Especially after starting the same school as me years later.
“I got scared and rode home.”
“Initially, I tried avoiding you,” Caleb admitted. “Every time I looked at you, I thought about the fire.”
But avoiding me became impossible.
Classes. Hallways. Football games. Group projects.
And eventually, guilt turned into something else.
Then Caleb told me something I hadn’t expected at all.
Before prom, he’d overheard some guys joking about how nobody would ask me to dance.
“I snapped at them. One of them almost punched me over it.”
“Initially, I tried avoiding you.”
Taylor stood behind us, quietly listening.
Caleb continued, “I didn’t ask you to dance because I felt sorry for you. I did it because I was tired of pretending I didn’t care about you.”
That truly surprised me.
He explained that after dropping me home, he’d gone to Taylor’s house because her parents were away and he needed advice about finally telling me the truth.
“I planned to come and talk to you today.”
I looked at him for a long moment before asking what still bothered me most.
That truly surprised me.
“Why would Mason do something like that?”
