Page 37 of Ink & Stardust

After saying our goodbyes, I watch him drive away a few minutes later, the heavy weight of homesickness settling in my chest. It’s not a feeling I’m unfamiliar with, unfortunately. I’ve basically been homesick since the day I arrived on campus.

I’m about halfway back to my dorm room when my phone starts vibrating in my pocket. Smiling to myself because of course River is calling me—no doubt already bored—I pull it out, confusion tugging at my brow when instead I see a number I don’t recognize flash across the screen.

Dismissing it as spam, I send the call to voicemail but before I can even return my phone to my pocket, it starts ringing again.

I look at the number longer this time, the fact that it’s a North Carolina area code not lost on me. Not that it’s uncommon for me to get spam calls from North Carolina numbers. It isn’t. Sending it to voicemail a second time, my heart jumps when the number pops up a third time, mere seconds later.

“What the...” I murmur to myself, deciding to answer it, given how persistent the caller is. Fear gnaws at my insides. Did something happen back home?

Swiping my finger across the screen, I press the phone to my ear.

“Hello.”

“I knew you’d answer eventually.” The familiar voice washes over me and I stop dead in my tracks, my heart lodging somewhere in my throat.

“Leo?” It sounds like a question, but it isn’t. I’d recognize his voice anywhere.

“Hi, Lyric.” It’s so causal, the way one might address an old friend they haven’t talked to in a while.

“Why are you calling me?” I snap, seconds away from hanging up on him.

“I miss you.”

“You miss me?” My shock quickly morphs to anger.

“Why do you sound surprised?”

Is that humor in his voice?

“Maybe because the last time I spoke to you, you were balls deep in my best friend.” I seethe, my hands shaking so bad I can barely keep my grip on the phone.

“Oh, that...”

What. The. Actual. Hell.

“You know that meant nothing.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” I let out a humorless laugh.

The freaking audacity of this guy.

“I tried explaining. I came to your house. I tried calling you for weeks.”

“Because there’s nothing to explain. You slept with my best friend. I know all I need to know.”

“I still love you.”

My stomach sours.

“Don’t call me again.” I end the call, immediately blocking the number he called from.

Rocks fill my insides, my heart seconds away from beating straight out of my freaking chest as the panic takes hold.

No. No. Not now... Please God.

I try to calm my breathing. Try to find a way to steady my rapid heart rate. Try to think of something else, anything to distract me from the way the world seems to close down around me, holding me prisoner in the moment. I close my eyes, balling my hands into fists as I will the attack away, will it not to bloom.

But just when I think all hope is lost, I hear it. A voice beckoning me from the darkness, calling me to come back. My eyes flutter open to find dark blue ones staring back at me.

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