Chapter 21 — Love, Lost in Translation
Jay's POV
Morning again.
Same sunlight. Same alarm.
Different house. Different life.
Everything feels quiet here — too quiet.
No Aries yelling, no Maya's cheerful "morning tornado girl," no Keifer smirking in the back of class.
Just… silence.
I sat on the edge of my new bed, staring at my phone.
Still no message from him. Not even a "goodbye."
It's been three days.
Three days since I left.
Three days since I last saw him.
Three days since everything I believed in started to crumble.
I scrolled through our old messages — the good mornings, the late-night "can't sleep" texts, the tiny arguments, the "miss you already" notes.
All of it felt like another life.
I opened a new message.
Typed.
Deleted.
Typed again.
> Keifer... I waited. You didn't come. You didn't text. You didn't ask. Maybe that's my answer.
My fingers shook.
> You said you loved me. But when things got hard, you believed what everyone else said instead of what I told you. Maybe love isn't about the big words, maybe it's about trust... and you didn't trust me.
A tear fell onto the screen, blurring the words.
I wiped it away, but another one followed.
> You once told me you'd fight the world for me. But when the world whispered, you stayed silent.
I took a deep breath.
> So I'll say it — one last time. I love you, Mark Keifer Watson. But I can't do this anymore.
I hit send before I could stop myself.
And then I threw the phone onto my pillow and buried my face into my hands.
For a moment, I thought maybe he'd reply. Maybe he'd say something — anything.
That he was sorry. That he believed me. That he'd come find me.
But the screen stayed dark.
And that silence?
It said everything.
I curled up on my bed, hugging the little dino plushie he gave me.
It still smelled faintly like his cologne.
It made it worse.
Mom called me for dinner. I didn't answer.
Aries knocked once, twice, then gave up.
I just laid there, whispering to the empty air.
> "I loved you, Keifer. I really did."
And for the first time since I met him, I didn't feel butterflies.
I just felt… nothing.