Alice

It felt like something heavy was pressing down on my chest. I forced myself to take deep breaths, trying to calm down, but I couldn’t stop the nerves crawling through my entire body—from my trembling fingers to my tightening throat.

I feel like something is about to happen—

Something I won’t be able to control.

And somehow, that scares me more than the words I had planned to say to him tonight.

I love Javier. That’s the truth. I don’t have to pretend or lie to myself about that. And maybe that’s exactly why continuing to deceive him feels unbearably painful.

We started out as friends. We weren’t close...