The Break-Up Pact

by Emma Lord

“Are the pancakes worth it, though, if the demon they’re summoning in this painting joins you?” Levi muses.

“DO YOU THINK GOUDA GETS UPSET ABOUT GETTING OLDER? NO. IT JUST GETS MORE EXPENSIVE AT TRADER JOE’S,” Hannah bellows ferociously. “BE LIKE GOUDA! KNOW YOUR WORTH!”

“Anytime I felt out of place, I would think of you. Something funny you might say. And then I didn’t feel so out of place anymore.”

Like Levi was a chorus to a song I’d known the words to my whole life, and we’d just reached the bridge. The melody was shifting, swelling, turning into something new.

I know Levi. I know that isn’t what’s happening right now. But I’m also furious that I’m so in the dark about all of this that he’s leaving me to imagine it.

He knew he couldn’t handle me trying to reach my best, so he dumped me in a way where he could put me at my worst.

And there it is again, the word want, the double-edged sword. Because wanting something isn’t the same as committing to it. To understanding the reality of it.

“I will be here, and I will love you, no matter what we are going to be to each other. And if you need time, I can give that to you,

“Neither of you wants to change the other one or tell the other what to do. You just want each other to be happy. And that’s what love is supposed to look like.”