Trying to live

Chapter 24 (Edited)

I looked to my left and flinched. My heart probably stopped for a second. Honestly, one day I might die because of my jumpiness.

"Are you following me?"

Henry shook his head and snorted. "The classroom is this way."

I nodded but cursed myself internally. I thought he would leave me alone. Being with Henry was uncomfortable because we never really talked after our breakup. He ignored me; I ignored him. We hadn't had a civil conversation since the breakup. I didn't exist for him anymore. He didn't exist for me—or so I told myself.

I didn't care about him, but the memories we shared sometimes popped into my head. They reminded me that the Henry next to me wasn't the boy I knew.

"Why did you say yes?" I blurted out.

He gave me a confused sideways glance. "What?"

"Back there, why didn't you say no?"

Henry sighed. "I didn't want to tutor anyone and I didn't know it would be you. Ms. Becker came to me and literally begged me to tutor one of her students. So, I said yes."

"You could have said no the moment you saw me," I said.

He rolled his eyes. "Didn't you get the part where I said I promised Ms. Becker? I never back out or break promises; I fulfill them," he said. You did back out, you broke your promises, I wanted to say but kept my mouth shut. "I wasn't aware I should have said no."

"I gave you a signal."

"What signal?" He asked, confused, then his expression changed to a smug smirk. "Oh, you mean when you were looking at me with wide eyes?"

"Yes." At least he caught the signal, but sadly, he was too dumb to understand its meaning.

Henry shrugged. "You looked like a deer. But in a deranged way."

I blinked, needing a few seconds to realize he had just insulted me. I stared at him and his cocky grin, cursing my brain for not having a good comeback. I looked away and walked faster when an idea popped into my head. A good one—one that would wipe his smug smirk off his face, but I had to wait, even though I was totally giddy with my cleverness.

I was so absorbed with my idea that I didn't catch what Henry was saying. "Did you say something?"

Henry looked annoyed. "I said I need your number."

"Why?"

"So we can meet up or discuss stuff that you need to do," he answered, sounding as annoyed as he looked.

"I live at your house," I said flatly.

Henry raked his hand through his hair. He was clearly fed up with this conversation. Well, that's what he would get. It was his idea to walk to class together.

"I never see you except in school," he started. Duh, I was either at work or always holed up in my room, avoiding him and his friends, especially my brother. "We should fix a time and days for tutoring. So, let's exchange numbers."

I rolled my eyes at him. "I never changed my number. It's still the same."

"But I deleted it."

"Oh." That was all I could say. I was glad my voice sounded firm rather than disappointed, but I felt it. It was understandable that Henry deleted my number considering our dirty breakup, but it still stung.

Of course, we moved on. He had a new girlfriend I wasn't fond of and I... well, I was here. Single and fine. But last year, at my lowest, I would go back to our chat and read it. It calmed me down, and I did it often.