Part 2A Thousand Hearts Too Late

I crouched down and slowly began gathering the paper hearts.

Trevor sighed, sounding resigned. "Tessa, you're 25, not five. Giselle's moving in today. Hurry up and clean up the living room."

Giselle came over and slipped her arm through Trevor's. "It's okay, Trev. It was partly my fault too. I'll help her."

She bent down to help me pick them up, but Trevor pulled her back.

"Don't baby her. She can clean it up herself."

Then he led Giselle into another room.

It took me a long time to clean everything up on my own. A shard of glass cut my finger, and blood ran down my hand.

I went to ask Trevor where the first-aid kit was. But when I pushed open the door, I found Giselle opening a small metal box.

It was my treasure box.

It held everything Trevor had given me over the past ten years, including a wooden puppet with a broken string, an old pen he used to use, and a plastic hair clip he'd bought me with his first paycheck.

Giselle picked up the pen and examined it curiously.

"Trev, the nib's already split. Why is she still keeping this?"

Trevor glanced at the pen, and something uncomfortable flickered across his face.

He'd bought it with his first scholarship. Later, after the nib was damaged in a fall, he tossed it in the trash.

That night, I secretly took it back out, wiped it clean, and hid it in my box.

Trevor said flatly, "It's all useless junk. It should've been thrown out a long time ago. Only an idiot like Tessa would keep this stuff."

Giselle immediately moved to toss the pen into the trash.

"No!" I screamed and lunged toward her.

The nib was already damaged. One more fall and the pen would be ruined for good.

Giselle seemed startled by me. She stumbled back two steps and fell to the floor.

I froze. I hadn't even touched her.

Trevor's voice dropped to an angry growl. "Tessa! You've gone too far!"

I stared at him blankly, but he had already gone over to help Giselle up. Then he saw the blood on her clothes.

Without hesitation, he slapped me across the face.

My cheek burned. I stared at him, eyes wide.

He had never hit me before.

I didn't cry or make a fuss. I turned to Giselle and lowered my head. "I'm sorry. I was wrong."

"It's okay. Really."

Giselle shook her head quickly and turned to Trevor. "Don't blame Tessa. She didn't mean it."

"I've spoiled her too much," Trevor said coldly.

His eyes fell on the pen in Giselle's hand. He took it from her and tossed it into the trash without hesitation.

"Clean up the room. Giselle and I are going out."

The door slammed shut behind them.

I looked down at my bleeding finger, and a dull ache spread through my chest. The blood on Giselle's clothes was mine, but Trevor hadn't even noticed my bleeding finger.

The system's voice sounded in my head again. "Five days and ten hours until you leave this world."

I didn't take the pen back out of the trash. Instead, I tossed the little metal box I'd always treated like a treasure box in after it.

Three days before I was due to leave, Trevor took me to the hospital for my annual follow-up on the nerve compression in my brain.

He was always busy, but on the day of my checkup, he cleared his schedule and came with me.

I sat on a bench in the hospital hallway and watched Trevor come out of the doctor's office with my scans in hand.

"Everything's stable. As long as she doesn't go through any severe stress or trauma, there's no risk of it getting worse," he murmured to himself.

The tension finally left his shoulders.

Giselle came toward us from the other end of the hall in a white coat. She was the associate chief of cardiac surgery at the hospital.

"Trev, all done with the checkup?"

She stopped beside him and handed him a cup of water.

"Yeah. Nothing serious."

Trevor took the cup and had a sip.

Giselle glanced at me, then smiled and pulled a small lunch container from her coat pocket. "I made some sandwiches this morning. You two can have some."

We'd rushed out that morning, so neither Trevor nor I had eaten breakfast.

Trevor had already started on a sandwich. I picked one up too and took a bite.

Inside was a thick layer of peanut butter.