Let Him Stumble While You Climb Chapter 10

Let Him Stumble While You Climb Chapter 10

I returned to school to study for finals.

As finals week approached, everyone in our high school group chat started complaining about how difficult their classes were, turning the chat into one long venting session.

Caleb had always been one of the most active people in the group, but after what I had said to him that night, he never posted there again.

Once my exams were over, I went home.

Christmas was only a few days away, so Mom and I bought piles of decorations and filled the house with holiday cheer.

Caleb had always spent Christmas with us because his parents worked abroad most of the year and mostly left him on his own.

“Vera, why isn’t Caleb home yet?” Mom asked, looking at the dark house across the street.

“Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. He might not even get a hot Christmas dinner. Taking a gap year must be putting him under a lot of pressure.”

I did not look up from my phone.

“He brought it on himself,” I replied casually.

To my surprise, Caleb knocked on our door on Christmas Eve.

He came inside carrying two large bags of Christmas presents.

—

Mom greeted him warmly.

“Caleb, you must be exhausted from all that studying.”

“Vera bought a bunch of sparklers. We can light them together after dinner.”

Caleb nodded obediently.

I took only a few bites before setting down my knife and fork and heading upstairs.

Caleb had just picked up his utensils when he froze mid-motion.

Mom called after me, “Vera, you begged me to buy Maine lobster. Why are you going upstairs without eating any of it?”

I did not turn around.

“I lost my appetite.”

That left Caleb unable to decide whether he should keep eating or simply leave.

He lowered his head and kept cutting at the food on his plate, not daring to say a word.

The entire meal passed in strained, uneasy silence.

“Don’t take it personally, Caleb,” Mom reassured him. “Vera is probably just tired after shopping with me all day. Once she’s rested, we can all go outside and light the sparklers.”

Caleb nodded.

But by nearly eleven that night, I still had not left my room.

—

“I should probably go,” he said as he stood. “Thank you for dinner.”

“From now on…”

Caleb sighed and swallowed the rest of the sentence.

Mom walked him to the door.

“Come by and spend time with Vera whenever you’re free, Caleb.”

He nodded again.

He no longer trusted himself to speak, afraid that a sob might slip out.

Fortunately, the blizzard hid both the moonlight and his tears.

I stood by my window and watched Caleb remain motionless in our front yard.

Melting snow darkened his coat in uneven patches.

The wind grew stronger, and the snow fell harder until his figure was nearly swallowed by the white.

Ice crystals clung to his eyelashes and scattered whenever he blinked.

His lips had turned blue from the cold, and he stood there as if even his thoughts had frozen. After a long while, he finally seemed to register the Christmas bells tolling in the distance, one solemn chime after another.

He looked up at my curtained bedroom window.

“Merry Christmas, Vera Esposito,” he whispered.

—

Caleb moved away.

No one knew where he went.

I returned to school. New buds appeared on the bare branches, then grew into thick green leaves.

Summer arrived before I realized it.

When another college application season began, everyone wondered where Caleb would finally be accepted.

But on the night early-decision results were released, he left our high school group chat.

After that, none of us heard from him again.

When the next academic year began, I checked Harvard’s incoming student list.

Caleb’s name was not there.

The boy who had fought desperately for another chance at Harvard had failed to make it after all.

As the saying goes, you reap what you sow.

Many years later, I graduated from Harvard and went on to join the executive ranks of a leading company.

Morgan eventually became the pack Alpha.

We never became mates. He met his true mate first and chose to let me go.

Not every story has a tidy ending.

—

Morgan and I became close friends, and our former classmates continued holding reunions every year.

The gatherings grew larger over time.

More and more people arrived with their mates, and eventually with children, filling the hall with laughter and noise.

Little by little, everyone forgot Caleb.

So did I.

The youth I had wasted on him and the pain that had once cut so deeply eventually faded into the past.

Caleb Davis no longer had any place in my life.

All that remained ahead of me was a life in full bloom beneath an endless blue sky.