Chapter 34: Not the Heartbreaker

Chapter 34: Chapter 34: Not the Heartbreaker

Thursday morning started with a massive headache and an email from Mrs. Higgins.

Audrey walked into the journalism office, dropped her bag by her desk, and immediately looked at her editor.

"Life after the pitch," Mrs. Higgins said, not looking up from her monitor. "I want a feature on student-athletes who transition out of sports to focus on demanding academic majors. The mental shift. The time management."

"Okay," Audrey said, pulling out her notebook. "Do you have a specific angle?"

"I have a specific person," Mrs. Higgins corrected. She handed Audrey a sticky note. "Elena Vance. Former volleyball captain. Current pre-med star. Get an interview with her before tomorrow."

Audrey stared at the name written in black ink.

Elena.

Of course. The universe had a terrible sense of humor.

"Right," Audrey said, her voice completely hollow. "I’ll email her right now."

Three hours later, Audrey was sitting in the bright, modern atrium of the science building.

The air smelled like sterile floor cleaner and expensive espresso. Medical students in white coats walked past in quiet, focused groups. Audrey felt entirely out of place in her faded jeans and oversized sweater.

"Audrey!"

Audrey looked up. Elena was walking toward her, carrying a sleek tablet and a cup of green tea. She looked just as effortless and perfect as she had yesterday in the smoothie shop.

"Hi, Elena," Audrey said, forcing a polite smile as she stood up. "Thank you so much for agreeing to do this on such short notice."

"Are you kidding? I love Mrs. Higgins’ section of the paper," Elena said, taking the seat across the small glass table. "Besides, any excuse to take a break from organic chemistry is a blessing. Ask me anything."

Audrey clicked her daisy pen. She started the voice recorder on her phone and placed it between them.

The first twenty minutes were completely professional. Audrey asked about the pressure of the regional finals. She asked about the transition from daily practices to daily lab work. Elena gave fantastic, thoughtful answers. She was articulate and incredibly humble.

Audrey found herself genuinely liking her. That somehow made everything feel worse.

"It takes a massive toll on your social life," Elena explained, taking a sip of her tea. "When you are a student-athlete, you live in a bubble. When you leave the sport, you have to completely rebuild your support system."

Audrey nodded, writing the quote down. "Did you find it hard to balance relationships when you were still playing?"

It was a standard journalism question. It was on Audrey’s pre-written list. She didn’t mean anything specific by it.

But Elena smiled. A soft, knowing smile.

"It was hard," Elena admitted. "But I was lucky. I had a really good partner my freshman year. Honestly, Mason was a huge part of how I survived that season."

Audrey’s pen stopped moving.

She stared at the blue ink on the page. She didn’t want to talk about Mason. She really, really didn’t want to hear about how perfect their relationship was.

"The campus confession page loves to talk about him," Elena continued, completely unaware of Audrey’s internal panic. "They paint him like this arrogant campus heartbreaker. It actually used to make me so mad when we were together."

Audrey slowly looked up. "It did?"

"Of course," Elena laughed softly. "People would whisper, assuming he was treating me badly or talking to other girls behind my back. But it was completely fake."

Elena leaned forward, her expression turning serious and protective.

"He never cheated," Elena said firmly. "Not on me, not on anyone he dated after me. People just assume the worst because he’s the captain and he’s... well, he looks like that."

Audrey swallowed hard. "Right."

"He was actually incredibly sweet," Elena said, tracing the edge of her tea cup. "My labs used to run until ten at night. He always walked me home. Even if he had morning training at five A.M., he would be waiting outside the science building so I wouldn’t have to walk across campus in the dark."

Audrey’s chest tightened. She thought about Mason carrying her heavy camera bag. She thought about him silently handing her french fries in the cafeteria.

"He remembered my exams," Elena added, shaking her head with a fond smile. "He doesn’t even know what a carbon bond is, but he would bring me coffee on the mornings he knew I had a test. He pays attention to things people don’t think he notices."

"How did you know I skipped lunch?" Audrey had asked him.

"Lucky guess," he had lied.

Audrey’s heart hammered against her ribs. She gripped her pen tightly.

"If he was so great," Audrey blurted out, her voice betraying a tiny fraction of her desperation. "Then why did you break up?"

She shouldn’t have asked. It was unprofessional. It was prying.

But Elena didn’t look offended. She just looked sensible.

"We just wanted different futures," Elena said simply. "I want to go to medical school in Boston. It’s a grueling, ten-year path. Mason wants to stay here, go pro, or manage a regional sports firm near his family."

Elena shrugged, a peaceful acceptance in her eyes.

"We realized we were running in two different directions," she explained. "If we stayed together, one of us would have to compromise our entire dream. And we respected each other too much to build a relationship on resentment. So, we ended it. Cleanly."

Audrey sat completely frozen in the modern atrium.

Her brain was rapidly reorganizing every single thing she thought she knew about Mason Calloway.

He wasn’t the campus player. He wasn’t a heartbreaker who used his status to get whatever he wanted.

He was just a guy who dated a lot.

And when it didn’t work out, when the futures didn’t align, he was honest. He left cleanly. He stayed friends with the girls he respected.

A sudden, terrifying realization crashed over Audrey.

When Logan brought her coffee, it was an apology for ignoring her. When Logan walked her home, it was because he wanted people to see him being a good boyfriend. Everything Logan did was a performance.

But Mason wasn’t performing.

He didn’t perform affection. He observed people.

"Audrey?" Elena asked gently. "Are you alright? You look a little pale."

Audrey snapped out of her daze. She quickly looked down at her notebook, aggressively writing down a sentence that made absolutely no sense just to keep her hands busy.

"I’m fine," Audrey said, her voice shaking slightly. "Just... writing that down. It’s a great quote about balancing goals."

"Good," Elena smiled. She looked at her watch and sighed. "I actually have to run to my anatomy seminar, but you have my email if you need any follow-up questions."

"Thank you, Elena," Audrey said, packing her phone and notebook into her bag. "This was really helpful."

"Anytime," Elena said, standing up. She slung her backpack over her shoulder. "It was nice meeting you, Audrey."

Elena smiled, gave a small wave, and walked away, disappearing into a sea of white medical coats.

Audrey sat alone by the glass table for another minute after Elena disappeared into the crowd.

She looked down at her notebook.

Every answer Elena had given was neat. Practical. Honest.

Not once had she blamed Mason.

Not once had she implied he’d broken her heart.

Not once had she sounded like someone who regretted dating him.

Audrey slowly closed her notebook.

Maybe she’d been asking the wrong question all along.

The question wasn’t what kind of boyfriend Mason was.

The question was... why was he treating her exactly the way he treated someone he genuinely loved?

Audrey grabbed her bag and stood up, her pulse racing.

She had spent yesterday pushing Mason away because she felt inadequate compared to a real girlfriend. She had run away because she was terrified he was just playing a fake dating game.

But Elena had just handed her the truth on a silver platter.

Mason wasn’t a player. He just believed every relationship deserved to be real while it lasted.

And right now, for whatever ridiculous reason, he had chosen to treat Audrey like one.

She needed to find him. She needed to fix how she had left things yesterday. And most importantly, she needed to figure out what she was actually going to say when she saw him.