He Cancelled Our Future for Her Anxiety novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: His Things

Corinne collects her belongings from Dylan's apartment and finds an Arizona State award letter dated July, funded by the Landry family and conditional on a support role. A roommate admits Dylan told everyone in July that she would come around.

On Sunday morning I went to get my things from Dylan's apartment, and I took Hallie with me.

She brought a flattened box and her biggest tote.

"Tape," she said, and held up a roll.

Dylan lived with three other guys in a third-floor walk-up with a broken buzzer.

One of them let us in without asking why.

It was the guy from the private room who had laughed the least.

"Dylan's at the gym," he said. He couldn't look at me. "I'm supposed to say that."

"Thanks," I said. "I'm here for my stuff."

"Yeah. I figured."

His other two roommates sat on the couch with a video game paused on the screen.

They watched me cross the living room and said nothing.

Dylan's room smelled of his cologne and old laundry.

My blue rain jacket hung behind his door.

My running shoes were under his bed, and my copy of Silent Spring, the one with my notes in the margins, was on his shelf between two textbooks I had given him.

I took them all.

Hallie packed the box with a force that made the books bounce.

"Does he own a single pan?" she said. "I've seen the kitchen. I'm taking the pan."

"It's his."

"It's evidence of how he lives."

I laughed for the first time in two days, and it hurt a little.

The bottom drawer of his desk was open about an inch.

I wouldn't normally have looked.

But my winter scarf was in there, red wool, tucked under a stack of papers, and when I pulled it out the stack came with it.

A cream envelope slid onto the floor.

Arizona State University, Office of Financial Aid.

It had already been opened.

The letter inside was dated July 9.

July.

I read it standing up.

Dear Mr. Kessler, we are pleased to confirm your transfer admission and your full-tuition award.

The award was funded by the Landry Family Educational Fund.

Housing placement: Tempe, shared apartment, adjacent to your partner student.

Your award continues for each semester in which the conditions on your agreement are met.

I read it again.

Then I read the line about conditions a third time, and I still didn't know what it meant.

Under the letter was a second page, a one-page summary.

It said, in small gray type: Support Role. Student must remain in regular daily contact with the named partner student.

There was no name.

A black bar had been drawn through it in marker.

"Cor?" Hallie said. "You went quiet."

I held the pages out.

She read them with her lips moving.

"Tuition for a boy who's moving across the country for his friend," she said. "Weird."

"His friend's family is paying him."

"For what?"

"I don't know."

I took out my phone and photographed every page.

I photographed the black marker bar twice.

Dylan had blacked out a typo on my birthday card the same way once.

I put everything back in the order I had found it and closed the drawer to its original inch.

Then I picked up my scarf and the box.

In the living room the roommate who had let us in was standing between us and the door.

He had his hands in his sweatshirt pocket and he looked miserable.

"Corinne," he said. "I'm sorry. About the other night."

"You didn't say anything."

"That's the thing." He swallowed. "He told us in July."

I stopped.

"In July," I said.

"He said it was happening and you'd come around. He said it'd be like every other thing. You'd be mad for a week and then come with him." He glanced at the other two. They found the television very interesting. "He said you always do."

Hallie put the box down on the floor.

She said, very quietly, "I'm going to need a minute with that."

I put my hand on her arm.

"Not here."

I looked at the roommate.

"When does he fly?" I asked.

"Thursday morning. Two days before you, I think."

"And what did he say about the money?"

He opened his mouth and shut it.

"That one he didn't tell us."

I nodded.

"Then tell him this," I said. "Friday, five o'clock."

I walked out with my box and my scarf and a pile of photographs on my phone.

I didn't know yet what any of it meant.

I knew that on the third floor of that building, three men had known for three months that I was going to be left, and not one of them had told me.

← Chapter 2 · All chapters · Chapter 4 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend