Say Hello

His eyes shot open. He hated when his slumber was disturbed, especially after a 12-hour shift and a night drinking with his old classmates right after. Kyle’s eyebrows furrowed as he threw his covers off and rose to sit at the end of his bed. He adjusted to the pounding headache digging knives across both of his temples. Kyle took a deep sigh before taking a sip of the glass of water at his desk, a habit he picked up from Candace. He was glad the bangs from the hallway stopped him from thinking about her. Who knew friendship breakups would be just as frustrating at relationship breakups. Well, he had to yell off the ear of the perpetrator of the loud noises at 7 am in the hallway. He was sure to scare their soul into the next world.

Kyle slammed the door open and was surprised to see Candace to his left and in front of the elevator. The sleep quickly wore off when their eyes met. Kyle was sure she noticed that he opened his door. He caught a quick, frightened glance from her. Damn, it had been a while since he had seen here. His stomach clenched and for a moment, Kyle forgot how to breathe. The last time was when Neil came to visit him. She was with another member of the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was probably Eun Kwang, the oboe player. She did mention that he was always ready to help. They were both struggling to bring her favorite white L shaped couch down the hallway. He remembered buying her a throw in her favorite color — lavender purple.

“Are you sure you got it, Candace?” Eun Kwang’s voice was heavily laced with his roots.

“Yeah! I think so,” there was a bit of strain in her voice as she dropped her end of the couch in front of the elevator. He could tell even from his door and without his glasses. He assumed she was sweating. Candace never had a likeling to strenuous activity.

“Candace,” Kyle finally spoke, hoping she would acknowledge his existence now.

She dropped her end of the couch with a jolt as if every hair on her back shoot up. Her eyes widened. Kyle could have sworn the whites of her eyes disappeared as she greeted with a trembling hello. She mostly likely was not expecting this to happen. First of all, she woke up Kyle early in the morning. She was hoping she wouldn’t have to plan her and Eun Kwang’s funeral so soon. Eun Kwang was so young, and he had his whole life ahead of him. Second, she was hoping she wouldn’t see Kyle before she moved out for obvious reasons. It wouldn’t have been so bad if her last image of the cheating doctor was him yelling at her. Instead, she would get to see him with his glasses and sexy bed hair. The last words escaping his lips would be a husky goodbye, heavy with sleep, instead of poison dripped with hatred.

“G-g-good morning, Kyle.”

“I didn’t know you were moving out,” he closed his door and proceeded to the elevator.

“Y-yeah..” She watched Eun Kwang put down his half of the couch to stretch. Candace rapidly pushed the button to go down.

“Hey!” he yelled. “Don’t make it so obvious that you want to leave!”

Candace gulped. She didn’t want to look him in the eye. She was going to cry if she did. She knew Kyle could tell. He could read her like a book. There was no way she would in front of a fellow member of the orchestra. Though, that didn’t stop others before. Would it make it hard for Kyle to bid her farewell too if they looked into each other’s eyes? Why would she even want to make it hard for him? After this, he’d probably got back to the actual love of his life, work.

Kyle held out a hand to her. It frustrated him to no end that Candace only stared at his hand and never looked at him. He hated how he treated this like some sort of business deal. Damn it. He was acting like how they did before they met. He would never admit that the friendship he developed with his neighbor became such an important part of his life.

“Candance,” the oboe player called out as he was pulling the couch into the elevator after it opened. He broke her trance.

“Sorry about the noise,” she turned back to Kyle. “We were supposed to have the movers help us but they’re late, and I have to get going.”

Kyle still held out his hand, despite Candace moving on with her task. Candace didn’t dare touch his hand. She only looked back at him after her entire couch went into the elevator. If he had his glasses, he could have seen her eyes welling up, tears ready to burst. “Bye, Kyle.” He voice cracked.

His body acted on its own. He pulled her out of the elevator and into her embrace. “Why do we have to say goodbye?!”

Candace released herself from his grasp and made her way to the stairs. He pulled her wrist, preventing her from taking another step.

“What are you doing?!” Tears finally broke free from her mental force field. She tried to pull her wrist back but his grasp was too tight.

“If we’re going to say goodbye, Candace, can’t we at least do it with a smile?”

“No!” She screamed.

Crap, he thought as he let go. This would gain the attention of their neighbors. But who cared? He didn’t want things to end this way.

“This makes it easier,” her voice was brittle. “I want to forget you. I want to hat eyou so that I’ll erase every single memory I have of you.”

She said the same exact words about her ex-boyfriend.

“Oh gawd. We didn’t even date, Kyle, but you kissed me while I thought you were still engaged to Hilary.”

“But I’m working on this. I’m working on being more honest about my feelings and –“

“That doesn’t make it okay for you to be a jerk and to play with my heart, Kyle. The moment you kissed me, you took our friendship into new territory that I wasn’t ready for.”

“Candace…”

“Kyle, you made me think that you and Hilary were still together for six months. Was this your way of testing me to see if I could be a good enough girlfriend for you?”

He watched her chest rise up and down as anger enveloped her every being. Candace had every right to be. He played with her feelings. He unintentionally led her on, and he never made it clear to her that he wanted to date her.

“Tyler’s downstairs waiting and Eun Kwang is probably scared and confused with my couch. I have to go,” Candace rubbed her tears away. “I think space is the best for us.”

“Do you really mean that when you’re moving away and telling me that you want to forget everything? When you’re asking for space, it implies that you’ll come back to me,” desperation was clear in his voice.

“Maybe one day we’ll meet again, but I can’t find myself being around you right now,” Candace stood firm. “Goodbye, Kyle.”

She turned towards the stairwell. When she opened the door, Candace looked back at him. “I love you too, you know.”

Kyle didn’t realize that tears wet his cheeks. “I love you, Candace. When we meet again, I’ll be better.”

“Bye,” she waved and descended down the stairs.