12
KAI
I saw her near the garden's edge. Alone for a moment. Phone in hand. Smiling at something, that smile, the one I hadn't seen in years, the one I'd forgotten could look like that.
My feet started moving before I told them to.
I don't know what I was going to say. Didn't have words ready. Didn't have a plan. I just knew I needed to be near her. Needed to hear her voice. Needed to see if that flicker in her eyes meant something. She was wearing blue. Bright blue. She never wore colors like that before. Always black, grey, dark green. Safe colors. But this? This was her. Glowing. Alive. People turned to watch her pass, and I finally understood why.
Had she always been like this? Had I just never seen it?
I weaved through the crowd, past clusters of aunts, past the dessert table, past Derek saying something I didn't hear. My eyes never left her. Ten feet away. Five. She was still looking at her phone. Still smiling.
Who was she texting?
It didn't matter. Nothing mattered except getting to her. Except saying something, anything, that might bridge the years between us. She deserved an apology. She deserved a thousand apologies. She deserved—
A hand touched her shoulder.
She turned around.
And a man pulled her into his arms.
Tall. Dark. Commanding. The kind of presence that made the air shift.
She shattered.
Not in pain. In joy. In relief. In love. She clung to him like he was oxygen. Buried her face in his chest. Laughed and cried and shook in his arms.
I stopped walking. My feet wouldn't move.
The drink slipped from my hand. Glass shattered somewhere below me. I didn't look down. I couldn't look away from them.
He held her like he'd been doing it forever. Like she was the most precious thing in the world. Like he'd never let go. And she, God, she, looked at him like he'd hung the moon.
I'd never seen her look at anyone like that. Not once. Not ever. Not even me.
I wanted to move. Wanted to walk over there. Wanted to rip him away from her and demand to know who the hell he thought he was. But my feet stayed frozen. My hands were empty. The glass was on the ground. I didn't even feel it fall.
I just stood there. Watching. Watching her laugh. Watching her cry. Watching her love someone who wasn't me.
For as long as I could remember, whenever I saw Selena, she was always with me. I was the one making her laugh. I was the one she turned to. And now, watching her wrapped in someone else's arms, I realized how strange it felt to be on the outside looking in. Like I had walked into a room that used to be mine and found someone else living there.
And then, finally, the only thought that made it through:
Who the fuck is this guy?