Ezra’s eyebrows twist in confusion. “Are you two not still together?”

“Still together? I haven’t seen her since I last saw you.”

My phone buzzes again.

“Neither have I,” Ezra replies with regret written all over his face.

“Fuck,” I mutter.

“It’s okay,” he adds. “I know why she did it, and it was for the best. I’ve actually had time to get my shit together. You know...grow up and take care of myself for a change.”

I let out a laugh, not because it’s funny but because I know the feeling.

“Yeah, me too.”

My stupid fucking phone is buzzing again, and I’m about to toss it into the ocean. As I pull it out, Ezra keeps talking, saying something about me and Shelby and how he thought we were the real thing, but I’m too busy reading the words on my screen. I hate being rude, but my mind can’t possibly register what I’m looking at.

“Everything okay?” he asks, and I look up at him.

“No, it’s fucking not.”

Shelby

Of course he decides to go today. Mr. Yan held on for six months, shocking the hell out of all of us, but on the most nerve-wracking day of my life, I got the call from Mrs. Yan at 5:15 this morning.

The house is quiet when I show up. I walk right in and find the rest of the family exactly where I left them last night. His daughter and grandkids sit huddled on the couch, their tears dried and sad smiles greeting me.

I wave at them before going into the living room where Mrs. Yan holds her husband's lifeless hand. Painful tears prick behind my eyes as I watch them. Slowly I walk over and she greets me with a warm smile as she takes my hand.

Gently, I reach down and touch his face. He looks so peaceful, and surprisingly, so does Mrs. Yan.

“He’s not in pain anymore,” she whispers. Then, she surprises the hell out of me, and she hugs me toward her body. Mrs. Yan has hardly even touched me in the entire time I’ve been here. I assumed she hated me, but still with all the time I’ve been coming around, we’ve become like family. They have kept me over for dinner, and I was here Christmas morning, Santa hat and all.

So, it’s no surprise when my eyes start to mist over and I realize how much I’m going to miss his smile. When he took a turn for the worse, I prepared myself. But he shocked us all and stuck around for so much longer. Part of me thinks that he must have known what a hard time I was going through then. I lost my boyfriend and my brother. I had to start navigating my life alone and for myself. It’s a selfish thing to think that he held on, in pain, for me, but it’s almost fate that on the day that all of my training has led to tonight he decides to leave me.