Chapter 2

Late that night, I tossed and turned in bed. My mind was full of images of him standing with Clara.

Tonight was Clara's birthday party.

And Hudson's eighteenth birthday was tomorrow.

It wasn't just that hoodie with their mingled scents. Even their lives were intertwining in ways I couldn't ignore.

The next morning, favoring my injured foot, I slowly made my way to Hudson's house.

Hudson's dad, Mr. Reed, opened the door.

"Avery! Come on in."

Hudson called out from his bedroom upstairs, but he didn't come down.

"I really don't understand the academy's schedule," Mr. Reed complained while grabbing his car keys.

"The wilderness survival test is next week, and they still gave you all days off. That boy hasn't looked away from his screen since breakfast."

"Go upstairs and keep him company. I have to run to the butcher. Tell me what you want to eat for dinner."

After Mr. Reed drove off, I stopped outside Hudson's door and knocked gently.

He was wearing headphones, smiling brightly at his screen.

Catching sight of me in his peripheral vision, he casually waved a hand, gesturing for me to come in.

I sat on the edge of the bed behind him and caught a glimpse of Clara's face on the screen.

I couldn't hear what they were talking about, but there was a level of focus in Hudson's eyes that I had never seen before.

After a long while, he finally ended the call and remembered to look at me. "Your foot is swollen. Why did you walk all the way over here?"

I handed over the heavy box in my hands. "Happy birthday, Hudson."

"Thanks." He took it, didn't even glance at it, and casually shoved it into the furthest corner of his desk.

"Are you still going to Blood Moon?" he asked out of the blue.

"Yes." I froze for a moment, confused by the question. "What about you?"

"Yeah, obviously," he replied dismissively, smiling at his screen again.

I stood there for a moment, feeling like a complete outsider.

"I'll head back now, then."

He just gave a hum without even sparing me a glance, and put his headphones back on.

I walked to the doorway and was just about to head downstairs when the voices from inside the room stopped me in my tracks.

"Honestly, I don't even want to go to Blood Moon." Hudson's voice drifted through the crack in the door, sounding annoyed.

"The rules there are too rigid. I have been wanting to switch schools for a while."

"Then why don't you switch?" Clara's voice came from the screen.

"We'll see. It's just a hassle." He laughed it off casually.

My hand, halfway up my jacket zipper, suddenly froze.

So when he asked if I was going to Blood Moon, he never wanted us to go together at all.

He just wanted to know if I would be there so he could avoid me in advance.

The gift box was still sitting alone at the corner of the desk. That camera had taken me two weeks of searching across half the city to find, and he hadn't even touched the wrapping paper.

I walked downstairs just as Mr. Reed came back with groceries, bumping right into me at the door.

"Avery, leaving already? Stay and have some barbecue."

I forced a slight smile. "No thanks, Mr. Reed. I've got to go back and prepare for tomorrow's exam."

He didn't insist, but instead shouted upstairs, "Hudson! Get down here and walk Avery out!"

The sunlight outside made the whole street incredibly bright. But inside, I felt terribly empty.

Hudson stopped caring about our promise to go to Blood Moon together a long time ago. Since that was the case, there was no need for me to keep trapping myself in the past.

It wasn't like I had no other options in life.

The moment I walked out that door, I quietly let go of that promise.

The night before the wilderness survival exam, Hudson sent a text.

"I'll come pick you up tomorrow morning."

I stared at the screen for a long time, then slowly typed out my reply. "No need. I'll take the bus there."

He didn't reply again.

Early the next morning, I dragged my suitcase and got on the bus to the testing site all by myself.

This was the first time Hudson hadn't shown up by my side for something truly important.

The scenery outside the window flew backward. I leaned against the glass and, for the first time, felt that being alone wasn't so bad after all.

After arriving at the starting point of the exam, I checked my name on the equipment list and took a moment to organize my backpack.

Just as I turned around, someone crashed hard into me from behind.