He Said He Only Pretended to Love Me, So I Left Him Chapter 02
In that instant, I almost saw the old Jace, the one who’d doted on me my whole life.
Looking at his face, I gripped my suitcase so hard my knuckles ached, and a flood of hurt nearly spilled out of me.
Then, in the next heartbeat, he just turned around and walked away.
Like those two sentences he’d just said were nothing more than something I imagined.
After dinner, the freshman group chat lit up with a notice about a mandatory orientation meeting that night.
I sat in the auditorium, staring at my Instagram username—the one that secretly held both our names. My mind kept looping through every cold, dismissive detail from the day.
A fresh wave of hurt hit me, and I made a hard choice: I changed the username I’d been using for three years.
Ten minutes later, my phone buzzed. A message from Jace made my chest clench.
[Why did you suddenly change your username?]
I didn’t know whether to be happy he’d noticed such a tiny shift, or crushed that he only asked about it after I’d already decided to let it go.
My head was a mess, so I deleted the message and didn’t reply.
But of course, the one person I wanted to avoid was the person I couldn’t escape. The older student the advisor brought in to share study tips—he was him..
Watching him stand at the podium, completely at ease, I felt it for the first time. We were so close and yet so far.
Close enough that only a few rows separated us.
Far enough that even though I had his number and could message him anything, I didn’t deserve to leave a single like on his Instagram.
When the meeting ended, I planned to slip out the back.
“Lena!”
Jace’s clear voice rang through the entire lecture hall. Amid a sea of meaningful looks from our classmates, he cut through the crowd straight toward me.
My roommate nudged my back with her elbow and whispered, “Boyfriend? He’s hot.”
I opened my mouth to explain, but Jace was already there, holding a huge bag of snacks. “A little something. Hope you guys enjoy.”
Everyone circled around, eyes sliding between me and Jace like they were watching a slow-burn romance.
I couldn’t put a name to the knot in my chest, only that those probing stares were crushing me. I couldn’t take it. I pushed through the group and out the door.
“Let’s talk outside.”
At the campus pond near the library, I sat on a stone bench and deliberately kept my face cold. “So, talk. What’s up?”
He stood there a moment, then suddenly laughed. “Why so serious?”
He dropped onto the bench next to me. “It’s just the start of the semester. I just wanted to bring snacks for the freshmen. The older students do it all the time.”
Whether he meant to or not, he scooted half an inch closer after he sat down. Our hands on the bench were nearly touching.
I thought that was the moment I should’ve felt nervous, shy, ready to finally spill the crush I’d never confessed. But my body was screaming at me to back away. My blood was practically freezing.
He gazed out at the pond, his voice gentle. “Look. Under that bridge—there are black swans. You’ve always loved those.”
“Funny timing—they just added these in May, and then you got here in September.”
He turned to me, and in the quiet dark, his eyes were startlingly bright. “Lena, you know what? When I heard you were coming to our school, I was genuinely happy.”
A breeze swept past us, skimming the pond before it settled somewhere deep in my chest.
In that atmosphere, the question inside me almost slipped out on its own.
“Then this morning, why did you delete my likes on—”
“Hey! There you guys are!”
Carla burst out of nowhere, slapping our shoulders and cutting me off.
She slung an arm around me. “There might be a dorm check tonight for freshmen. Want to walk back together?”
I had no idea if she’d overheard us. Flustered, I stood up. “Let’s head back.”
On the way, Carla pulled me ahead, and Jace trailed behind us alone. He had his phone out, thumbs tapping constantly.
I was replying to my roommate when I glanced at Instagram.
Jace’s latest post.
[Happy tonight.]
In the top corner of the photo, a faint sliver of my shadow stretched under the streetlamp.
I gripped my phone, my pulse quickening. That small, stupid hope inside me flared right back up. What did he mean by that?
Before I could untangle the thought, we reached the dorm entrance. The lights here were brighter.
And that’s when I noticed it. The necklace around Carla’s neck. It looked so familiar.
