chapter SEVENTY SIX // last chapter

76 (unedited) weLL NOTHING IN THIS BOOK IS EDITED SO

He kept staring at the door, until the knob turned and a head popped out.

"Yes-? Oh, Lucas!"

Lucas so wished Claire carried this enthusiasm with her everytime she saw him. Disappointingly, it was Chandler who had opened the door. And now, he had opened it wide, "Hop in!"

Lucas looked down at his boots. "No, it's alright. Can you get Claire to come out? I-if you don't mind?" He muttered, the flowers almost squished between his arms and his chest.

"Surely. But it's cold, why don't you come in-?"

"Please?"

Chandler just nodded blankly, and stepped back to go get his cousin out, not before eyeing the roses and smiling softly.

Lucas felt like he looked desperate, as if he was trying extremely hard, which he was, and everyone noticed expect Claire. Would she like his presence? Would she like to spend Christmas with him every year until one of them takes a leave? Would Claire be proud of his confession and confidence?

He had no clue about it at all.

Yes, he was here to confess. And it was eating him up, through it wasn't the first time.

He would make it official this time. He would make sure that everyone knows who he wants to spend his future with

"...Lucas?"

His head shot up to look at the owner of the soft whisper, and found himself standing in front of Claire. All she did was step out into the cold and close the door behind her. His throat went dry.

"C-Claire-"

"Why are you here?" She asked. "You look cold." And she dusted off the snow from his shoulders and took off her own warm jacket to wrap it around the shaking boy. "Who asked you to get out of your house? You'll fall sick, and we don't want that now on Christmas, do we?"

He lowered his gaze. "I brought you flowers." He mumbled, before extending his hands and handing it over to her, to which she just stared. "Merry Christmas."

".. Merry Christmas." She said, but made no move to accept the roses.

"T-The flowers?" His eyes turned doey, a little wet and hurt that she didn't accept them.

She gulped. "Why?" She breathed. "Why did you buy me flowers?"

He wanted to stab himself with a spear and dig his own grave. How embarrassing.

"Because it's Christmas-" he started, but he went quiet. "Actually, I'm here to confess. And I don't care that you won't take the flowers."

He dropped the roses next to his feet, like blood stains on white marble.

"We've been through this." She stated, looking away, not even a single expression showing up on her bland face.

"I'm here because I realised... I.. I came to ask you .. about.." and how he wished someone else could speak for him, where the words wouldn't be crumbling in his throat under the pressure. He gripped his long sleeved jacket in his fists tightly. "I want you to be- m-my,"

"Would you like to come in?" She asked, already knowing what's to come.

"No." He shook his head. "I want to do it here."

"Okay." She just stared, dull gaze on his bloodshot eyes. "But listen, I know what you're here for. And I also want you to know something, before you waste your words on me, save them." His heart was beating loudly and lively, every passing second made it hard for him to breathe.

"What is it?" He asked. The temperature was suddenly rising, and he couldn't tolerate the contrasting effects he was having.

"First things first. I'm moving out." And she said it in one quick go, as if she wasted one more second not telling him, the hell would have fallen apart.

But Lucas, being hopeful as equivalent to a new born blossom, fluttered his eyes shut for a second before opening up again. "That's great! We'll still be meeting in school anyway, and after that, we can move in together because we're 18 already and-"

"You don't get it, do you?" She chuckled. "I knew you wouldn't. There's a lot you don't understand."

I understand, I just don't want it to be true.

"I got into this college. It's run by my uncle, who's willing to spare me a seat. The college is few kilometres away from SanFransico."

"That's even amazing!" Lucas' eyes brimmed with tears, but they never fell, still holding on. "Long distance relationships are quite hard, but we will make it." He said, looking at her, as she faced the ground. "Won't we?"

"I'm sorry. Second things second," she announced, while Lucas waited patiently for her to tell him. "We won't work, because everything that's happening seems so, so, against us."

Where Lucas felt that it was right to be here, Claire felt exactly the other way around.

"You're kidding, right?" He laughed bitterly.

"No. I've been thinking about this just as much as you have. I realised, we're better without each other, because we're poles apart. You. You have a future which I don't want to ruin."

