“You did this, Dominic. Not me. Maybe things would have been different if you hadn’t gone to that barbecue. Maybe we’d still be together. But you did go, and you hurt me more than I’ve ever been hurt before. This whole time I kept thinking that something must have been wrong with you, that something had happened to you and it was my responsibility to figure out what that was and remind you we were meant to be. But none of this was my fault. You made a mistake and made it even worse by not coming clean right from the start. But maybe now I can thank you. Because you hurting me led to the most magical past few weeks of my life. And maybe if you’re more honest with yourself and your boyfriends in the future, you can have that magic too.”

Dominic stares for what feels like a lifetime. But this isn’t my awkward silence to fill. Eventually, D nods once, then walks away, tears silently pouring down his face as he leaves the theater.

That’s it.

I finally have the closure I needed all this time.

At first, I couldn’t stand that Dominic was so vague when he said he just wasn’t feeling our relationship anymore. But if he’d explained this whole thing from the start, I never would have spent so much time with Ross.

“Sean.”

And there they are, running through the screening room doors. The lobby lights flash off the gold sequins of their jumpsuit. The look of concern, of hurt, of confusion on their perfect face sends a knife to my heart.

I need to take my own advice. I need to do what Dominic didn’t.

I just need to be honest.

     Ross     

The second our eyes lock, words spill out of us both.

“I might not want to go back.”

“I think you need to go back.”

My heart slams against my chest. He can’t have said what I think he just said.

“You want me to leave?” I ask.

Sean shakes his head so hard that his bow tie comes loose. “No, I don’t, but I don’t think you should stay either. I don’t want you to make this choice because I’m a completely manipulative asshole. That movie, Ross. At first I started making it so that I could remember your face and these last few weeks forever, but then I thought, if you saw it, you might want to stay too.

“Then Kavya told me something really important about her mom, something I don’t think is my place to share. But I think Coraline misses the Blue and I don’t want to be the person who pulls you away from that. Please don’t let that short change your mind. Don’t stay up here, Ross. You can’t stay up here.”

“Wow,” I breathe.