Jasmine sat across from Cameron in the dim glow of the coffee shop, her fingers wrapped around the warmth of her untouched latte. She had rehearsed this conversation over and over, trying to find the words that wouldn't shatter Cameron entirely. The silence between them stretched, heavy and suffocating.
Cameron, slouched in her seat, looked worse than Jasmine had ever seen her—hollow-eyed, exhausted, fingers trembling slightly around her coffee cup. The sharp scent of whiskey clung to her like a second skin, even though it was barely past noon. Jasmine hated that she wasn't surprised.
"I need to talk to you about us," Jasmine said, voice soft but unwavering.
Cameron let out a low, humorless chuckle, her grip on the cup tightening. "Yeah? You mean about the fight? Look, I was drunk, I spoke harsher than I should have. But we always do this, Jasmine. It's nothing new."
Jasmine inhaled slowly, steadying herself. "That's exactly the problem, Cam. It's always the same. We destroy each other and then pretend it never happened."
Cameron's jaw tensed, her eyes darkening. "So what, you're just done with me? Just like that?"
Jasmine flinched but didn't back down. "I'm not abandoning you," she murmured, choosing her words carefully. "But I can't keep doing this. I can't keep pulling you out of the wreckage when I'm the one who helped put you there."
Cameron's lips parted, but no words came out. For the first time in their years of tangled dependency, Jasmine saw something she had never wanted to see before—Cameron didn't just need her. She was built around her. And that wasn't love. That was something broken, something Jasmine had spent years cultivating without even realizing it.
"I controlled you, Cam," Jasmine admitted, and the rawness in her own voice startled her. "I made you think I was the only thing keeping you together. And you let me, because it was easier than facing yourself. But I see it now. I see what I did to you. And I won't keep doing it."
Cameron's breath hitched, her hands curling into fists against the tabletop. "Then what do you want me to do, Jasmine?" she asked, voice barely above a whisper. "If you leave, what the hell am I supposed to do?"
Jasmine swallowed past the lump in her throat. "Figure out who you are without me."
Cameron shook her head, laughing brokenly. "That's so easy for you to say."
"It's not easy at all." Jasmine reached across the table, hesitating before touching Cameron's wrist. "But it's necessary. For both of us."
Cameron didn't pull away immediately. She just sat there, staring at Jasmine like she wanted to burn her image into her memory. Then, with a slow exhale, she slipped her arm back, retreating.
"So that's it," Cameron muttered. "You just get better, and I get left behind."
Jasmine's throat tightened. "You're not being left behind, Cam. But I can't be the one who saves you anymore."
Cameron let out a sharp exhale, running a hand through her tangled hair. "And what if I don't want to be saved?"
Jasmine looked at her, really looked at her. The dark circles beneath her eyes, the exhaustion etched into every line of her face, the way she carried herself like a person on the verge of collapse. "Then I hope one day you do."
Silence. Heavy. Crushing. Cameron stared at Jasmine like she wanted to scream, like she wanted to shake her until she took it all back. But then her expression shifted, crumbling into something almost unreadable. Defeat. Acceptance. Maybe both.
Cameron sucked in a slow, unsteady breath. "I don't know how to be without you."
Jasmine felt her chest tighten. "Neither do I."
Cameron clenched her jaw, looking away, blinking rapidly. "Then don't do this."
"I have to."
Another silence, stretching longer this time. Cameron finally exhaled, standing up, her movements slow, as if every inch of her body resisted it. She grabbed her jacket off the back of her chair but hesitated before putting it on.
When she finally met Jasmine's eyes again, she looked different. A little older. A little more fragile.
"Goodbye, Jasmine," Cameron murmured, voice barely above a whisper.
Jasmine swallowed hard. "Goodbye, Cam."
And with that, Cameron turned and walked out the door.
Jasmine sat there, frozen, until the weight of it all finally crashed over her. And when it did, she realized—this was the first time she had ever truly let Cameron go.