Chapter 74: You are not alone

"Kellen, why were you worried about me? We've been friends for so long, what triggered this?" Taylor's soft voice came over the phone, and Kellen could feel the embarrassment welling up inside of him. He wasn't sure if he wanted to say it, since he had a feeling he knew how they were going to react. 

"Well, everyone is going to leave me when they get paired and don't need me in their lives anymore. I'm just a placeholder." No one said anything as Kellen fought to keep the tears back. It felt like a losing battle, but he was doing his best. His face felt hot and he poured more cider into his mouth so he didn't have to look at it anymore. He hated that he had ended up talking about this, not once, but twice, and with almost everyone he didn't want to talk about this with. He really didn't want to find out that his suspicions were correct about every relationship he'd ever had in one day.