Page 27 of Forbidden

Chapter Eight

Rosalie

The next fewdays were a blur. Shane didn’t come out of his room much, and when he did, he kept to himself. He hardly looked at me and I knew he was avoiding me.

I found myself falling back on my old high school habits. I looked for little clues and signs of what he was doing or where he had been. He went out several times, but I didn’t know who he was with. Was he dating? Just the thought of it made my chest ache.

Shane would come out of his room late, after everyone had fallen asleep, but whenever I tried to talk to him, he disappeared back into his room without a word. Part of me was glad he wasn’t yelling at me, but another part wished he was. I needed something from him, even if it was him being mean. The silence was worse than almost anything he could possibly say.

The rest of the house was asleep and I knew Shane would be up soon to eat or whatever it was he did in the middle of the night. I had to stop listening for him and thinking about him. I had to stop obsessing about him. Needing something to get my mind off him, I looked at my cell phone and decided to see what Noelle had been up to.

“Hey stranger,” she said as she answered.

“Thanks, that makes me feel even better.”

“Nah, you know I’m just busting your chops. I haven’t been around much lately either with getting ready to go away and trying to spend as much time with Craig as possible.”

“How are things with him?”

“Things are...well, they could be better. You know when we started dating, the whole plan was we were just hanging out for the summer. No strings, no ties since we were both going away. But now it’s different and that’s making it harder. He’s even talking about transferring to my school, but I told him that’s just insane. What’s going on with you? How’s Shane? Have you accidentally walked in on him in the shower yet?”

I laughed. “No, but now you’re giving me more ideas. I guess he’s alright. I don’t think he’s talking to me right now, which is a bummer. I’m trying to not think about it though.”

“Okay, then I’ll change the subject. Have you heard from your mom?”

“No. I called her a week or so ago, but she never called me back. She’s pissed at me. She hasn’t spoken to me since the day I left and that day she said something about my betraying her.”

“Sorry, I’m sure that’s got to be hard.”

“Yeah, but you know what? I feel so much more at ease not being there. I think I’m okay with it. She’s just going to be how she is. I can’t let it affect me. Now if only the nightmares would stop.”

“The parking lot nightmares?”

“Yup, those. They go away for a while and then come back.”

“It’s better that you’re not there and you know that. Jim was such a creep, and I hated visiting you. And now that Shane lives there, I really should be coming over more often.”

“Shut up,” I said, laughing. “See, I missed this. I missed talking to you.”

“I missed it too. And I’m going to miss you once I leave, but now that you’re out of that house, you could visit and maybe we can do something on spring break. It’ll be nice to have a best friend I can actually do things with.”

“Thanks, rub it in.”

“Aww, you know it’s just because I love you.”

“Love you too, Noelle.”

“It’s late, I’m gonna crash. Call me tomorrow.”

As I got off the phone, I decided to give in to sleep. I turned on my favorite playlist and as the music played, I closed my eyes.

* * *

“Rosalie,”Shane hissed. “Wake up.”

I gasped for air as my eyes flew open. Shane was wearing nothing but black boxer briefs.

“What the fuck?” I said as I pulled my blanket up. “Get the fuck out of my room!”

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