Seven Years of Love Seven Minutes of Truth

Chapter 15

I managed to avoid seeing Aiden again until move–in day, though it wasn’t easy living next door. I’d time my coffee runs and grocery trips for when his car wasn’t in the driveway, Started taking the long way to everywhere, just in case.

Maya sent me his Instagram post a perfectly filtered photo of him and Madison at some rooftop party, his caption announcing they were official. I deleted the notification without opening it, but not before catching a glimpse of the likes piling up. All our mutual friends, already accepting this new reality.

I went through my social media with surgical precision, blocking anyone connected to him. His friends, his cousins, even his little sister who used to borrow my makeup. There was no point keeping any

into his life open anymore. Some doors need to stay

of course, looking like she’d stepped out of a travel influencer’s feed in her matching luggage set and

“Hello” to my parents before storming off. He looked right through me like I was just another stranger in the crowded terminal.

scattered in different directions, everyone pretending this wasn’t painfully awkward. No one looking back, because looking back meant acknowledging what we’d

felt my

prom – was walking toward a different future.

paths were finally diverging.