Page 44 of Ghosted By Texas

“I’ll pass that on to her,” she told the person, then she shouted into the door again and banged her fists on it. “Your neighbor just offered to get under you. You need to open up before everyone in the building starts making an attempt at helping you get over someone.”

I slid over to the door and pulled the damn thing open. Clea wasn’t kidding, her next step would have been to use my key and then I would have felt worse at having her see me unable to even open my own damn door.

Did I mention that I was wearing Austin’s shirt again? There should have been a moment, when Clea eyed me, where I felt embarrassed over that fact, but I didn’t. Like the good friend that she was, she didn’t call me out on it either. Instead, she crinkled her nose at me in disgust.

Fair. I hadn’t showered since the other day and applying deodorant hadn’t been a thought either.

“Okay, first thing, you’re getting a shower. Then, we’re going to a movie to get lost in someone else’s drama for a while.”

“How is that going to make me feel better?”

“One – you’ll be clean. Two – you need to get out of this house. Three – we are not letting the asshole win!”

“Fine!” I spun around, slowly to stave off the wave of dizziness that not eating much more than a cracker and a half bowl of soup in days caused. Before I entered the bathroom, I laid down my one rule. “No romantic comedies, though. Fuck love!”

“Yeah! Fuck love!” Clea shouted back at me.

It almost made me laugh because I knew she didn’t mean it for herself but was trying to commiserate with me anyway.

“Shut up, you liar!” I yelled back to her. Then I got a shower, shaved my previously stinky pits. Twice. It was weird how fast the hair grew there. My legs and bikini area remained unshaven though, because who the hell did I have to impress anymore? No one, that’s who.

I dressed in a simple jeans and t-shirt with a hoodie thrown on top for good measure because it was still much cooler outside in the evenings, even though we had a pretty balmy warm front move into the area at some point. I only knew that because my heat hadn’t kicked on as much, which meant the outside temps must have been higher than the sixty-five threshold my thermostat was still set at.

I’d stopped setting emergency money aside for my parents. In fact, I quit my second job as a waitress that I’d used to come up with the money to help them out, too. That was why I had the entire last weekend off in anticipation of spending it with… Nope. Wasn’t even going to think his stupid name. His mom was probably dropped on her head as a baby to name her kids after a state that she never even lived in. Maybe that was why she ended up dropping him on his head, too. There had to be some brain damage involved in his decision-making abilities. Had to.

I slipped my feet into a pair of furry on the inside, suede on the outside boots and made my way out to find Clea texting away on her phone. When she saw that I was ready, she stood and tucked her phone away.

“Okay, let’s get out of here,” she ordered. The dubious look I threw at my door forced her hand, and she came to tug me out of the apartment before turning and locking my door, so I didn’t have easy access to get back in. I also didn’t have my keys with me, which sucked because it left me at Clea’s mercy. There would be no bailing out early.

Once we arrived at the theater, we chose an action flick. It was sure to have a bit of romance, but everyone knew that the action hero never had the same love interest in the sequel, so I would just remind myself of that when it looked like they might be falling for one another. Clea ordered a tub of buttered popcorn, and two large drinks. I almost reminded her about the Reece’s Pieces, but decided I wasn’t really in the mood for the sweet to go with the bitter I felt inside.

The lights were still up when we made our way into the theater. Honestly, I wished they hadn’t been because wallowing in a dark space while pretending to pay attention to the previews and then the movie sounded like the best idea. Too much time in the bright lights without a distraction meant that Clea might say the wrong thing and trigger another sob-fest. No one needed to see me sob and scream at myself like a lunatic.

We managed to find our seats just in time to turn around and be smacked in the face – not literally – with the reason for my misery. It was as bad as I feared and worse all at once. He’d left me for her. I’d imagined it with so many different scenarios, but honestly thought it couldn’t be possible. There had to be another reason why he ghosted me after the best two weeks of my life.

The reason was locked in a sensual kiss with him three rows up from where I stood, having not yet been able to take my seat because my eyes had locked on the living embodiment of the nightmares that had kept me awake for the past three days.

I glanced down as their lips broke apart and she tried to feed him whatever was in her hands. He turned away slightly, and she huffed.

“I dumped the candy in, just the way you like it,” she cooed to him before he leaned over and kissed her again. She dumped the candy in? I glanced down and couldn’t be sure from the distance, but it looked like Reece’s Pieces were floating around in their shared bucket of popcorn. He’d shown her my way to eat popcorn at the movies. It felt like even more of a betrayal that he’d shared that with her. Never mind the kiss, that felt like a violation. He had blatantly shared something of mine – something I turned into ours – with her.

This was why leaving the house had been a horrible idea. I didn’t think I’d ever do it again. Briefly, I wondered if anyone would care if I dumped our popcorn on the floor, so that I had the bucket to use to vomit in. I would imagine they’d rather clean a popcorn mess than my nasty stomach bile off the carpeted floor.

Clea must have clued into what had me frozen in place, because she announced, rather loudly, and much to my dismay, “What a fucking douche!”

The couple broke apart and turned to see who made that announcement and why. Jordan looked extremely pleased with herself when she noticed who was standing there. I don’t know what Austin’s reaction was because I couldn’t bring myself to look. It would be even more devastating to see his reaction and have it be less than heartbreak. Then again, the fact that he was at the movies, kissing another woman, made it more than clear that he was not experiencing the same level of heartbreak that I’d been going through for days.

That thought managed to unglue my feet from the floor and I took off out of the theater at breakneck speed. There was no honor in sitting through a movie and pretending that seeing them there together didn’t hurt me. I couldn’t do it anyway. Nothing about my feelings for Austin had ever been pretend.

“Becs!” I heard Austin call out from behind me, but I ignored it. Actually, I used his voice to motivate me to move faster than before. Clea could find her own way home. I’d take an Uber or something. Unfortunately, I remembered that I’d have to wait for my best friend because she hadn’t let me take my keys or wallet with me. That meant I had no way to get home or to get into my apartment once I got there. Despite my neighbor’s kind offer to get under him and forget my troubles, that wasn’t an option that was open for me in my state of heartbreak and desperation.

I managed to dump my popcorn and drink into the trash, mostly so they couldn’t be used as weapons. No way did I want to go to jail for assault by popcorn. That would just be embarrassing on top of the pathetic mess my life had already become.

“Becs!” I heard Austin call again, and he sounded far too close, but I couldn’t stop and allow him anywhere near me. I’d wanted closure days ago, and now I had it. There was no longer any need for a conversation.

“Go on home, Becs, I’ll get a ride there in a minute,” Clea called out to me. I moved around the corner, out of sight, to wait for her. She must have forgotten that she was my ride here and all that nonsense about me not having keys or money. Still, she stopped to stall Austin so I could get away, and I would owe her for that one day when I was capable of paying her back.

“You are the biggest asshole I have ever met,” my best friend said. Obviously, that was not directed at me.

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