the rest left back to the wedding after party.

but you stayed on the patio. crying as you watched the stars. this was it.

you hated yourself for not telling him earlier, and now he was gone. you hated how you didn’t beg him to stay.

for some reason, you just couldn’t.

you couldn’t bring yourself to beg him to stay for you. because what if you ended up hurting him again? you couldn’t do that.

you and ted had been going back and forth for years. it was a mess. breaking up and hooking up, getting back together and breaking up again.

and how had it ended this time?

two months ago you had yet another backslide, but it was different. you and ted had closed the door on ever getting back together, because it was just too painful.

you wanted different things. he wanted marriage and kids. you didn’t want any of that.

but then, you’d gotten one out of those two. after your backslide, you soon found out you were pregnant.

it was nightmare— and then you realized it was ted’s and something in you just couldn’t get rid of it.

so you kept it. and kept it a secret. until you told robin at the carousel, and she promised she wouldn’t tell ted.

you were going to, after the wedding. but then ted sprung on the surprise that he was moving to chicago.

and now, you were here. devastated.

you were better off alone anyway, you’d realized that now. except— now wouldn’t be fully alone. ever again.

but at least you wouldn’t hurt ted ever again. and he would finally be able to move on from the mess that you were.

or so you thought..

suddenly footsteps came, coming to a stop shortly, and then a voice followed.

“why didn’t you tell me?”

you almost jumped out of your skin at the familiarity of the voice, and turning around you were met with him.

tears in his eyes and a frown across his lips, his eyebrows bunched together in pain.

your chin trembled, he’d come back. but now he knew, how did he know?

“how did you—“ you managed out, “robin told me everything.” ted responded, walking over to you.