Page 1 of Let's Get Textual


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Unknown: Are we still meeting tomorrow?

Istareat the text on my phone, brows pinched in confusion because it’s not a number I recognize.

Then it hits me: Liam must have a new number…again, and he must have forgotten to tell me…again.

Brothers aresomuch fun.

Me: Yep. What time again?

Unknown: 2

Me: I’ll be there.

Tossing my phone onto the empty pillow beside me, I think back to our conversation on Wednesday. I could have sworn he said two-thirty because he’ll be across town and there’s no way he could arrive by two, but maybe he changed his mind? Either way, I’ll make it. I love my bi-weekly lunch meetings with my brother.

“Babe, you done yet?”

An unfriendly muffled response filters through the bathroom door. I want to argue back, to say something equally as unfriendly, but it’s no use.

“Whatever,” I mutter, rolling on my side and reaching over to flip the lamp off.

I lie awake, watching the minutes tick by on the clock on my bedside table. Ten minutes later, Caleb tiptoes in from the bathroom and takes a seat on the edge of the mattress. He sits there for another two minutes, wringing his hands together, before he slides into the bed to lie beside me.

He doesn’t say anything; neither do I.

We’re atthatpoint in our relationship—you know, the one where it’s more of a hassle to be together than to be apart. To be honest, we’ve coexisted in this place for about a month now. Caleb’s words have become curt, and I haven’t been a peach myself. We haven’t been intimate in weeks. Nothing in our relationship says relationship anymore. We’re simply biding our time until we can’t take it a second longer.

I can’t take it a second longer.

“Caleb?”

“What?” His response comes out clipped, like he’s already done with this conversation before it’s begun.

Another sign I’m about to ask the right thing.

“What are we doing?”

He sighs, and I can feel him run a hand over his face. “I’m not sure anymore, Delia.”

“Should…” I lick my dry lips and push out a worried breath. “Should we break up?”

Caleb rolls my way. On instinct, I reach out to brush away the lock of blond hair that falls over his eye. He grabs my hand, halting my movements, and I meet his stare. His dark blue eyes are sad, like he knew this was coming.

I know what he’ll say before he says it.

“I think so.”

Caleb gathers me into his arms as the tears begin to fall.

I’m sad, and though it shouldn’t, it surprises me. We’ve been together for six months now—quite a run when it comes to college relationships—and, well, I’m used to him…used to his touch, his smell, his smile. I’ll miss him, but I know he’s right. Weshouldbreak up, especially before we start hating each other, which is exactly where we’re headed. We’ve started picking fights, waiting and begging for the other to call it quits. We’re too comfortable, too scared to call this what it is—over.

Until now.

“I could have loved you, you know.” His voice cracks and I pull away to find his eyes are glistening with tears of his own. “If we were at different points in our lives, if we didn’t have all this shit waiting for us on the other side of graduation, we could have been good together, Delia.”

“We really could have.”