“Fuck you, Franklin.”
I end the call and squeeze my phone so hard it creaks. I imagine whipping it against the wall and watching it shatter, but what good would that do?
This time, I really don’t think things can get worse.
But they do.
Oh, of course they do.
There’s a text waiting for me.
From Miles.
Miles:
I can’t do this anymore. I know I said I would be patient, but this is too much. I feel like I’m being lied to, and I’m not okay with that. At first, I thought you were just dealing with some personal stuff, and that would have been okay. I could handle that. But after today? After what just happened? This isn’t right. I’m sorry, but I can’t do this. Please don’t call me anymore.
“Fuck,” I mutter, dropping onto my couch as tears blur my vision.
Chapter 29
Miles
I’m quiet when I step into the entryway, not wanting Audrey or Noah to open the door and ask me to hang out. I’m not in the mood. I make it up to my apartment without them coming out, and hopefully they won’t bother me for the rest of the night. I just need some time to myself to think—and I certainly can’t deal with Audrey’s “I told you so” that I know is coming when I tell her what happened. That conversation won’t be today, but if she sees my mood… she’ll put two and two together.
I need to come to terms with the fact that I’m a shitty judge of character before she throws it in my face.
Because Audreywasright. This situation was too much like the situation with Derek. I have a problem where I can’t see people’s lies… or maybe I just don’t want to, I don’t know. I justsee the good things in people and assume they can be helped, if there’s something going on. Like I can fix them. Total cliche, I know.
Either way, I can’t process this right now. I need time to be sad and work through this mess.
I toss my things on the couch and drop onto it, needing a moment.
I can’t ignore the feeling in my stomach that JJ is lying to me—that he’s hiding something. This is more than him dealing with stuff and keeping walls up. This is him keeping secrets… and likely a big one.
There’d been little signs here and there, but after we had that conversation where he opened up a little, I thought we were moving forward. He opened up for me, told me what he needed from me, and I agreed to do it… as long as he tried too. We communicated. That was good. But did he mean any of it?
Who is this Franklin guy? And why was he blowing up JJ’s phone like that?
Had I not seen the texts pop up, I’d have thought it was an emergency. And I wasn’t trying to snoop, it just sort of happened. When I picked up the phone from the floor, the call had just ended so the screen was lit up, and the texts were right there on the screen. It’s not my fault that JJ opts to show a preview of his text messages on his home screen.
They didn’t feel right from the beginning, and the more I think about them, the worse it is.
Call me back.
Stop ignoring me.
We need to talk.
You can’t avoid this conversation.
I don’t know what you’re doing, but…
That last one was cut off and I didn’t see the entire thing. But I saw enough of the texts to know something was up. Mixed withall the calls and JJ’s response? I may be a little stupid when it comes to relationships, but I’m notthatstupid.
He’s entitled to his secrets and his life. He doesn’t owe me anything. But this felt intentional. It doesn’t feel like a normal thing you keep to yourself until you get to know someone better. And it all keeps going back to what he said to me that night we talked.
“There’s something I want to tell you, but I’m not ready to talk about it yet.”