He Spoke French to Her So I Couldn’t Understand Chapter 05

He Spoke French to Her So I Couldn’t Understand Chapter 05

**Owen’s hand hung in the air.** The pendant hit his palm with a small, soft sound.

Luna couldn’t stop the smile before it flickered across her mouth. She lowered her eyes just as quickly. “Sienna, don’t do something you’ll regret.”

I didn’t look at her.

Owen stared at me like I’d just spoken a language he’d never heard. “Say it again.”

“We’re done.”

He actually laughed. “Fine, Sienna. Look at you growing a backbone.”

Riley grabbed my suitcase. “Let’s go.”

I’d taken two steps when Owen’s hand locked over my shoulder. “You’ve had your meltdown. Now get on the bus. Don’t pull the breakup card to threaten me.”

I peeled his fingers off. “It’s not a card.”

The smirk froze on his face.

The tour guide was losing it. “Guys, we are seriously going to miss our departure.”

Luna murmured, “Owen, let’s just go. Don’t hold everyone up.”

Owen was still looking at me. “Sienna, I’m asking you one last time. Are you getting on?”

The bus door was open. The seats were full. Everyone was waiting for me to fold.

I handed my ticket to Riley. “You go ahead. I’ll rebook.”

Riley’s eyes went wide. “You sure you’ll be okay on your own?”

“I’ll be fine.”

Owen’s voice went cold. “You don’t have your ID. How are you going to rebook?”

I slid my ID out of my phone case. He went still. Because before, he was always the one holding things like that for me.

He always said I had no sense of direction and couldn’t keep track of anything. I’d never been scattered. I’d just loved the way he fussed over me.

The bus door shut. Owen stood at the bottom of the steps and didn’t move.

Luna called him from the window. “Owen.”

The sound snapped him out of it. He climbed aboard. Before the bus pulled away, he messaged me.

[You can still fix this.]

I blocked him.

On the rebooked train, I took a window seat. The city slid backward and my phone stayed silent, like Owen Shaw had never existed. Riley texted me a wall of pure fury, ending with, […where are you going?]

I typed back, [Grandma’s.]

My grandmother lived in a small Southern town, Charleston, South Carolina. She’d barely called me all senior year, terrified she’d mess with my focus.

When she opened the door and saw me standing there with my suitcase, she froze. “Weren’t you supposed to come home tomorrow?”

I said, “I missed you.”

She didn’t ask another question. She just pulled me into her arms.

At dinner, she piled food onto my plate. “The acceptance letters haven’t come yet. Just sleep for a few days while you’re here.”

I nodded. I’d already swapped my SIM card. The old one, I snapped in half and threw in the trash.

That night while I was unpacking, Owen’s scarf slipped out of a hidden compartment.

Faded gray-blue, the edges frayed. The winter he’d given it to me, he’d said he’d buy me a new one every year. He forgot the second year. The third year, he remembered and grabbed one off a rack at the mall. The tags were still on it. He’d told me to take them off myself.

I folded both scarves together and placed them in a cardboard box. The box held sticky notes he’d written, bookmarks he’d given me, his busted old earbuds. I was pressing the lid down when my grandmother knocked and came in. “Are you sure?”

I touched the lid. “Yeah.”

She sighed and set a letter on my desk. My grandfather’s handwriting was on the envelope. “Your grandpa said to give this to you after your exams.”

Inside was a photograph. A young version of him stood in front of a university gate, my grandmother beaming beside him. The letter was thick, the script steady.

He told me never to give up the path I wanted for anyone else. Under his signature, he’d added the line he used to say to me all the time. [When someone shows you who they are, you don’t have to prove anything. Just walk away. Let them figure it out later.]

I tucked the letter away. Outside, the rain was coming down.

A new number popped up on my phone. [Sienna, where the hell are you?]

She knew where I was, and that I’d always come one day.

She was making quilts when Riley called. She said Owen had shown up at her class. He even showed up at my old dorm, his face total panic.

“You always said this place was the best. I waited in line.”

I had mentioned it once. That day, Owen had biked across half the city to get it. He was panting so hard, but he’d held the bag up to me. “Don’t let it go to waste.”

I took the first bite and fed it straight to him.

Now he was on the doorstep, the wax paper bag going soft in the sun. I didn’t take it.

“I know that what I said that day was out of line.”

A ripple went through the group chat, saying he was freaking out.

Riley sent a message on her end. “Oh, and Owen left the group chat.”

Her group chat. It wasn’t a surprise.

He wanted me to apologize. They heard him mention the evil eye necklace. All the people who knew me.

“I just didn’t want her standing there awkwardly.”

“What’s going on with you?”

“Were you waiting for the college acceptance letters?”

The panic in his eyes was impossible to hide. “How do you know about that?” And then, his mouth froze.

My grandmother blocked him. His voice came out raw. “Sienna, that was ours.”

He remembered it, took one look at the bag of chestnut cake I loved, and brought it anyway.

“From zero?”

He tried to reach out.

As the bus passed on the road, Owen set the chestnut cake on the doorstep.

The stones were cold. I shut the door and locked it.

A flicker of hope crossed his face. A heartbeat later, I placed the box outside. “Don’t come back.”

His hand was still stretched toward me.