Breaking the silence, Lyra quipped, “Wow, it’s been six years, and Theron still hasn’t bothered to unpin me. Some guys are just so forgetful, I swear!”
At that moment, Theron, who had stayed tight-lipped, broke his silence, his voice rough with frustration. “You were the one who asked me to pin you back then. You said I could never unpin you for the rest of my life. Don’t you remember?”
His voice was surprisingly clear, showing no trace of drunkenness.
As Lyra playfully stuck out her tongue, it was as if she were teasingly admitting to a lighthearted mistake.
At that moment, a sudden realization struck me. It cut deep, leaving my heart raw and aching.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t compromise; he simply chose not to be with me. Each request he had shrugged off over the years now painfully brought to light that he never truly loved me.
I could no longer fool myself. With a cold demeanor, I extended a hand for him to rise from the sofa.
“You’ve had too much to drink. Let’s head home,” I said, gently guiding him.
Lyra rose with a smile and said, “Yes, it’s getting late. I should be heading out too; it’s tough to catch a taxi in the suburbs.”
Theron, who had just begun to move, halted at her words. He shrugged off my hand and turned to her.
“I’ll give you a ride. I can’t just let you wander off on your own,” he said, his voice laced with genuine concern.
“But I’m on my own, too,” I pointed out.
As Theron heard this, his face clouded over, and the tension in his expression sharpened.
“Lyra just got back from overseas; she’s not familiar with this part of town,” he uttered, calm and composed.
My hand, frozen in mid-air, slowly fell as I silently watched them drift away. His friends trickled out one by one, leaving me alone inside the room.
As I was left alone, I seized an unopened bottle of alcohol from the table and slipped to a dim, secluded corner of the bar.
Recalling how Theron had once mocked girls who drank, I took a defiant sip from the bottle, daring him to pass judgment. Not long after, the liquor's warmth spread through me, and my vision grew hazy.
Right afterward, a youthful, boyish face came into view.
His attractive allure left me feeling hazy. He waved his friends away, watched them depart, and sat beside me.
Despite my intoxication, I thought he was just one of the bar’s charming models trying to catch my eye.
With a stranger, I no longer felt the need to hold back.