“Now that I agree with.” Zack sighed. “I’ve been vacillating between thinking he’s a jerk and thinking this is all my fault. I made so many mistakes. I bumbled through the whole thing. I think, ‘I should have been honest about my insecurities,’ but then I’m like, ‘No, don’t blame yourself. He’s the one who cheated,’ and it all gets muddled in my head. I can’t stop picturing his face, either. At first I thought he didn’t care, but now I think he was just acting that way to mask his guilt. When I broke up with him, he looked devastated.”

“Sounds to me like you both did things you regret.”

Zack smiled weakly. “I guess. I keep replaying it in my head, changing one little thing every time in the hopes that it’ll somehow turn out differently.”

“Is the cheating not what really bothered you?”

Zack considered that. “I mean, it did, don’t get me wrong. It was what he said to me, though, that got under my skin.”

“What did he say?”

“He said I didn’t commit to him. He said it was unfair for me to expect him to give us his all when I wasn’t willing to do the same. I don’t think he was right, but . . .” Zack shrugged. “I think he thinks he’s right. Like he genuinely didn’t believe I was committed, so it doesn’t matter if I was or not, because I didn’t show it.”

“Maybe that’s what he was missing,” Mr. Alvarez said. “He wanted your whole heart and you were hesitant to give it to him. He took that as a sign that you didn’t really care for him. You’re both guilty of not being up front with one another.”

Zack groaned. “It’s like one of those bad teenage dramas where the whole plot could be fixed with two minutes’ worth of honest dialogue.” He ran a hand over his face and then asked, “What do you think I should do?”

“I’ve known you for a good few years, and you’ve never even mentioned wanting a relationship. Then this boy came along, and suddenly you looked like you were seeing the world in color for the first time. I don’t think you should be so quick to dismiss him.”

“I’m not going to date him just because he’s the first guy I’ve really liked,” Zack said flatly.

“I’m not saying you should. I’m saying you had a genuine connection what that boy. And from the sounds of things, he hurt you pretty badly. Maybe you should consider why he was able to do that.”

Zack supplied, “Because I actually cared about him?”

“Exactly. I told you before that relationships have to be balanced to work. That includes emotional balance. Do you think he cared about you less than you cared about him?”