Clara cut her off with a trembling voice. “Lila, stop. You can’t understand. He was everything to me.”
Lila nodded sadly. “Maybe… Maybe he wasn’t the one destined for you, Clara.”
Clara clenched her fists. “Then why? Why give me hope all these years?”
An uncomfortable silence settled between them. Clara sighed, watching the dance floor where he was laughing and dancing with his companion, oblivious to the pain he was causing.
Another friend, Alex, joined them. “Clara, are you okay? Do you want to get some fresh air?”
She nodded quietly, standing up. Lila and Alex accompanied her outside, away from the ballroom, away from the scene of her heartbreak. They stopped near the trees, in a quiet corner.
“What are you going to do now?” Alex asked after a moment.
Clara looked up at the moon, lost in thought. “I think… I’m going to leave.”
Lila frowned. “Leave? But, Clara, where would you go? And what about your pack?”
Clara shrugged, already feeling like a stranger here. “I don’t know yet. But I can’t stay here, not after this. I need to get away, to start a new life, far from him, far from all this.”
“That’s a big decision, Clara,” Alex murmured, trying to reason with her. “But if that’s what you want, we’ll support you.”
Clara gave a faint smile, grateful. “Thank you. I didn’t know it would hurt so much… But I can’t stay here and watch someone else live the life I hoped for.”
So this is what puppy love was… An illusion that disappears with the first gust of wind. I realized that I had held onto him without ever knowing that he was never truly mine. This pain, this emptiness, it was my heart mourning a love that had never been returned.
Lila placed her hand on Clara’s shoulder, as if to lend her strength. “Maybe this pain is just the beginning of something better, Clara. Something that’s waiting for you somewhere else.”
Alex added, in a gentle voice. “You’re strong, Clara. Stronger than you think. If leaving is what you need, then do it. We’ll be here, always, even from afar.”
Clara closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. She knew this decision would mark the end of a chapter in her life, but she also felt it could be a new beginning, a path that would lead her to become someone new, someone stronger.