I'm getting engaged to Will. You're not against it, are you?

My heart paused in my chest, then began a quick, thundering rhythm I was afraid everyone in the whole building could hear. In fact, Will was tilting his head to the side, his eyes narrowing as if that was exactly what he was doing. Listening to my heartbeat. But that was ridiculous and I was way more concerned with what he wasn't doing: denying all of this. Telling me it was all a lie this crazy woman had spun and we were going to school and never have to see her ever again.

It wouldn't be the first time, he's had plenty of possessive girlfriends who liked to think they were an exception to the line Will drew. They skipped across it confidently- only to be shoved quickly and mercilessly back behind it. And that'd be the last I'd see of them, until a different one came along. Up until now they were all the same too, yet here was this beautiful woman (maybe in her early twenties) who not only wasn't intimidated by Will, she also knew my nickname and apparently knew how much time I spent around Will despite the fact that we'd only just met today.

Or was it Will who told her all these things?

The thought was more shattering than hearing they were engaged. It was the only explanation after all, since Will was just standing there, waiting for my response. Not denying anything. So he was actually engaged to her, had sent her- his fiancee- to get rid of me...

Will continued to study me quietly. Expectantly.

"Of course I have no objections to you being engaged," I said in a clipped tone that didn't betray the hurt and betrayal I was currently feeling. I raised a cool brow in Will's direction. "Or did you think I couldn't survive even a single day without you? I don't need you that bad, Will. In fact I don't need you at all."

Shock. It was on his face for a second, but quickly replaced with a look I'd never, ever seen cast my way. It was...hateful. He was looking at me like he really hated me. The anger withered away in a flash and suddenly it was pitiful tears I was fighting not to make an appearance.

Will took Audrey's hand, nodding at me coldly. "You were so pitiful and clingy I thought it'd be a lot harder to get rid of you. What a relief."

I'm dreaming. This can't be happening. This can't be Will who's siding with another woman over me, this can't be him calling me pitiful and clingy.

But it was.

My lower lip quivered, and that was it, the waterworks came full blast. The world became a blur of tears but I've lived here long enough that I could walk out blind if I wanted to. In fact, I did it running. I bumped into several people(a few calling out to me worriedly) and nearly tripped down the stairs, but otherwise I made it to the sidewalk safely, sniveling, wiping at my face like the apparently pitiful person I was. And like a clingy girl, I looked back to see if he was coming after me.

He wasn't.

***

Parts of me I didn't even know existed sneak out whenever you are near.

My eyes scanned the poem briefly as I flipped through the notebook, scowling at all the other ones following it. Stupid. I shut the pink notebook, glaring down at it. Will gave it to me, along with all the other notebooks and cute pencils and erasers I owned. He just silently passes them to me at random. When I'm driving him to a party, while we're eating lunch together in the cafeteria, when we pass by each other in the hallway, or even while I'm working in his mother's bookstore.

No wonder the dude had me love struck. Best thing you can give a writer? Stationery. Even better than that? Lots of cute stationery. I go through the notebooks he gives me efficiently, always in need of another by the time he gives me one again. This one was the only one I kept on me at all times, the only one that was off-limits to everyone but me. The one I used to write pitiful love poems about my best friend. The best friend who'd apparently been hanging out with me out of pity and just casted me aside now that he was in love with someone else.

Will in love. I never thought I'd live to see that day. He was always dating, but they were never serious relationships and he didn't seem very much infatuated with any of them either. Until now, I guess. Well, it meant it was time I let him go.

I glanced around. The lake was still, peacefully quiet. There was the old house on the other side, merely a white dot from where I stood, the woods taking up any the space the water didn't. The narrow road I took to get here was absent of any human beings, my only company the steady flow of water, chirping birds and the wind. It was the perfect place to cast aside my love book and breakdown into a dramatic sobbing mess that would've set off dramatic melancholic music if it were a movie. Then I could wipe the tears and go to school, just in time for first period.

I raised the book, hands shaking as I reared back and threw the it into the lake. It made a soft splash a few feet into the the water, ripples spreading through the deep blue liquid.

My hands were still quivering when I used them to cover my face.

Let it go, let him go. Let it go. Let him go.

I stumbled forward, face still covered, and then I was jumping into the lake after the book.

That's when things really went wrong.