You Loved My Words Not Him Chapter 1

My buddy knew how hopelessly in love I was with Serena Cross. He spent an entire week cornering her around campus, badgering her until she finally gave him her number so he could pass it to me.

To show my gratitude for helping me make that first terrifying leap, I emptied my entire savings account to buy him a designer watch.

Immediately after, I began agonizing over what to text Serena. During the day, I’d send her little snapshots of my life; at night, we’d stay up late, whispering our deepest secrets through blue text bubbles. Within a year, we had become inseparable, sharing a connection that felt deeper than anything I’d ever known.

Finally, I gathered every ounce of courage I had and sent her a text:

[The weather’s supposed to be nice tomorrow. Want to get coffee?]

Serena replied almost instantly:

[Babe, we literally just said goodbye?]

While I sat there staring at my phone, completely baffled, my buddy pushed open our dorm room door. He was holding a gift box, looking sheepish and red-faced.

"Hey, Jude," he said, sounding terribly apologetic. "So, when I got her number last year... I think I forgot to mention it was for you. She's been under the impression that the person texting her this whole time was... well, me."

* * *

The entire dorm room went dead silent. The only sound was the sharp, repeated chime of my phone vibrating against the desk.

Serena's messages were flooding in, one after another:

[Did I scare you by confessing so suddenly?]

[Actually, I’ve been building up to this for a long time.]

[This past year of texting you... I could feel how sweet and genuine you are.]

[At first, I thought I just saw you as a close friend. But then, whenever I didn't hear from you, my chest would ache. That's when I knew. I've fallen for you.]

[I'm sorry to spring this on you out of nowhere and just confess like this—]

But before the next sentence could load, every single one of those messages vanished.

[Message unsent.]

[Message unsent.]

"I'm so sorry, Jude," Zachary said, offering a soft, sympathetic smile. He set the gift box on his desk and pulled out a sleek velvet case. He opened it, admired the designer tie clip inside, and kept it. Then, he tossed the matching cufflinks over to me.

"I actually just said yes to Serena. She asked me out. So, obviously, I can't let her keep texting you anymore."

He knelt beside my chair, resting his chin on his hands as he looked up at me with bright, innocent eyes.

"I gave her my actual number and told her my old account got hacked. So..."

A cold sweat broke out across my forehead. A sickening, impossible realization began to take shape in my mind. With trembling fingers, I opened our chat, typed a single question mark, and hit send.

A second later, a harsh red error circle flared onto the screen.

[Message failed to deliver.]

My heart dropped into a bottomless, icy pit.

Three hundred and sixty-five days. Just like that, Serena had erased me.

We had literally stayed up talking until four in the morning.

Seeing me frozen, Zachary shoved the silver cufflinks into my palm and chuckled. "Oh, come on. Honestly, if she hadn’t thought she was talking to me from the start, she probably wouldn’t have even given you the time of day. You know how cold and untouchable Serena is. Half the guys on campus have tried and failed. Just think of these cufflinks as a little—"

"Zachary," I interrupted, my voice flat and hollow. I turned my head away, unable to bear the sight of him. "We're not friends anymore. Don't call me your brother."

Before he could say anything, I pushed past him, climbed up to my bunk bed, and drew the curtains shut, clinging to the last shred of my dignity.

Huddled in the dark, I scrolled back through a year’s worth of messages with Serena. At the beginning, the screen had been a wall of my blue bubbles, with her replying in polite, brief sentences. But slowly, her tone had shifted. If I went silent for a few hours, she’d send a tentative [Hey, you there?]

For the past three months, our roles had completely reversed. She was the one who was constantly reaching out, eager to share every mundane detail of her day.

I had been so full of hope. My heart had felt light, buoyed by the belief that all my quiet courage hadn't been in vain.

But now, it was all shattered. I buried my face in my pillow and cried until sleep finally claimed me.

The next morning, someone yelled from the doorway.

"Jude! There's a really gorgeous girl downstairs looking for you. She said her name is Serena."