Keeley was fairly depressed on Valentine's Day. Love was in the air all over campus and she couldn't take it. She hadn't texted Aaron back in days either, which only contributed to her poor mood.
If he were here, he probably would have asked her to dinner and surprised her with sweet talk that shouldn't have been sweet but was because it came from an ice cube like him. No, she had to stop thinking about him! Aaron was off the table.
It was a very long day filled with seeing other girls carry around flowers, teddy bears, and boxes of chocolates as they gushed about their boyfriends.
Her spirits were so poor that she was considering staying home and crawling into bed but she didn't want to be a bad friend and ditch Ryan. As a fellow single dog, he was probably about as fed up with today as she was. She couldn't let him down.
With that in mind, she forced herself to head to the pizza place and tried to hold up her end of the conversation.
"Keeley…are you alright?" Ryan asked with concern as they waited for the pizza to arrive.
She put on her best attempt at a smile. "I'm fine. It's just been a long day."
"You know I'm always here if you want to talk."
"I know. Really though, it's not a big deal. Everything will be okay again once I sleep it off."
The pizza was placed on the table before them and she snapped a picture of it for Instagram with the caption 'Spending Valentine's Day with my one true love: pizza' and a heart at the end. Ryan's hand was barely visible in the edge of the photo but she didn't think it was that big a deal; no one would be able to tell who it belonged to.
The food helped lighten her mood a bit and she was actually able to goof around and laugh with her friend like usual. Coming here was a better idea than curling up in bed after all.
About twenty minutes later, a hand smacked down on the table out of nowhere accompanied by a blast of icy air.
"Keeley," the voice she was trying to get out of her head growled. "I need to talk to you."
Her eyes widened and she instinctively shrank back from the chill. She hadn't seen him this furious since high school.
Ryan was clearly on edge. He looked like he was about ready to fight Aaron in her defense. To avoid a three-way confrontation, she put on a strained smile.
"Ryan, I'll only be gone a couple minutes. Don't eat all the pizza without me, okay?"
"Alright," he muttered mutinously. "But if it's more than a couple minutes I'm coming over there."
Keeley followed Aaron outside the restaurant and he slammed his hand against the brick wall behind her, mere inches away from her face.
"Why haven't you answered any of my messages and what are you doing with that guy?"
He looked furious but there was an undercurrent of something else…hurt? She swallowed thickly. It would be rough but she could use this to her advantage and make a clean break.
She kept he voice as calm as possible. "It's Valentine's Day; I'm on a date."
The ice storm brewing around him only grew worse. His tone became deadly. "A date?"
"Yes, Aaron. A date. I don't see how it's any of your business."
"Not my business? Anything to do with you is my business."
This mindset needed to change. He would be engaged to someone else soon. They wouldn't be anything to each other anymore.
"It really isn't. We're just friends; we don't have feelings for each other," she lied.
Aaron was clearly trying but failing to regain control of his emotions. Her heart constricted at the sight but there was nothing she could do.
"You don't have feelings for me? Then who is it, that guy in there? Are you in love with him?" he demanded in a voice that could freeze an entire ocean solid.
Time to deal the deathblow. She had wondered what to say all week that would be the most cruel so he would forget her and move on. In the end she could only throw his other self's words back at him—it was one of the worst things he ever said to her so it should do the trick.
"So what if I am? He's worth more than fifty of you," she said coolly.
Aaron was so shocked that all of the ice surrounding him evaporated. He was practically a statue so she took the opportunity to break free and head back into the restaurant.
'I'm sorry Aaron, it's the only way,' she thought miserably as she saw him still standing frozen in place once she reached the door. 'I hope you find happiness with someone from your own world.'
Ryan eyed her apprehensively as she sat back down. Her gloom was plain as day. "Um…who was that?"
"My ex. Don't worry, I told him off," she said dully.
Aaron was never thrown off-guard like that. He would probably never speak to her again, just like she wanted.
A stupid crush shouldn't hurt this much to end. Because that's all it was—a crush. She hadn't gotten to know this new Aaron enough to love him yet and now she was safe from that ever happening.
"The one who won't leave you alone? Keeley, that's really bad. How did he know you were here? Is he stalking you? Do I need to call the police?"
"No need. He won't be coming back."
He must have found her through Facebook—her Instagram account was linked and she had tagged her location in the pizza picture. Had he really originally come here just to ask why she hadn't been answering his texts? Wasn't he supposed to be in Chicago?
"Are you sure? Because—"
"Ryan. It's fine. Let's finish our pizza and go home."
Dinner was a silent, awkward affair after that. Keeley could tell her friend was bursting with questions but was polite enough not to pry. He took her home and the drive back was just as uncomfortable.
She thanked him for the ride and for hanging out with her before fleeing to the elevator. Alone in there, tears began to fall. Over. It was all over now. She never had to worry about Aaron again.