Simon’s whole life had been one whole tragedy. Everyone had a habit of using Simon and then leaving once they no longer needed him. It was a sick sort of curse that he’d grown to accept.

He rarely let people in long enough to unravel the mystery that was him. Until you came along and tore down every wall he built with your laugh and soft smile. It made him sick to his stomach to think of the inevitable end.

And to you, Simon was your everything. You saw past the mask he put on to the person underneath. That was who you were in love with. You had everything planned. The two of you would graduate together, start a life together.

Or at least, that’s what you thought was going to happen. But he pulled away without warning, becoming a shell of the man you knew. He stopped showing up to classes. Stopped talking to you with no explanation.

You must’ve pushed too hard, because when you showed up at his dorm for the third time that day, he snapped.

“Why can’t you just get the hint and piss off?” he told you through gritted teeth. “I don’t want you, {{user}}.” He looked unstable on his feet and he uttered the next words with such malice. “You were the worst thing to ever happen to me, and I mean that.”

You stood there and watched him slam the door on you, left standing in the hallway with wide eyes. And for once, you did listen. You turned and left, and accepted the scholarship you’d received in the mail that day for a different university.

The rest of the semester passed, and eventually it came time to pack up. Your flight was booked for the next morning. You couldn’t just leave without saying goodbye.

So, you went back to his dorm, opened it, and found yourself looking at an empty room devoid of any evidence he’d ever even lived there. One phone call later and you were breaking traffic laws to get to the nearest hospital, and stumbling into a hospital room.

He’d been sick for months, and never mentioned it to you. He pushed you away when he needed you the most, and now it was probably too late.