a clean break

****

AFTER RENZO'S FRIEND basically asked Ellie on a date, we went to our classes. Since Ellie and I were in different majors, we didn't have any classes together. Truth be told, I envied Ellie for being able to major in what she enjoyed. After everything fell apart in senior year, I simply did what Mom told me to do — business administration. I never had the time to figure out what I was good at and never bothered changing majors either. It was too late now anyway since we're graduating in the spring.

On my way to the lecture, I heard my phone vibrate in my pocket showing that I received a text. I took my phone out to see who it was, Daniel.

What does he want? I thought to myself, fed up with having to maintain this facade. The thing with Daniel was that although we were "together", it was only because it was arranged by our families to save our so-called "lineage".

I opened the text to read it:

D: Hey, wanna go for lunch today?

M: sure, I'll be free after accounting- Mila

D: Great! Meet you at that new Greek place downtown?-

M: Cool, see you then, I have something to tell you anyway.

D: Me too, see you

----

When class ended, I went to go see Ellie tell her about the text Danny sent me. I walked to the building near the Art Faculty since Ellie was taking a class there. I remember her once telling me she was interested in pottery.

I saw Ellie leave her class and walked up to her. I noticed her pants had clay on them, but as I was about to point it out, she waved it off as insignificant.

"It's from the leather hard clay, don't worry. What's up, you never come to this side of the campus? Is accounting boring you?"

"Let's not go there," I tell her, feeling relieved to get out of that class. "You know the answer to that already."

"Yeah," she started walking beside me. "So what happened?"

"Fucking Danny, that's what happened," I muttered angrily. "He wants to meet up."

"Who's Danny?" Someone questioned from behind us. I was hoping we wouldn't run into him today, but who was I kidding. He was a Fine Arts major.

Ellie and I turned around to face Renzo. He was holding his easel, and similar to Ellie, his pants had paint stains on them. And when the sun shone on his face, my heart tightened and I felt my crush deepen. I didn't think that could be more possible.

"You're convinced now, Mila?" he smirked. I blushed but quickly steeled my expression.

"You wish." I mocked, rolling my eyes.

"So tell me, who's Danny?" Renzo inquired.

"Danny is Millie's fiancée!" Ellie butted in. I glare at her, incredulous as she revealed that detail.

Renzo eyed Ellie with a fire in his eyes. Did he look angry and...jealous? Well, that was certainly not what I expected.

"Yeah, I just came to tell Ellie that Danny and I are going out for lunch," I stated, needing to get out of there. "So yeah, I gotta go."

I quickly left the two standing there, embarrassment apparent on my face.

----

When I reached the restaurant, I quickly spotted Danny and went towards him. He saw me coming over and he reached out to hug me.

"Glad you could make it." he smiled.

"It was no problem, I only had two classes today anyway," I said trying to make conversation.

"Cool. So how are classes going for you?" he asked as he looked through his phone.

"Everything is going great." I beamed, trying to mask my cringe at the awkwardness between us. "What about you?"

"Yeah, same." He replied, his lack of enthusiasm was as apparent as my urge to leave. "So what do you want to get?"

I looked at the menu in front of me. To be honest, I've always liked Greek food, but I'm slowly starting to get sick of Danny choosing the options we can eat. It had been on my mind for a while, he was always the one that decided everything. Even though I've told Danny millions of times, we always end up going out for Chinese or Greek.

"I think I'm going to get a Gyro today," I answered.

"Sure, I think I'll get that too," he said.

After we ordered, Danny and I were in silence. The awkward kind.

"Miles..." he broke the silence by calling me by my nickname from him, "Are we only engaged because you want your mom's company?"

I wasn't sure if he never picked up on my cues or

Jesus, way to make the situation more tense, idiot. I looked at him with a blank stare.

"Dan, I didn't choose to be the heiress! I don't want to get married the second I graduate with my degree!" I exclaimed but kept it low since I didn't want anyone to hear. "If only you were the same person before your brother died, then things would've been different."

The only reason I'm engaged is because my older sister, Raina, died in a car crash and she was the official heiress. Raina's fiancee Michael, also Danny's brother, became so depressed after her death he overdosed on sleeping pills. It was later decided by our parents we would succeed them. However, I knew deep down, Danny didn't want to take Michael's place. I was still on the fence about being a replacement, but it seemed like it was the only option I had now.

Danny gave me a cold glare, "Mila, the last thing I want to talk about is Michael. I didn't choose this either. I'm just trying to work things out between us."

"Danny..." I started, "There is nothing to work for. We're best friends, but things will not work out no matter how hard we try. We even dated, but it didn't work out. However, we can't go back to the way things used to be. I hope we can go back to the time where we were just friends."

"You're right," he agreed. "It's best if we call this off Miles."

"I think so too," I muttered. At that moment, Renzo appeared in my mind. I quickly shrugged it off and saw that my Gyro had arrived.

When we finished eating, Danny paid the bill, and I bought coffee for us.

"Miles, just know that whatever happens, I'll still love you and we'll always be best friends," he spoke calmly.

We came in for one last hug and went our separate ways.