He Planned Her Ocean Trip, I Booked a Different One Chapter 09

He Planned Her Ocean Trip, I Booked a Different One Chapter 09

One weekend evening, I agreed to Hayes’s invitation to see a musical together.

We’d barely stepped out of the theater when a figure darted out from the corner.

Gavin reeked of cigarettes, blocking our path.

His eyes were bloodshot as they locked onto the space between Hayes and me.

“So this is why you had to move to Valcrest?”

His jaw clenched, chest heaving. He jabbed a finger at Hayes. “You already had someone lined up, didn’t you?

That’s why you dumped me so

fast!”

He lunged for my arm.

Before I could move, a hand caught his wrist-steady, firm.

Hayes hadn’t flinched. Didn’t even frown.

He just took half a step forward, putting himself between me and Gavin.

“Back off, Gavin.”

His voice was calm. But his grip didn’t waver. He shoved Gavin’s hand away.

Gavin stumbled, glaring at Hayes, then turned to me.

“June, I’m taking you home!”

Hayes glanced at me, voice soft. “My car’s right there. I’ll drive you.

Two hands reached out.

I didn’t hesitate for a second.

I walked past Gavin’s frozen body and headed straight for Hayes’s SUV.

The engine started. I glanced in the rearview mirror.

Gavin stood alone on the curb, watching the taillights fade. He didn’t move.

A few days later, I got a call from Gavin’s mom.

She was sobbing on the other end. Gavin had spiked a fever that wouldn’t break-ended up in the ER,

hooked up to an IV. She begged me to visit. Said he kept calling my name.

I sighed. Took a half day off and went.

When I pushed open the hospital room door, Sully was there, leaning over his bed with a bowl of chicken

soup.

“Gavin, come on. Just a few sips. It’ll help your throat.”

His eyes were shut. He turned his head away from her.

Then he heard the door open.

His eyes snapped wide.

The second he saw me, his dull face lit up like I was oxygen.

“June-you came. I knew you wouldn’t leave me alone.”

He tried to sit up. The sudden movement tugged at his IV, sending Blood back into the tubing.

Sully was frozen beside him, her face red.

She shot up. Finally snapped.

“What’s so special about her?”

She pointed at me, voice shrill.

“She walked out on you like it was nothing! Didn’t even look back! And I’m the one who’s here-bringing you soup, staying by your side. Why can’t you just want me?!”

I looked at her face-twisted with jealousy.

It was almost funny.

I walked to the bed and said, calm and flat:

“Sully. You think holding a bowl of soup is love?”

I kept going.

“Senior year. He had severe depression. Couldn’t sleep for months.”

“I took him to therapy. Every week for a whole year.”

“When he couldn’t sleep, I stayed on the phone with him.”

“When he said he felt trapped, I took him on long bike rides just to get him out of the house.”

“When he said he wanted to jump into the river, I sat with him on the bank until sunrise.”

I held Sully’s stare, word by word.

“I gave up a place at a better university to stay close to him. Not because I had to. Because he needed me.”

The room went dead quiet.

Sully staggered backward her face pale.

Gavin lay there, tears spilling down his cheeks as he listened to the past I’d unearthed. His jaw clenched, a broken sound caught in his throat.

He finally understood what he’d destroyed.

He’d destroyed the one person who once pulled him out of hell.

Sully reached for his hand. “Gavin, I can do that too-I can be that person for you!”

He shoved her away.

“Get out! If it wasn’t for you, she never would’ve left! Get out!”

Sully froze, then ran out crying.

I looked down at him-sobbing, broken, pathetic.

Felt nothing.

“Gavin.”

My voice was quiet. Final.

“Get yourself together. Life’s long. Don’t make me lose all respect for you.”

I turned and walked out.

Didn’t look back.