I Stressed for Months to Be With Them — They Were Never Planning to Be With Me Chapter 05

I Stressed for Months to Be With Them — They Were Never Planning to Be With Me Chapter 05

“That’s impossible, Mr. Parker. Claire promised we’d start college together.”

Asher still assumed I was only angry and would contact him once I calmed down.

Mr. Parker patted him on the shoulder.

“The house is empty. I heard Mr. Bennett was transferred to Chicago for work, so the whole family

moved.”

Asher immediately pulled out his phone and called me, but every call rang out unanswered.

Standing beside him, Vanessa lowered her eyes and spoke remorsefully.

“This is all my fault. Claire wouldn’t have gotten jealous or left if it weren’t for me.”

“I’ll apologize to her and explain everything. I won’t let her keep misunderstanding us.”

Asher frowned but said nothing.

He opened our group chat to ask where I had gone, only to discover that I had already left.

Unease set in as he opened our private chat, typed a message, and saw a red error symbol appear

beside it.

“She blocked me.’

Vanessa held up her phone.

“I was just about to apologize to Claire, but she blocked me too.”

Asher frowned and turned toward her.

“You know what Claire’s like. What exactly happened between you two in the restroom that night?”

Vanessa lowered her gaze and answered casually.

“I don’t really know. She accused me of stealing you from her. I kept telling her that wasn’t true,

but she refused to believe me.”

Her answer made Asher think back over the past few weeks, and he realized he had barely spent any meaningful time with me because nearly every free moment had gone to Vanessa.

A sudden sense of panic seized him.

Unable to sit still any longer, he asked his mother to call Mrs. Bennett and find out where I was.

When the call connected, Mrs. Bennett spoke in her usual gentle voice.

“Claire went to London to study fine art at Alderwick College of Art and Design. Her father was transferred to Chicago, so we sold the house and moved there.”

Panicking, Asher reached for his mother’s phone, unable to hide the urgency in his voice.

“Mrs. Bennett, could you please give me Claire’s new number? I need to explain everything to her.”

“Asher, there’s no need.”

“You and Claire grew up together, so you should know that once she decides what she wants, no one

can stop her.”

Mrs. Bennett’s tone remained kind, but there was no room for

“The last few years of high school were miserable for Claire.”

argument.

“She had loved painting since she was little, yet she gave up art school because of the promise she made to you and Vanessa.”

“She barely slept during that time. Her father and I saw how much she was hurting, even when she

tried to hide it.”

“She’s happy in London now. Please don’t disturb her life anymore.”

“Mrs. Bennett, I didn’t mean to…”

Before Asher could finish, she quietly ended the call.

Vanessa persuaded him to get something to eat. When he saw the cilantro in his burrito bowl, he remembered how Claire always picked it out for him. He immediately lost his appetite.

For days afterward, his phone remained unnervingly silent, with no one sending him the small updates Claire used to share throughout the day.

[Asher, look at the sunset. Isn’t it gorgeous?]

[The bakery near school has a new dessert. When are we going to try it?]

When his phone finally chimed, Asher snatched it up, expecting a message from Claire.

Instead, it was Vanessa sending one message after another, rambling about every detail of her day.

In the past, he would’ve responded to each one, but now he found her constant messages irritating and couldn’t even bring himself to open them.

Only then did he understand that Claire had truly left him.