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Even as my vision starts to blur, I refuse to turn around.
“Max.”
Nothing.
“What did I do? Tell me what I did wrong? What did I do… to lose you?”
That nearly breaks me. Milo sounds so fucking lost, so… broken.
I don’t dare move an inch even as I feel him coming closer. And when his fingers find mine, all the fight drains out of me at once.
The sound of my own heartbeat drowns out the music playing across the rooftop as I stare down at our joined hands. His thumb brushes over mine with the same easy familiarity it always had, but all I can do is wonder who he’s desperately holding on to.
Because it isn’t me. That girl doesn’t exist anymore.
“What happened, Max?” he asks quietly, his lips at the shell of my ear. “What happened to us?”
“There was no us.”
“Don’t say that. Please… just don’t.”
I finally crane my neck to look at him over my shoulder. He stands perfectly still, misery etched across his face, as though those four little words were sharp enough to pierce his heart.
“Don’t say that. Not to me.”
“Milo—”
“We were something.” He opens his eyes. “I know we were.”
My heart gives one hard, painful beat.
“Maybe we never put a name on it. Maybe I never got the chance to tell you what I wanted us to be. But don’t stand there and tell me it was nothing.”
Milo rests a hand on my waist and gently turns me to face him before taking my hand and pressing it against his chest, right over his heart.
The heart I broke.
“I felt it here.” My palm rises and falls with every breath he takes.
“It’s been killing me, Max.”
His voice is barely more than a whisper now.
“Not knowing.”
I can’t look away from him.
“Not knowing what I did. Not knowing what changed. Not knowing how I went from being the person you confided in to someone you couldn’t even look at.”
His hand closes over mine, keeping it pressed against his heart.
“So tell me.” Misery fills his eyes. “What did I do that made you stop wanting me in your life?”
Instead of telling him the truth, a hard laugh tears out of me.
“Jesus, Milo. When did the world start revolving around you?”
His hands immediately drop to his sides, just as his face loses all color.
