Page 151 of Aftersome
At first, I couldn’t figure out what it was. If it wasn’t my phone, it had to have been Doe’s. I quickly rose up off the couch and followed the sound until the illuminated screen caught my eye and I reached for it.
But what I saw knocked the fucking wind right out of me.
Shelia.
A name I hadn’t heard in so long, that I was beginning to believe that she no longer existed. Her phone continued to ring and all I could do was stare mindlessly at the caller's name.
I felt numb.
Frozen.
And when it finally ended, a string of message notifications filled her phone and they were all from Shelia. I couldn’t stop myself from unlocking her phone, it was as if my body had been taken over and everything from my past came flooding in.
A wave of nauseousness, along with what felt like deceit, had swept through my body and lanced at my heart. Then when I finally opened the thread of messages, everything I believed, everything I worked so fucking hard for, disintegrated into nothing.
Shelia: We miss you, Wren. Please call us when you have the chance.
Shelia: Please let us know that you’re okay.
Shelia: We went and saw Alice today and she wanted me to tell you that she can’t wait till you’re back home. We love you.
Shelia: We watched one of Mal’s games today. Please tell him that we’re so proud of him.
Fuck…
I couldn’t breathe.
My vision was beginning to turn black now as my whole body became engulfed in rage. Why was Shelia blowing her shit up? And why hadn’t Doe responded? None of what I was looking at sat right with me.
“Mal?” Doe’s hesitant voice asked from just behind, which caused my back to go painfully stiff.
My eyes slammed shut as unimaginable pain radiated throughout my chest.
“Someone was calling you,” I said through gritted teeth and slowly spun around to face her.
Guilt was written all over her face.
“Who?”
I tried my hardest to not throw her phone across the fucking room but I was on the verge of destruction.
“Don’t, Wren. Don’t pretend like you don’t fucking know when you do.” My voice broke as the desperate look she was giving me tore me apart. “What is this? What are you hiding from me?”
I tossed her phone onto the ground in front of her, not giving a damn if I cracked it or not. She instantly flinched but didn’t make any moves to grab it, instead she dropped her head in pity and immense guilt.
Just fucking tell me, Doe!I wanted to scream.
I wanted to get on my knees and beg for her to take me out of this misery of not knowing.
“I was going to tell you…” Her voice had half the strength, half the depth it normally did, and I fucking hated it. “I wasgoing to tell you so many times now, but I was terrified of how you would react.”
My heart sunk.
“Tell me what? What were you going to tell me?” I demanded more fiercely now.
With her head tipped down, refusing to look at me, refusing to face me, I knew it had to be bad.
Whatever it was.
