He Dropped Me at the Service Station to Take Her Home Chapter 08

He Dropped Me at the Service Station to Take Her Home Chapter 08

He sat hunched on the concrete steps, head hanging low, a pothos plant resting on the ground beside his feet.

He’d lost a noticeable amount of weight, heavy dark purple bruise-like circles under his eyes.

The second he caught sight of me, he stumbled unsteadily to his feet.

“Ellie.”

He sprinted forward and blocked my path completely.

I stopped walking, staring at him with an empty, neutral expression.

His lips trembled, and it took him ages to force words out.

“How have you been? You look thinner.”

“Actually, I gained five full pounds.”

Vivianne Croft, my internship supervisor, had joked while signing my internship certificate that I

was a natural at the job-despite all the work stress, I’d put on healthy weight.

I only smiled faintly at the memory.

Ever since the breakup, my sleep quality had skyrocketed.

My mental state was far better than it had ever been before.

When I stayed silent, Cas took a step forward and reached out to touch my cheek.

I flinched backward to avoid his hand.

His arm froze mid-air, then slowly dropped to his side.

“Ellie, I’m so sorry.”

His voice was rough and hoarse, his gaze filled with desperate panic.

“I messed up everything, horribly.”

“I never should’ve left you stranded at that highway rest stop. I never should’ve failed to protect

you when you needed me most.”

He stared down at his own trembling fingers.

“I searched every place I could think of for you. Izzy told me you were interning somewhere, but I had no clue which city, and you’d blocked all my numbers-”

“Ellie, I know every single mistake I made.”

His eyes turned bright red, staring at me with an almost begging look.

It felt surreal. All these years knowing him, I’d never seen him look at me like this.

Normally, he’d only gaze at me like I was throwing a childish, unreasonable tantrum.

“Caspian, do you know why I fell for you at first?”

He blinked, caught off guard by my question.

I smiled softly, my voice quiet.

“Because you were the first person who ever really saw me.”

“I never had to fight Izzy for attention, never had to shrink myself just to keep everyone happy and

never had to beg anyone to care about me. Someone just naturally remembered every food I loved and every thing I hated.”

“But then you turned into my parents all over again. Suddenly your eyes only ever locked onto

Izzy.”

Every drop of color drained from his face. He opened his mouth to argue.

I didn’t give him the chance to speak.

“Caspian, you’re in love with Isolde, aren’t you?”

“You just dated me first, so you twisted your own feelings around to avoid admitting it to yourself.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore, though. We broke up. There’s nothing standing between you two now. I genuinely wish you both happiness.”

I meant every word I said.

His face crumpled like he was about to break down completely.

“That’s not true at all, Ellie. I don’t have feelings for Izzy.”

“How can you even say that? I only treat her kindly because of you!”

I lifted an eyebrow, still smiling faintly.

“From my perspective, every single action of yours screams that you’re head over heels for her.”

“Your passenger seat-your official girlfriend can’t sit there, but she’s welcome anytime.”

“You panicked so hard over her discomfort that you abandoned me in an unfamiliar rest stop miles

from home.”

“You share a single bottle of Coke with her, and when glass fragments came flying down at us, your

automatic reaction was to shield her instead of me.”

“That new dress you gave me when I left the hospital-you originally bought it for Izzy, didn’t you? I saw it hanging in her bedroom closet.”

“If none of that counts as loving someone, then tell me what does love even look like to you?”

His head snapped upward, his lips moving uselessly, no sound escaping.

I glanced at his pale, devastated face, let out a scoff, and dragged my rolling suitcase straight past

him.

Cas’s cracking voice echoed behind me.

“I’ll change, Ellie. I swear I’ll fix every single flaw.”

I kept walking, not slowing down or glancing back once.