Heartbreak Hypothesis

t h i r t y - o n e

For the first few seconds, my words were stuck in my throat. He'd picked up. I had a chance to talk to him now.

But in the next moments, reality set in. The dryness in Daniel's voice hit me like a train. One one hand, i had the chance to talk to Daniel, and on the other, he sounded like he wanted to be anywhere but here, speaking to me.

with a deep sigh, I pulled myself together. "How are you doing, Daniel."

The other end of the line went silent for stretched out seconds, then daniels laughter cracked through the air. "Did you just ask how i was doing?" he asked in disbelief. "Is that seriously what you want to know? or do you just want to see if you wrecked me well enough for me to be a mess?"

"Daniel, I--" I began, but he cut my sentence short.

"Don't," he said sharply. "Don't apologise, because your words hold absolutely nothing. I hope you got your money and i hope it was all worth it."

He scoffed and then chuckled under his breath, disdain leaking through. "I can't believe I was stupid enough to fall for your tricks. i can't belive i even fell for you."

"I didn't mean too hurt you, Daniel." The words felt like razors and my heart felt heavy, but I knew if i didn't speak now, I'd probably never get another chance. "I'm sorry for playing you. I'm sorry for even listening to Chanelle in the first place. and i didn't take the money--"

Daniel cut in again. "Yeah. and that justifies what you did."

"That's not it, daniel."

"You know what? I'm glad you did what you did. made me see you for who you actually are." He was spitting venom now. and every fiber in me knew he'd say hurtful things, so I braced for impact. After all, what I'd done was much worse. "That whole puty act you were putting on, you did all that for show. Everything you did was a lie--acting like you were this broken, delicate thing when you were the one who did the breaking."

In a split second, it felt like he'd driven a knife through my heart. But I remained unmoving. He was just angry, because of me.

In the background, i could hear Daniel's heavy breathing, like he'd run a mile. And I could tell he was overwhelmed with emotions. For some reason, it suddenly felt like this call was a mistake.  Maybe I called at the wrong time...

"You know what, Noah?" Daniel added. I held my breath again. "You deserve everything bad that happened to you."

The breath I was holding got knocked out by those final words, tears brimming in my eyes. On his end, Daniel's breathing slowed. we spent the following seconds in thick silence before he hung up.

Just as soon as I dropped the phone, the tears began to fall freely, no matter how hard I tried to stop them. A part of me was angry at Daniel. He didn't have to take it so far. He didn't have to be so cruel. and what did he even mean by "everything bad that happened to me"? Did he mean my dad? or my mom oerdosing? I thought he was there to be supportive, not use my weakest moments against me.

I sniffled and wiped at the tears streaming down my cheeks. Maybe I did deserve it.

Calling him was a mistake.

~~~

"He did what?" Ali's eyes were round as saucers as she stared at me with disbelief. I'd just told her and Manu about the call with Daniel yesterday. "How could he say that?"

Manu, beside me, had a deep scowl on her face. "He took it too far. Way too far."

Maybe he did, but at this point, I couldn' t care less. I just needed to move on from this and forget everything that happened. Including the hurtful things he said.