Old Love Sunk in Time Chapter 2

My relationship with Liam was hardly what you’d call romantic.

In high school, we spent our days in class and our nights skipping study hall to hand out flyers, just to earn enough for the next day’s meals. After our shift, we’d huddle together in the hallway outside his mom’s hospital room, using the dim corridor light to tutor each other.

My literature was strong, my math was weak; he was the exact opposite. To keep from disturbing the patients, we wrote everything down on scraps of paper. We filled five whole notebooks over three years, and our final exam scores were identical.

The day the results came out, his mom was too anxious to eat. I was trying to feed her some porridge when she gripped my hand, her eyes red-rimmed.

“Renee, honey… if you and Liam don’t get into the same university, will you still come visit me?” Her voice was thick with emotion. “It’s okay if you fall for another boy later… but please, will you come back and be my daughter? Renee, I just can’t bear to lose you.”

Liam walked in with a basket of clean laundry to find us both sobbing in each other’s arms. He looked utterly helpless. “We can do long distance if we have to,” he said, trying to soothe us. “And we’ll get married the second we graduate.”

“After all,” he added, his voice full of certainty, “we’re meant to be together forever.”

When we started college, I moved out of the group home, and his mom was discharged from the hospital. He couldn’t bear to accept any more charity from relatives, so we both took out student loans. University life gave us more time to work. I took two jobs; he took three. We were in different departments, so the only time we really had together was the short walk back to our dorms after our shifts, leaning against each other, dreaming about the future.

We made a pact: we’d get the coveted, fully-funded study abroad spots in our junior year, then head to the States together. After that, marriage.

That bright, hopeful future fueled us. We studied harder, worked longer, and saved every penny.

But just as we’d saved enough, fate decided to play a cruel joke.

Liam’s mom got worse. She was admitted to the ICU.

Every dollar we had saved vanished into a black hole of medical bills. We borrowed more, but it was never enough. Her condition was volatile, and he spent every waking moment camped outside the ICU, unable to leave. I skipped all my classes, working from dawn until deep into the night on only three hours of sleep, wiring him every cent I earned.

During that time, we never spoke of the future. Our texts were a grim exchange of hospital notices and my transaction receipts. The future was a distant luxury; just getting through the day was a battle.

But thankfully, just before the application deadline for the study abroad program, his mother’s condition stabilized.

The suffocating tension of the past six months finally broke. He rushed back from the hospital, I quit two of my jobs, and we threw ourselves into a frantic marathon of studying, desperate to catch up and ace the final exams for the program.

The results were posted. Once again, our scores were identical.

But we had missed an entire semester of classes. Our attendance grades were zero.

He appealed, explaining he was caring for his sick mother. I didn’t need to appeal; every professor knew I’d been working to make ends meet.

Filial piety trumped poverty. I lost.

My spot was revoked and given to the student with the third-highest score.

Liam was furious. He stormed the dean’s office, ready to confess that all my work, all my sacrifices, had been for him. But it was too late. The decision was final.

His fists were clenched at his sides. “If you’re not going, then I’m not going either,” he declared.

But this was his dream. He’d always wanted to study business in America, to come back and build a company, to give his mom and me a better life.

I fought back the tears, my voice sharp as I grabbed his hand. “If you dare turn this down, Liam, I’m breaking up with you.”

He broke down, sobbing, pulling me into a crushing hug and swearing a desperate oath. “Renee, wait for me. I swear I’ll come back for you. I’ll come back and marry you, and I’ll give you a home.” His voice was ragged. “If I ever let you down, may I be torn to pieces!”

Listening to my story, Lena was already a mess, sniffling uncontrollably. “You two went through so much,” she choked out. “It’s just… it’s too cruel.”

“So why didn’t you get married? Did something happen to him in the States? An accident?”

I shook my head, my face calm. “He fell in love with someone else.”

Lena’s sobbing stopped abruptly. She wiped her eyes and her hand curled into a fist, her expression turning to pure fury. “Then he would have been better off dead.”

I suppose life just isn’t fair. Every time I thought I was about to have a family, the world would throw another obstacle in my path.

The day the study abroad list was posted, the girl with the third-highest score was cheering in front of the announcement board. She turned, and our eyes met.

“Renee!”

“Phoebe?”

I was still reeling when she threw her arms around me in an excited hug. She’d accidentally bumped into Liam, who was holding the milk tea he’d made to comfort me.

And just like that, the only two students from our entire university going abroad that year had found each other.