped in a way that was sickening and I felt the intense urge to vomit. 

It was love was a crime I’d overcommitted. It was like giving a damn was weakness. Because why would this be happening to me. 

I blinked back the sting of tears and refused to let him see me fall apart. My chest heaved in despair, my throat tightened with tears and my rage exploded inside of me. 

“Oh, I’m too much?” I laughed bitterly as I took a slow step forward. “Too much for what? For you to respect? For you to stay loyal to me? Is that what id fucking too much?”

“Skylar—” he started but I was already raising my hand and with a calmness that scared even me, I tilted my cup over his head.

The punch splashed in bright, sticky arcs and dripped down his hair, his nose and his shoulders. He yelped and stumbled back, his arms flailing, and his blue eyes wide and filled with embarrassment and fury. 

The room exploded in gasps and laughter.

“Oops,” I said sweetly to him as he screamed. “Guess I’m still being too much.”

In front of me, Tara made a snide sound that was half-laugh and half-scoff.

That’s when I turned to her.

“You know, Tara, I’d call you a backstabbing whore but that would be an insult to cutlery.”

Her jaw almost dropped to the floor in response.

“And Caleb?” I added as I looked him up and down like he was gum on the bottom of my boot. “You can keep each other. Trash belongs together.”

And with that, I spun on my heel with my braid whipping behind me and stormed through the sea of stunned faces, laughter, and whispers.

Outside, the cold slapped my cheeks. My chest was still heaving and the tears still didn’t come.

Not yet.

Because I wasn’t really sad.

I was just done.

I was done shrinking.

Done forgiving.

Done pretending the slow death of my self-worth was love.

I heard my name being shouted behind me but I didn’t turn.

He didn’t deserve another word from me.

Let him sit in that kitchen, soaked in fruit punch and humiliation and wrapped around a girl who only looked good in a mini skirt. 

Let him realize too late that he lost the girl who would’ve moved mountains just to hold his hand.

But me?

I wasn’t waiting for him to realize it. 

I was already walking away.

And this time?

I wasn’t coming back.