Page 113 of Sunflower Persona
This year was different. I met people, found common interests, and now I’m ignoring every call and text they’ve sent me since I walked out on Friendsgivmas. That was over a month ago, but Evelyn and Nathan haven’t given up. It was easy to leave them on read while I was back home for the break, but I know I won’t be able to avoid them forever now that I’m back on campus.
I’m surprised Evelyn hasn’t shown up at my dorm yet.
But with those friendships falling apart, I’m back in the exact same position I was in this time last semester—completely and utterly alone. Only this time, I know what I’m missing, and I refuse to let it be gone for long. I’m going to make friends who aren’t attached to Gage; I need people who are mine and mine alone.
Unlike last semester, I have a game plan for how I’m going to do this—one that doesn’t involve getting drunk and hoping for the best. Which is why I’m making the trek up to the studentcenter on a Wednesday evening when my last class finished hours ago.
I’m joining a club.
The retro movie club, to be specific, and tonight is their first screening of the semester. I’m not exactly sure what that entails, but I do know I’ll at least find people with common interests, and that’s as good of a starting point as any. Plus, the flyer said it’s a creature feature. It couldn’t get more perfect than that. Hell, it feels like fate. But so did Gage, and that turned out to be a whole lot of wishful thinking on my part.
Fuck. Maybe this was a bad idea too. It isn’t too late to turn back. A semester alone to reorient myself and get over my ex might be exactly what I need. I could—
“Hey, Kori, wait up,” Nathan calls out from behind me, interrupting my spiral of self-doubt.
I freeze at his unexpected appearance, and he uses the pause to his advantage and catches up with me, slinging an arm around my shoulders. The easygoing wide smile plastered on his face sends a shiver of unease through me. It doesn’t match the glacial anger in his eyes.
“Hi, Nathan,” I squeak out.
“How was your break?” he asks, keeping that same cheerful facade.
“Good.”
I start to move away, but he moves with me and falls in step at my side, his arm still wrapped around me, anchoring me to his side.
“That’s good. How was my break? Good question, Kor. I spent my break trying to get in contact with a friend of mine, but it was like she fell off the face of the earth.” His words grow more pointed as the mask falls away, and I grimace.
There’s the judgment I deserve.
I don’t have a leg to stand on to argue against it. Like a coward, Ididignore him over the past several weeks. My gaze falls to my feet as my shoulders climb. This would be a great time for a sinkhole to open up so I can disappear for real.
“Nathan—” I start, but he cuts me off before I can give him a bullshit excuse.
“She wouldn’t ghost us now, would she? That would be cruel. Her phone must have broken or something. Because she wouldn’t just abandon her friends like that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Apologize to Evelyn. She’s been worried fucking sick.”
“I didn’t mean to worry you.”
“Then why did you do it?”
“I—”
“Thought it would be easier than talking about the hard things?”
“I didn’t think you all would care,” I admit.
“Of course we care. You are our friend, and you went completely AWOL. Evelyn was convinced you had died. She almost went to Gage to have him check on you since he knows where your parents live.”
“No, don’t get him involved.”
“That’s what I told her. But you should text her.”
“I will.”
“Good. You should also come to game night this weekend.”
