Chapter 27: Twenty Seven

By mid afternoon, I was still on the couch. Unwashed, still in my fancy clothes from last night. My hair was a mess, and my face, messier.

Wrapped in a blanket, eyes puffy, and surrounded by used tissues. At some point I had opened a tub of ice cream and had a few bites. The rest was now melted, a pool of yogurt-looking ice cream in the tub. My phone sat on the coffee table, screen dark. No new messages. No name lighting up the screen. No apology. No explanation.

Just silence.

The ache in my chest hadn’t dulled. It throbbed quietly inside my chest, that hollow, echoing kind of sadness you can’t quite cry out. I felt stupid. Declan had held me like I mattered. He kissed me like he needed it. And then, just like that, it was over.

The bedroom door creaked open, and I heard Cassie’s bare feet padding across the floor. She appeared with a glass of water and a hesitant look on her face.

“Oh, Willow…” she said, her voice softening immediately when she saw me.

I tried to smile, but it came out crooked. “Hey.”

She handed me the water and plopped down next to me, pulling my legs onto her lap like we’d done this before. Like she already knew what kind of heartbreak this was. Well, she did. She had seen me through break ups and bad dates and weird men before. But this pain was a special kind. I couldn’t remember ever being so fucked up over a man before.

“Tell me everything,” she said gently, brushing hair out of my face.

I swallowed. My throat still hurt from crying.

“We… slept together last night,” I admitted. “Declan and I. And this morning he told me it couldn’t happen again.”

Cassie’s face didn’t change much, just a tiny wince, like she’d seen it coming but hoped she was wrong.

“He said it should never happen again,” I added, voice cracking. “And he’s right,” I sobbed, “But I feel so…”

“Oh, Willow.” She wrapped her arms around me, and I let myself collapse into her side, more tears slipping free. “That’s such bullshit. I know you feel like shit. What an asshole.”

I clutched the blanket tighter, unable to say anything for a long moment.

“I just feel so stupid,” I finally whispered. “I begged him. And now I feel like he got what he wanted, and I got… nothing.”

Cassie rubbed my back. “You didn’t get nothing. You got clarity. And I know it doesn’t feel like it, but that’s something. You know now that he’s not going to be what you need.”

I nodded into her shoulder. It didn’t make the pain go away, but it helped.

After a while, she pulled back and looked at me seriously. “I don’t want to tell you what to do, but Willow, I’m worried about you. This… situationship, or whatever it is with Declan, it’s not healthy. He holds all the power, and it’s messing with your head.”

I looked at her. “I know.”

“And Jacob…” she hesitated, choosing her words. “Look, I know he’s not the one you’re crying over, but he really likes you. He shows up for you. He’s kind. And he’s actually allowed to date you.”

I gave a small, broken laugh. “I’m not sure that’s the best reason to give someone a chance.”

“No,” she agreed. “But maybe the fact that he makes you laugh, checks on you when you’re sick, buys you flowers for no reason, and continually shows up for you, that should count for something.”

I blinked, my chest tightening.

Because she was right.

Even if I wasn’t ready to let Declan go, I couldn’t keep letting him break me either.

Maybe it was time to try something that didn’t hurt.

I leaned my head back against the couch, exhaling slowly. That awful, burning ache of humiliation and longing… it hadn’t gone. “What if I don’t want safe?” I asked quietly, eyes fixed on the ceiling.

Cassie didn’t answer right away. She sat with me in the silence, fingers light against my leg, her brows furrowed like she was trying to be careful.

“I think you do,” she said eventually. “I know it feels like no one will ever compare to what Declan feels like. But you don’t deserve this back and forth.”

That hit something raw.

I looked at her.

“Jacob doesn’t make you chase affection,” she added. “He just gives it.”

I blinked, throat tightening again.

“I feel like if I let go of Declan,” I whispered, “it’s like admitting none of it meant anything. And that he won/”

“But it did mean something,” Cassie said gently. “To you. And maybe to him too. But that doesn’t mean it was good for you.”

I nodded slowly. My heart still didn’t fully agree.

Cassie smiled, nudging me with her foot. “So. Are you gonna call Jacob?”

I groaned. “God, no. I look like I’ve cried for seven hours straight.”

“You have cried for seven hours straight.”

I laughed, the sound hoarse but real.

She got up, rifling through a drawer. “Then at least let me do your face mask and make us pancakes. You don’t have to solve your entire emotional mess today. But maybe... you can go and take a shower while I make brunch, okay?”

I smiled, genuinely this time.

“Pancakes sound good.”

“Chocolate chip or blueberry?”

“Both.”

She winked. “Now that’s the energy we need.”

As she moved around the kitchen, humming something under her breath, I pulled a throw blanket over my lap and let my phone buzz quietly beside me, unread.

I needed this.

A moment of quiet.

A friend’s care.

God, I was so grateful for Cassie.