Two Thousand Kilometers South, Away From Everyone I Loved Chapter 06

Two Thousand Kilometers South, Away From Everyone I Loved Chapter 06

Three months slipped by in Miami’s warm sunshine. Without the endless criticism and comparisons, my life felt lighter than it ever had before.

I joined the design studio and ranked first among all freshmen in my major. My advisor thought highly of me and put me in charge of a major university-industry collaboration project. I spent my – days in the studio and the library-busy, fulfilled. On weekends, I went with my roommate to the old streets of Miami for key lime pie and to the beach for sunsets.

My world no longer held the names Lucas Shaw or Anna Brown.

Two thousand miles north in Chicago, things were not going nearly as well. I pieced this together from scattered bits of information in high school group chats.

Anna’s prep school life was a complete disaster. She was used to the family handling everything for her and simply couldn’t function on her own. Her dorm relationships were tense-she was fighting with her roommates every few days. She couldn’t keep up with her coursework and ranked at the very bottom of every exam.

At first, Lucas and Leo still had the patience to clean up her messes. They helped her with homework. They bought her designer bags to bribe her roommates. But as time wore on, Anna’s demands only escalated. She even insisted that Lucas skip his own classes every day to pick her up for lunch outside her prep school building.

Lucas’s coursework on the main campus was already heavy enough. His patience gradually wore

thin.

The first heavy snowfall of winter blanketed Chicago. Lucas came down with a high fever. Lying in his apartment bed, he called out by pure habit, “Stella, get me a glass of warm water.”

The room was dead silent. No footsteps. No cup of water at just the right temperature. No girl who would stay up all night by his bedside, making sure he took his medicine on time.

Lucas’s eyes snapped open. He stared at the empty room, his head splitting with pain. He fumbled for his phone and, without thinking, opened the pinned chat at the top of his messages.

“I have a fever.”

A glaring red exclamation mark popped up on the screen. Message sent, but the recipient has

blocked you.

Lucas stared at that red exclamation mark for a long, long time. A sudden wave of inexplicable

irritation and panic surged up from somewhere deep inside him.

Three months. He’d thought Stella was just sulking-that once she’d suffered enough out there,

she’d come slinking back on her own. But she hadn’t. Not only had she not come back, she had

completely severed every single line of contact.

The door swung open. Anna walked in carrying a cup of iced latte, bringing a gust of cold air with

her.

“Lucas, are you feeling any better? My roommates were picking on me again today. Can you come yell at them for me tomorrow?”

She didn’t even glance at his pale, sickly face. She just kept complaining about her own problems.

Lucas looked at her, and suddenly a image flashed through his mind-Stella, the way she used to take care of him. Quiet. Meticulous. Never a single word of complaint.

“Get out.”

Lucas closed his eyes, his voice hoarse.

“What?” Anna froze.

“I said get out!” Lucas’s volume spiked sharply.

Anna’s eyes reddened with shock. She fled, slamming the door behind her.

The room fell silent once more. Lucas forced himself to sit up and opened a flight booking app. He bought a ticket on the next available flight to Miami.

He told himself he was just going to see how miserable she was down there. If she would just bow her head and admit she was wrong, he’d generously give her a way out and bring her back to

Chicago.

He still believed he was the one in control of everything.