365 Days of Rain, 365 Days of Her, Zero Days of Me Chapter 07

365 Days of Rain, 365 Days of Her, Zero Days of Me Chapter 07

The day after I blocked his number, a different unknown number called. I let it ring three times before I picked up.

Someone was sobbing on the other end. It took me a second to realize it was Chloe.

“Audrey, Julian won’t answer my calls anymore…”

I let her talk. I wasn’t going to comfort her.

“I really didn’t mean to ruin things between you two. We’ve always been like this — we were like family.”

“Julian isn’t great with words, but I know he really wanted to marry you. He just looks after me like I’m his little sister—”

I cut her off.

“Cut the act. Just tell me what you really want.”

“Audrey, I think you two belong together. Just give Julian one more chance.”

I smiled. “You think I’m good for him because I made a great doormat. I stayed quiet while you had him all to yourself.”

“You liked that I never made a scene — it meant he could drop everything for you whenever you called, guilt-free.”

“Pretty sweet deal you had. All the perks of having a boyfriend without any of the commitment.”

A few seconds of silence. Then her voice dropped the sweet act.

“So what do you want? You had the title. You were the girlfriend. You think that would’ve even happened if Julian and I had gone to the same college?”

“I already backed off. All I wanted was to be part of his life. Why do you have to make me the villain?”

Her logic had the same airless, endless quality as the rain in Seacrest.

The caller ID showed a Sunhaven area code. I already knew he was in the city. I raised my voice and called over my shoulder. *Julian, did you catch all that?”

Chloe panicked and hung up. Julian stepped out from the stairwell, white as a sheet.

“I’m sorry, Audrey. I just… I wanted to see how you were doing.”

His mouth was a thin, tight line.

“I’m doing great. I’d be doing even better if you two stopped showing up.”

I’d guessed right.

Something shifted in his eyes, but he couldn’t help himself.

“Don’t be mad at her. She’s young — she doesn’t know how to say things right.”

Defending Chloe — even now, it was automatic.

I stepped back from his reaching hand.

“Audrey… she’s just used to leaning on me. I swear I’ll set boundaries — real ones this time. I’ll put you first.”

“Oh, so she can’t lean on you anymore? What happened to being her knight in shining armor? Guess that doesn’t mean much when it stops being convenient.”

Julian froze. He had no idea how I knew any of this.

I unlocked my phone and pulled up Chloe’s Instagram.

Every day, there was another carefully curated post on her Close Friends story.

The most recent one — the two of them in hotel bathrobes on the business trip, faces inches apart.

Scroll back further — moving day.

She’d called him her knight and said she wanted to lean on him forever.

Julian’s face lost what little color it had left.

“…So you knew. The whole time — you knew I was at her place that day.”

I nodded.

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

When you still care, you demand explanations.

Once you don’t care anymore, you just walk away.

Like I told my mom — I’d made up my mind.

“Is that why you left without saying goodbye?”

I stared at him.

“You just disappeared. No warning, no explanation — nothing.”

My hand froze on the door handle. I opened our chat history.

“Are you serious right now? I told you the night you walked out. I texted you to pick up your stuff. I called — five times. Didn’t Chloe pass any of that along?”

Julian went still.

It was coming back to him now — her voice behind the door that night, the phone call he’d only caught the tail end of.

But he’d slammed the door.

He hadn’t listened.

He’d chosen not to.

The realization hit him in stages, and each one broke something in his face.

The glass in his palm.

The blood smeared across their photo.

Four days of silence.

The way Chloe had stumbled over her words when she’d answered Audrey’s call.

It all connected now.

He stepped forward, desperate to explain.

But the door slammed shut before he could get a word out.

So this was what it felt like to be on the other side.