THEO'S POV:
I parked my car a little farther from the café than usual.
I didn't even know why.
Maybe because my hands were shaking too much to park properly.
Maybe because my heart was beating so hard it felt like it was trying to warn me.
Or maybe some part of me, some small, terrified part, already knew I wasn't going to like what I'd find.
The bouquet of roses sat on the passenger seat beside me.
Perfect.
Carefully chosen.
Stupid.
I stared at it for a moment, my fingers tightening around the steering wheel.
Then I exhaled slowly, grabbed the flowers, and stepped out of the car.
The air was cold.
Too cold.
And the sky, which had only been cloudy a few minutes ago, suddenly broke open above me.
Rain came down hard.
Heavy.
Merciless.
Within seconds, my hair was soaked, my shirt clinging to my skin, and the bouquet in my hand was already being ruined by the water.
But I barely noticed.
My eyes were locked on the café.
On her café.
The warm yellow lights glowed softly through the rain-blurred windows, looking almost unreal against the darkness of the night.
For a second, I stood there in the storm, staring at it like it was the only place in the world that mattered.
Then I started walking.
Slowly.
Each step felt heavier than the last.
Rain splashed beneath my shoes, soaking through everything, but I kept going until I reached the side of the window.
I lifted my head.
And peeked inside.
And then,
I froze.
Everything inside me stopped.
My breath.
My heartbeat.
My thoughts.
All of it.
I couldn't move.
Couldn't blink.
Couldn't even process what I was seeing at first.
There was a man.
He was down on one knee in front of her.
Holding out a rose.
And Kayla,
She looked shocked for one second…
…and then happy.
So happy.
I watched her take the rose.
Smiling.
Nodding.
And in that exact moment,
My heart dropped.
Not metaphorically.
Not poetically.
I swear I actually felt it.
Like something inside my chest had physically collapsed.
A sharp, brutal pain ripped through me so suddenly I almost stumbled right there.
No.
No.
No, no, no,
I stared through the rain-covered glass, refusing to believe it.
Refusing to accept it.
But I already knew.
I had already lost.
Before I even walked in.
Before I even opened my mouth.
Before I even got the chance to tell her how I felt.
The battle had ended before I had the courage to start it.
And then,
I saw them kiss.
That was it.
That was the moment everything inside me shattered completely.
Not once.
Not cleanly.
But over and over again.
Like broken glass being crushed beneath someone's shoe.
Every second I looked at them felt like another piece of me snapping apart.
My fingers loosened.
The bouquet slipped from my hand and hit the wet ground with a soft, ruined thud.
I didn't even look down.
I couldn't.
My eyes burned.
Then suddenly my vision blurred.
Tears.
Hot, humiliating, unstoppable tears.
They spilled from my eyes so fast I couldn't stop them, mixing instantly with the freezing rain running down my face.
I stood there in the storm, watching the girl I loved kiss someone else.
And something inside me went numb.
The rain.
The cold.
The trembling in my body.
The way my clothes clung to my skin.
None of it mattered.
I couldn't feel any of it anymore.
Because the pain in my chest was so much worse.
So much bigger.
So much louder.
It drowned out everything else.
I took a step back.
Then another.
Unsteady.
Like my body had forgotten how to function.
I almost slipped, catching myself against the side wall of the café, my breath coming out in ragged bursts.
I couldn't stay there.
I couldn't keep watching.
So I turned.
And instead of going back toward my car,
I walked in the opposite direction.
I didn't even think about it.
I just… moved.
Like a ghost.
Like something empty wearing my skin.
The rain kept pouring down harder, drumming against the pavement, soaking me deeper with every step. The streetlights blurred in my vision, stretched into long golden smears by the tears and water in my eyes.
I walked without knowing where I was going.
My mind had gone blank.
No thoughts.
No direction.
No sense.
Only pain.
Raw, crushing, endless pain.
My chest tightened so hard I thought something was seriously wrong.
I stopped for a second and bent forward, gripping my knees, gasping.
Air.
I needed air.
But my lungs refused to work.
My breaths came out shallow and broken, like my body had forgotten how to breathe.
My chest burned.
My throat tightened.
I clutched at my shirt over my heart like that would somehow stop it from hurting.
But it didn't.
It only got worse.
I staggered forward again, my vision swimming.
After what felt like forever, I spotted a small convenience store still open at the corner of the road.
Its bright fluorescent lights cut through the darkness like a lifeline.
I pushed the door open with trembling hands.
The little bell above the entrance rang softly.
The warmth inside should've helped.
It didn't.
I walked to the counter, soaked from head to toe, dripping water all over the floor.
The cashier looked at me strangely, probably wondering why I looked like I'd just crawled out of a nightmare.
I couldn't even blame him.
"G-give me… a water bottle, please," I managed, my voice cracking.
He handed it to me without a word.
I paid quickly, my fingers clumsy and cold, then walked right back outside into the rain.
Because somehow the storm felt more bearable than being under bright lights where someone might actually see me falling apart.
I kept walking until I reached the side of the road.
Then I sank down onto the wet footpath like my legs could no longer hold me up.
I didn't care that the pavement was freezing.
Didn't care that dirty rainwater soaked through my jeans.
Didn't care about anything.
I twisted the bottle open with shaking hands and drank the entire thing in one go, like maybe if I filled myself with something, anything, it would stop the emptiness tearing through me.
But it didn't.
Nothing did.
I lowered the bottle slowly.
And then…
I broke.
A sound tore out of me so violently it didn't even feel human.
A scream.
Raw.
Ragged.
Full of every ounce of pain I had been holding in.
I screamed into the rain.
Into the empty road.
Into the night that didn't care.
I screamed until my throat burned.
Until my chest felt like it was splitting open.
Until tears poured so hard I couldn't tell where the rain ended and I began.
Because no one could hear me here.
No one could see me.
Not in this storm.
Not like this.
So I let it all out.
The heartbreak.
The humiliation.
The hope I had built so carefully only for it to be crushed in seconds.
The stupid bouquet.
The confession I never got to make.
The dream I had carried in silence for so long.
Everything.
I let it all spill out into the rain like maybe the storm would wash it away.
But it didn't.
It stayed.
Every piece of it stayed.
I pressed a trembling hand over my mouth, trying to muffle the broken sounds leaving me.
My whole body shook.
Not from the cold.
From grief.
From the kind of pain that doesn't bleed, but somehow still feels fatal.
I stared down at the wet pavement, breathing in short, uneven gasps.
And the only thought left in my ruined mind was...
I was too late.
Too late to confess.
Too late to hope.
Too late to matter.
And maybe…
Maybe I was never meant to be chosen at all.