Page 92 of Unforgettable

“I spoke to Murph earlier.” She strides over to my bed, sitting on the side, and I let my eyes drift back to the ceiling. “He says he’s been texting and you haven’t been texting back.”

“There’s really nothing much to say.”

“You could at least tell him you’re okay. He’s worried about you.”

“But, I’m not okay,” I croak out.

It must be the sadness in my voice that has my sister pulling back the blankets and curling up beside me. It’s not like my heartache isn’t on display for everyone to see, but saying the words out loud manages to crack me open even further.

Those words are the truth and it hurts, but I feel so helpless to change it. So confused. So unsure.

Even though it was my choice to walk away, for reasons that made sense to me, now that I’m home, suffering from the consequences of being without Oz, I don’t feel like they make sense anymore.

“I think you should go back,” Callie suggests. “I think you should go back to Oz.”

Not for the first time, I consider the option. “And what would I say? ‘Take me back. I was stupid.’”

Callie sits up. Leaning on her elbow, she looks down at me. “It would be a great start.”

I scoff. “Just like that?”

“Why not, Reeve? You’re not doing anything here,” she says with frustration. “You don’t leave the room, you haven’t unpacked, you don’t eat or talk to me or Poppy, and you’re not even working. One of the main excuses you used and you’re. Not. Even. Working.”

Shame washes over me, and I pull the covers over my head to hide my stinging eyes.

“Reeve,” Callie says firmly.

When I don’t answer or move, she slides into my cocoon, as opposed to tearing the blankets off my body, and I appreciate it.

“Reevey,” she coaxes softly. “Talk to me.”

“I’m scared,” I tell her, repeating the exact words I said to Oz. “I’m scared of making permanent changes only for Oz and me to end the way Micah and I did.”

“But you’re not making those choices for Oz, and Oz isn’t Micah,” she states. “You don’t want to work here and you have no problem living away from here, you have for a really long time. Choosing Vermont may be because of Oz, but that doesn’t change the way you feel about beinghere.”

“What would I do?” I ask petulantly.

Callie slowly moves the cover over and off our faces and then turns to me. “Whatever you want to do. Work at V and V, go back to school, travel the world… it doesn’t really matter as long as you’re doing somethingyouwant to do.”

“And Mom and Dad?”

“Talk to them, Reeve. Just tell them the truth,” she suggests. “They’re going to hate it, but it’s your life.”

“I don’t want to wait another month before they get back from Europe,” I tell her.

“So, don’t,” she says matter-of-factly. “They still think you’re supposed to be in Vermont, right? That means your allowance is still intact for at least another six weeks. And then you just tell them you’re not coming back to work at Hale Finance. Your inheritance comes in two years, but you’re the most self-sufficient twenty-three-year-old I know. So I don’t think it will be a problem, but if it is…” She grabs my hand and entwines her fingers with mine. “But if it is. You’ve. Got. Me.”

Callie makes it sound so simple, and I don’t know why that makes me feel even more stupid for all the years I’ve spent delaying this moment. Could I really just walk away from Hale Finance that easily? Was I the only one making a big deal about coming home and working for my parents?

“I have lived my whole life knowing I will be working for Mom and Dad one day. I have dreaded it for so long, and now you’re telling me I can just walk away without even an argument.”

How anticlimactic.

“They don’t use words, Reeve,” Callie reminds me. “They’re action people. You get gifts for being perfect and they take them all away when you’re not. But you never wanted the gifts,” she explains. “You always wanted the praise. You wanted them to be proud of you. And along the way you tried to find a way to get both.”

I think back to the compromise I made to go to Seattle. And then the compromise I made to go to Vermont. If I didn’t feel the need to constantly receive their approval, I would’ve studied what I wanted in Seattle, and I wouldn’t have left Vermont.

Or at the bare minimum I wouldn’t have used it as an excuse to leave Oz.

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