"What do you want?"
Claire didn't bother hiding her impatience. Ever since Lance had confessed his feelings, she was even colder toward him than before. She figured that if she gave him even a little attention, he'd just latch on and convince himself he still had a shot.
"Where are you? At your apartment?"
"I'm out. What do you need?" Claire honestly had no idea what he was trying to do.
"I want to see you." Lance lit a cigarette, his mood already in the gutter. Right now, seeing Claire was all he could think about.
"I don't want to see you." Claire shut him down immediately. "Lance, I've only ever seen you as a brother."
"That's not true anymore. We're not even family now, so please stop bothering me." Lance hadn't expected her to be so direct, almost brutal.
"I meant everything I said to you. I never saw you as a sister, I see you as-"
"That's enough." Claire cut him off without hesitating. "It doesn't matter to me how you see me. If we aren't siblings, then we're just strangers."
"I want you out of my life."
"It's better if we both keep our dignity."
She didn't hold back at all.
Lance frowned, his voice softer but stubborn. “I'm not asking you to be with me right away. You're still young. You can take your time and think it over..."
"There's nothing to think about, Lance. I already have a fiancé." She dropped it like a bomb.
The other line went silent.
"Wasn't York your fiancé? Didn't he already call off the engagement?"
"York's engaged to Cindy now. Don't tell me you're still hung up on him?" Lance felt like he was just as good as York, if not better. After all the effort to end Claire things between and York, where did this new fiancé suddenly come from?
He was convinced she was making excuses.
Claire just scoffed quietly. She could imagine what was going through his mind. "York's not the only guy in the world, you know."
"So who is he?" Lance tried to sound skeptical but Claire's confidence threw him.
"You don't need to know who he is. Just know that it's not you." Claire didn't bother explaining further.
She hung up.
On the other end, Lance stared at his phone for a second before hurling it against the wall. He couldn't accept that Claire had a new fiancé. Who was this guy? He was going to find out, no matter what.
The next day, Claire officially started her vacation, heading out on a road trip with some friends. Lance finally picked up a few clues from Shirley's dup Social media.
media. There were four of them, and one of them was @guy." Could this classmate be Claire's mysterious fiancé?
Lance thought back. He vaguely remembered a guy from Claire's winter camp. Maybe that was when they hit it off and things led to this engagement The more he thought about it, the more possible t seemed.
He decided to call Shirley to see what he could dig up.
"Lance?" Shirley sounded surprised to see his name pop up. They weren't exactly close, after all.
"Hey Shirley, what are you up to?" Lance kept it casual.
"I'm on a trip. Graduation, you know how it is."
"Who are you traveling with? Why not invite Cindy?"
His voice sounded normal, but Shirley wasn't buying it.
“Just me, Claire, and two of her classmates. They don't really know Cindy. Why would we ask her to come?"
“Besides, I doubt Cindy would want to hang out with us anyway. She's got her own circle now." Shirley wasn't intimidated by him at all and didn't bother to sugarcoat her words.