Abandoned at the Service Station, I Watched His Taillights Fade Chapter 08

Abandoned at the Service Station, I Watched His Taillights Fade Chapter 08

By afternoon, the exhibition hall had mostly cleared out.

I was tidying up my easel when I heard fast, frantic footsteps behind me.

“Nat!”

I turned. It was Sophie. She had lost so much weight. Her curls were a mess. Her eyes were red and swollen.

I’d heard she was here as a representative for a partner company back home, in town for an exchange event.

She rushed up to my paintings, her eyes locking onto that line—Dedicated to the girl who was always left behind—and the tears just started falling, huge drops rolling down her face.

“I’m sorry… Nat, I’m so sorry.”

She suddenly crouched down on the floor, her face buried in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably.

“When I saw your paintings, I finally realized how unbelievably selfish I’ve been.”

I stood where I was. I didn’t move to help her up.

She looked up at me through her tears, her voice cracking.

“I always thought Ethan favored me because we just clicked better at work. I loved the way he took care of me. I loved being the one he picked first. I was terrified of losing that—being the one who really got him. So I kept wedging myself between you two on purpose. I never meant to steal him, but I knew you’d step aside. And I let it happen.”

Sophie laid out every ugly, hidden corner of her heart right there in front of me.

I looked at her and thought back to freshman year. That bright smile when she’d pressed candy into my hand.

I sighed. My voice came out very soft.

“Sophie. There was a time I really thought of you as my best friend.”

Sophie cried even harder, her shoulders heaving.

I looked her in the eye and spoke slowly, clearly.

“I accept your apology. But we can’t go back to the way things were.”

I didn’t need to tear her down to feel good about myself.

I just didn’t want to be tangled up with people from my past anymore.

Not long after Sophie left, Ethan reappeared.

He reeked of alcohol, his steps unsteady.

He shuffled up to me, his body slightly hunched, looking pitiful and helpless.

He clutched his stomach, his voice weak.

“Nat, my stomach is killing me. I can’t find my way back to my hotel. Can you just… take me back?”

He looked at me with the same eyes that used to look down on me from above. But now they were filled with desperate pleading.

He thought if he just showed me his fragile side, I’d go soft again, just like I always used to.

I stared back at him, my gaze utterly clear.

“Ethan, you’re perfectly capable of taking care of yourself.”

I didn’t give him an inch. “You just got used to me being the one who did it. You just want me to step right back into that spot.”

Ethan’s body locked up.

The pleading in his eyes flickered out, replaced by pure panic.

He fumbled desperately for my hand.

“No, that’s not—I really know I screwed up. I’ll change. I’ll change everything. Let’s just start over, okay?”

I stepped back, dodging his touch. “Ethan, I didn’t leave hoping you’d finally learn to love me.”

I watched the color drain from his face and delivered the final verdict. “I left so I could finally learn to love myself.”

I turned and walked out into the night beyond the gallery.

The wind on the street corner was crisp and cold.

But I had never felt so light.

I looked up. Gavin was waiting under a streetlamp a short distance away, holding two cups of warm milk.

He saw me and the corner of his mouth lifted.

“Ready to go?”