Page 71 of Chasing Mr. Prefect

“I’m sorry?—”

“No,” he told me coldly, his eyes distant. He stepped away from me and the weight of what I had done just dropped on my head like an anvil. “I’m done.”

His shoulders dropped and I felt my own tears building up in my eyes. This time I did not know if I had it in me to stop them.

“What do you mean you’re done?”

“I mean, I’m DONE!” Cholo said harshly, throwing the envelope hard against the sofa. “If you can’t find it in you to take a step back and not think that the world is out to get you or turn you into something you don’t want to be… If you’re too proud to accept that what I do for you is not equivalent to me holding you against some standard you had cooked up inside your head, then I’m done.”

Cholo took one last look at me and went on his way out.

I expected him to slam the door but of course he did not, and the soft clicking of the door knob brought a much more hurtful close to what had just occurred.

I sat on the sofa, marvelling at every word I had thrown at him and the air I breathed felt like shards of broken glass.

I reached out a shaking hand to get the envelope. I felt mostly numb as I opened the brown paper. I did not think it could get worse until I saw what was inside.

A plane ticket to South Korea with my name and a number of passes to the amusement parks I had always wanted to visit were inside, along with a yellow Post-it note containing his handwriting.

Aaand to wrap up our three-month-day, here’s Everland, Lotte World, and one weekend devoted to stalking Era of Maidens!

I know you put off your plans because you thought you were getting delayed but then your dad called me to say thank you for talking to Patsy and mentioned he got you a ticket already! He said something about trying to make up for not reacting well when you first told him? Naturally, I got the seat next to you :P

Anyway, I got the passes and put everything in this box. We’re leaving on your birthday week!!! Let’s get our visas together next month.

P.S. Here we come, Era of Maidens! :)

CHAPTER 31

Istayed in my spot, looking into empty air, still holding the tickets and amusement park passes. I could not move and it felt like Cholo had brought all the life in the room with him when he left. My head felt heavy and my tears formed a haze in my vision. I felt confused and disgusted with myself.

How could I have let Summer and Ate Mikayla and whoever else who had discouraged me to drive a wedge between me and Cholo? How could I have let my pride get in the way like this?

He knew I wanted to travel and planned around it so we could see things and places we had talked about since the beginning. What was I doing, throwing that in his face because I thought he had signed me up for subjects without my knowledge?

I did not have the answers. All I had was the fact that he had left, that he was done with me. I curled up on the sofa and clutched the envelope against my chest, letting my dark thoughts take over.

“Vinnie?” said a voice, and I opened my eyes to see Liana and Gian crouching in front of the sofa to match my line of vision. “Oh my god, what happened to you?”

Liana had made me sit up. Gian was also in the room for some reason and he got me a glass of water.

“Seriously, what happened?”

I started talking and it all just came out in one steady, monotonous stream. I began with Summer, everything that led to this, to what made me say all the things I had said to Cholo, to what I had accused him of, and what this envelope contained. I told them that we were done.

“I can’t believe it,” Liana blurted out at last when I finished, shaking her head.

“Wow,” said Gian. “So this thing he did was to enlist you in a subject you needed to pass to graduate, ask a professor not to flunk you, make sure you had feasibility study groupmates, help you with an internship? What an asshole.”

“Gian,” Liana said warningly.

“Oh, and he got you tickets you never asked for? Terrible! How dare he listen to your dreams and make sure he did everything to make them happen? You’re lucky to be rid of him, Lavinia.”

“Tangina, you think this is funny?” I shouted, tempted to kick him out of my house.

“No, I think this is the opposite of funny,” Gian retorted, his sarcasm all gone. “Vinnie, you found someone who put you first, who wanted to be with you every day, and you let him go because of what—your pride? Because you listened to Summer Tiu?”

“Fuck. I messed up.”