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“Good night, Dad,” I repeated, and without waiting on his response, I went back downstairs to make myself something to eat for the first time in the past week.

“Would you like for me to cook you something?” Della offered.

“Oh, no. That’s okay. You must be tired,” I said, smiling at her.

“Okay. Has Kennedy been over this week?”

“Yeah, a few times.”

“And did you have boy over?”

I raised a brow.

No, I had amanover.

“No. Would that have been a problem?” I asked.

“Oh, no, not to me. Your father was making speculations,” he explained.

Of course he did. “Only Kennedy. We had takeout a few times. She slept here too,” I told her with a smile.

“That’s nice. So you weren’t all alone the whole week. Have a good night. I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” she said, cupping my cheek gently before heading upstairs.

Luckily, none of them would expect me to start something with a close friend of theirs.

*

“You don’t look like yourself,” Kennedy said as I stepped out of my car in the school’s parking lot.

“I don’t feel like myself,” I muttered.

This morning I woke up with a major hole in my chest, feeling as if my heart had been ripped out.

Never had I felt anything like this before, and it was all Riggs’s fault.

“You’re gonna put on quite a show today with that outfit on,” she pointed out, looking at me as if I was a whole other person.

A monster of some sort.

I chose to wear black tights with my skirt, and I buttoned up my shirt so no cleavage was showing. I also put on the jacket and buttoned it at my waist.

“I’m uncomfortable,” Kennedy said, still looking at me confused.

I sighed and closed the door, then grabbed my backpack from my backseat and locked the car before passing her and walking across the parking lot.

“I’m still me. I’m just trying to figure things out.”

“By not showing as much skin as you usually show?”

“Yes. To see if I can go a day without the attention of men,” I stated.

“And you’re doing this because…”

“Because Riggs has taken up too much space in my head the past two days and I need to be clear about him.”

“I honestly didn’t expect that. I thought you’d just keep on living and be yourself, show him that you don’t take any of his bullshit.”

I shrugged. “I’m still me. Just without all the naughtiness.”

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