Page 11 of The Forever Play

I sighed, resting my butt on the back of the couch and tucking a hand under my armpit. “I was hoping I could see her. Tell her I missed her.” I mumbled out the last part.

“Toy with her, you mean?”

“Hey. No,” I grumbled, kicking the heel of my socked foot on the floor. “I genuinely want her back.”

“Well, you missed that boat.”

“Olivia,” I softly pleaded. “Where is she?”

After a sigh that made my stomach hurt, she finally told me. “Truth is, I don’t actually know. She moves around a lot and is total shit at staying in touch, even though she promised me she would.”

“What the hell happened?”

“I don’t know. She wasn’t the same after you left, but she was trying and then… one day she didn’t turn up to school, and that afternoon, she came over and told me her parents were hitting the road, and she was going to finish out her senior year via online school. They had some big camper van, road trip adventure thing planned.”

I nodded, remembering all the stories she’d told me about tripping around with her parents. “I thought she wanted to graduate here.”

“Me too.” Olivia popped her lips. “I mean… the day she left, she did seem really upset. She came over to hug me goodbye and was crying and going on about needing a clean break. She wanted to put everything behind her.” Her voice dropped to droll and unimpressed. “She was kind of babbling, to be honest, like she didn’t know what she was trying to say. In the end, I just hugged her and told her to go have fun. She promised to send me pics and keep me updated but…” Olivia sighed. “She sucks at it. I get the odd text every now and then, but I’ve had so many messages go without a response that I’m not sure I’m going to bother anymore. It’s obvious she wants to be left alone.”

“But why?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well…” I huffed. “Can you tell her I need to speak with her?”

“I doubt it’s gonna make any difference.”

“Why?”

Olivia groaned like she wished she hadn’t called me in the first place. “She was never the same after you broke up. She was obsessed with you, and you tore her heart out.”

Ouch. It hurt like a knife through the stomach to hear that, and I quickly tried to justify my actions. “I was trying to do the right thing. Be sensible.”

“Well, she never recovered. If you ask me, youdiddo the right thing. She was way too clingy with you and needed to grow a serious backbone. The fact that she couldn’t cope without you tells me she wasn’t even ready for you, you know?”

I nodded, not sure I was really following.

“My advice?” Olivia continued. “Leave her alone and let her get on with her life. She’s traveling, having fun exploring the country. Don’t toy with her heart and make her miss you all over again. You were the one who brokeit off, so do the right thing and… keep it off. You need to move on too.”

To say I was devastated was the understatement of the year. I couldn’t get over the fact that Sienna had just left and not even told me about it.

I spent the rest of the day stewing, which definitely set a pretty morose tone for Christmas. I felt kind of bad about it. It was the first time I’d made it back since starting college, and I was being a grumpy asshole.

Dad and Monica came over for lunch. Even my grandparents were there. It was supposed to be this family celebration, and all I could obsess over was the fact that Sienna hadn’t been where I thought she was. That she’d left and not told me.

She’d just up and vanished and was ghosting me, no matter how many texts I sent or voicemails I left.

In the end, my sullen behavior got too much for Dad, and our family lunch ended with a massive argument. I packed my bags and headed back to Kelsey U a day early.

Wincing, I rub the back of my head and fist my hair. Mom’s forgiven me since, but it took a hell of a lot of apologizing.

“Zan! What’s wrong, man?” Grady runs up to me, resting his hand on my shoulder. “Why are you standing all the way over here? We thought you’d taken off.”

“Uh…” I swallow, unable to form a coherent sentence. How the fuck am I supposed to tell him? I just saw the one who got away, and she was carrying a daughter… maybe my daughter.

Fuck, fuck, fuck! What am I supposed to do with that?

“You okay? You look like you’re about to pass out.”

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