YOU'RE LEAVING GREENVILLE??

Kenz's POV

Chapter THREE

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath.

Jeremy pulled away from me so fast it almost made me laugh, but it would be stupid to do that with my situation right now.

“Kenz?” my sister called again from outside my door.

My stomach dropped. I was as good as dead. Ellie was a full time chatterbox. If she saw Jeremy with me, I would be completely done for.

Jeremy looked around the room like he was planning an escape route. Then he pointed toward my closet.

“Oh my God, absolutely not.”

He rolled his eyes. “What? Scared of something, or you got way better ideas?”

Another knock hit the door, harder this time.

“Kenz, open up!”

I grabbed Jeremy by the wrist and shoved him toward the bathroom instead. He nearly slipped trying not to hit the wall.

“Hurry up,” I whispered.

The second the door clicked shut behind him, I opened my bedroom door just enough to peek through.

“What do you want?”

My sister squinted immediately. “Why do you look like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you've seen a ghost.”

“What do you want, Ellie?”

“Chill. Why are you acting so tense? And you're sweating too.”

I touched my forehead way too quickly. “It’s hot, and I was fixing something.”

She leaned against the doorframe, clearly not buying it. “Mum asked me to check on you. She thinks you’re sick or something.”

“I’m fine,” I replied almost immediately, wanting to dismiss Ellie as soon as I could.

Her eyes drifted past me into the room.

For one horrible second, I thought Jeremy was about to sneeze or knock something over because the bathroom suddenly felt way too quiet.

Then she sighed dramatically.

“You’re acting really weird,” she said, scanning my face like she could read my thoughts through it.

I snorted. “Thanks.”

“Whatever. Goodnight.”

“Yeah. Night,” I replied coldly as I shut the door and breathed a sigh of relief.

A few seconds later, the bathroom door creaked open.

Jeremy stepped out, trying to hold in a laugh.

“That was painful to watch. You looked like you were gonna pee.”

“Oh, shut up.”

“You’re such a bad liar, Kenz. I’m surprised we were ever able to hide our relationship.”

“Relationship? We were never in one,” I said, my mood shifting slightly.

He grinned at me for a second, and annoyingly, it still did something to me.

“So you didn't like what we had going on?” he said, stepping closer to my face.

The smile I had before slipped off instantly.

The room suddenly felt too warm, like there wasn’t enough air anymore.

I crossed my arms. “That’s in the past. You treated me like shit.”

His expression changed immediately. “I know.”

“No texts. No calls. Nothing.”

“Kenz...”

“No, because you don’t get to just show up and act normal. You can't expect me to immediately forget how you treated me like I was something you'd never want to lose, and then you just disappeared without saying anything.”

He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away for a second before speaking again.

“My dad found out we were hanging out.”

I frowned. “And?”

“He started asking questions. I panicked.”

I laughed once, but there was nothing funny about it. “So your solution was pretending I didn’t exist?”

“It wasn’t like that. I just needed space, and I was having issues accepting who I am. A lot of shit went down that I couldn't handle. It was really a lot for me, and I'm sorry I let that come between us.”

Silence filled the room after that.

Jeremy stood up slowly and walked closer to me, careful this time, like he already knew I was one second away from telling him to leave.

“I thought staying away would make things easier,” he said quietly.

“For who?”

He didn’t answer.

That hurt more than if he actually had.

I looked down at the floor because if I kept staring at him, I already knew I’d fold.

“You should go.”

He stepped closer anyway.

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do. This was never supposed to work. It still can't work, and I feel nothing for you anymore.”

I was lying, obviously, but I really needed to accept reality.

Jeremy let out a quiet breath, shaking his head a little. “No. You make staying away impossible. I wish I could rewrite whatever happened before, but we could start over too.”

My chest tightened so hard it annoyed me.

For a second, neither of us moved.

Then he reached for my hand carefully, almost hesitant, like he thought I might pull away.

“Maybe I shouldn't have left, but I did. I'm sorry, bunny,” he murmured.

I rolled my eyes immediately even though my face felt warm. “Stop calling me that.”

A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. “You still react every time, though.”

Before I could answer, my phone buzzed loudly from across the room.

Both of us froze.

“Probably your mum,” Jeremy whispered.

I walked over and grabbed my phone off the desk.

It was an email from NYU.

My eyebrows pulled together.

“Who is it?” Jeremy asked, but I was too shocked to answer.

I opened the message without thinking.

Then my heart nearly stopped.

“CONGRATULATIONS, YOUR APPLICATION HAS BEEN ACCEPTED. WE ARE EXCITED TO ADMIT YOU. CLICK BELOW TO ACCEPT THIS LETTER.”

I just stared at the screen.

Jeremy’s expression slowly changed when he saw my face.

“Kenz?”

I looked up at him, completely speechless. He looked at my phone screen and saw the message.

“Wait, what? NYU? That’s like in New York.”

“Yeah,” I replied almost inaudibly.

“Oh. So you’re leaving Greenville. That’s...”

“That’s just...” I was dying in anticipation for him to finish his sentence.

“That’s what? Say something.”

“I don’t know. It’s just a lot. So, like, you really wanna go?” he asked, looking like he had just been hit in the face with a stone.

“Yeah, I do. It’s all I ever wanted,” I said eagerly.

“But, like, what am I gonna do when you're gone?”

Oh, I knew where this was going, and I didn't like it. I wasn't ready to give up NYU for anybody or even consider it. I already knew the next words that were gonna come out of his mouth.

Before he could say anything, I stepped back and asked, “What were you doing for the past few months when you weren't with me?”

Those words fell out with no emotion, just blunt and rude.

A heavy silence fell between us, and time seemed to stop.

“So does this mean...” he said quietly.

“Yeah. That’s what it means.”