"You're wrong. We fit in like a puzzle." He said, tears finally slipping out of its cage, but he still had hope. "And I have no future without you."

"You're just mad right now." She reasoned with her own words. "Move on, and you'll know that it's for the best. We haven't even had that much of a connection anyway. We never went on actual dates, never shared secrets, never did anything that a couple did, so it should be okay."

He placed his hands on her shoulders, taking a step forward. "We shared so many secrets! I told you about every single thing that happened in my life-"

"I know you did. But did I?" Her words prompted him to stop himself from cupping her face with his hands.

"Will she also trust you enough to tell you her darkest secrets?"

His thoughts went blank, as he tried searching for her secrets, that she might have told him. "Well, you told me about Vincent." He insisted.

"That wasn't a secret. The whole school knows about it." She took a deep, cold breath. "We were too good to be true."

"It's alright, I cant care enough about secrets. We're still good together-"

"Lucas." Claire was slowly giving up, and she hated that she was. "I'll apologise for leading you. It's my fault. It's time, we stop. We should go on our separate ways."

And with that, the silence settled in. In midst of the silence, something cracked somewhere deep inside Lucas, and he heard it loud and clear. He didn't know what to do.

"Y-you were the one who started it." He choked out his words, remembering how Claire was head over heels for him, following him around and what not. He should have ran while he had the chance.

"About that, yes I started it, and I'm going to end it." Claire put on a smile. "It was my mistake. I thought you would help me move on from Vincent, but turned out, all you did was remind me of him. You know, you have almost every quality that Vincent had. Maybe that's why I had an interest in you. You can call me self-centred, I was so desperate to forget Vincent that I never realised I was only gonna end up hurting you. As I said, I apologise."

"You.. You used me?"

The only move she pulled was staying quiet, as if it would deliver the message. And oddly, it did.

What should he tell his dad? That, this was the moment he witnessed his greatest failure? and that his dad's words came true?

"Right, my dad was right. For some reason, he's always right." He scoffed, raising his head up and glancing at the sky as tiny bits of snow fell on his forehead. He shrugged off Claire's jacket from around him, and it fell on the ground while he continued staring at the sky. "You don't know how bad you messed up. But it's alright, yeah? I'm here to clean up after you."

"Clean up after you." He felt used.

"Yeah. After all, we should put this childish story to an end before I leave."

"Or maybe not." He lowered his head back. "You're not leaving."

She sighed. Everything she said, and this boy still..

"Lucas-"

"I'm gonna do that. I'm going to leave. I'm at fault too here, that I put my trust into you. I should have known ages ago, the moment you walked into that cafeteria and everything about you screamed 'trouble'."

It was something about the way Lucas looked at Claire in a different way now, a new spark of broken hope evident in his eyes, and it all together made Claire gulp so hard.

"Thank you for teaching me to lower my walls, and at the same time making me regret it."

And turned around, stepped on the jacket mindlessly and walked out of the place. If he had a chance to turn back time, he would make sure to have never met her on the bleachers that day.

The very next moment he turned around the corner, Claire fell onto her knees.

Her pressed emotions escaping through her eyes as she balled her fists, her nails digging through her palms in the most painful way yet, everything felt so numb.

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The end guys, it's the end.

IMPORTANT

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR STICKING WITH THIS STORY FOR SO LONG. UNFORTUNATELY, IT HAS COME TO AN END SJJSIJSSJSKSJS

chapter dedication: Violence_In_Silence

For everyone who has supported this story, I dedicate this whole book to you. Thank you, for the ones who made me covers on this book, and those who took genuine interest and dmed me to know more.

My original idea included a sequel, but for months, this book didn't get any reads, so I had to drop the idea. But now, I think I can make a sequel, ONLY if anyone agrees on it. I have the plot set.

So fifteen comments saying that they agree will be more than okay for me to post the sequel. (I'll shortly upload the summary of sequel and you can decide on that.)

I love all of you guys. Thank you for helping me complete my first ever book.

I apologise for such an ending, but I promise to bring in a lot of new ideas if a sequel is made. I'd love to work on something much more mature than this childish story.

Thank you -s