They Were the Stars, I Was Just in Their Orbit Chapter 08
The next day, Nina rushed over soon after she heard I was back.
“April!”
I looked up blankly from my breakfast.
Her unfamiliar, gaunt appearance startled me.
“You…”
Her eyes were red, and she cut me off in an urgent voice.
“Listen to me.”
“I’m sorry. Ever since you and Ethan got together in high school, I didn’t know what was wrong with me.”
“You had always been the sweet, clueless one I kept safe behind me, but Ethan, the person I had always looked up to, fell for you.”
“Those days were unbearable for me. I didn’t want anyone taking you away from me, same time, I couldn’t stop wondering what you had that I didn’t.”
but at the “That day in the operating room, I suddenly got distracted because I imagined you cutting me off for good. That was why I made the mistake.”
“I’m truly sorry. I did so many things that hurt you.”
After saying all that, Nina seemed to lose all her strength and collapsed onto the floor of my parents’ house.
I did not know how to describe what I was feeling in that moment.
We had been best friends since elementary school.
In my memory, Nina had always been my brilliant protector.
Seeing her go from the confident, high-spirited person she had once been to this version of herself made it feel as if a large hand had closed around my heart.
Even so, I set down my fork and quickly helped her up from the floor.
Then I spoke calmly and solemnly.
“Nina, let the past stay in the past.”
“I’m very happy with the life I have now.”
She looked at me as two silent tracks of tears slid down her face, and for the last time, she called my name.
“April.”
There was too much between Nina and me. No amount of time could untangle all of it.
Besides, I did not want to untangle it, and I did not want to look back.
So everything between us ended there.
After she left, Ryan finally got out of bed.
Still half-asleep, he rested his head against my back.
“Baby, who was that?”
“A friend.”
A week passed quickly.
Ryan and I still went out every day, looking everywhere for materials.
I just did not expect Ethan to call me again.
I had changed my number when I went to Asheville, and I had no idea where he had gotten it.
When I answered, a stranger’s voice came through.
“Hi, are you a friend of this phone’s owner? He’s drunk and says he wants you to come get him.”
When I arrived at the cocktail lounge the stranger had named, Ethan was sitting in a booth with his head lowered.
The moment he saw me, the darkness on his face finally thawed.
He grabbed my hand tightly, his skin frighteningly hot against mine.
“April, you came.”
“I had a nightmare. I dreamed you didn’t want me anymore, and that you had a new boyfriend.”
“Thank God. Thank God it was only a dream.”
Ethan was not fully conscious. All he knew was to keep calling my name.
My head started to ache. He had never touched alcohol before, so how had he drunk this much?
I asked the staff for a damp towel and placed it over his face.
Then I booked him a rideshare and gave the license plate number to the staff.
When he sensed that I was leaving, Ethan refused to let go.
I sighed and called him out.
“Enough. Since when did you become this childish?”
“I’ve never seen you drink, but you still have work tomorrow. You wouldn’t actually let yourself get drunk.”
After a moment of silence, Ethan reached up and pulled the towel from his face. His eyes were dark and unreadable.
“If you knew, why did you still come?”
“My boyfriend doesn’t know you well. He was worried, so he came with me to check on you.”
With that, I picked up my bag and turned to leave.
Just as I reached the door, Ethan’s pained voice came from behind me.
“April, if I could, I really wish this were only a dream. I wish I could open my eyes and find us back in school, with you sitting right beside me.”
I did not look back.
“Too bad this isn’t a dream.”