Page 63 of Shattered

She huffed in frustration, then stared at the wall, refusing to look upon that stupidly beautiful face as she broke.

He paused for only a moment at what she assumed was her doorway and though she wasn’t looking at him, she felt his stare cover her. She didn’t move.

With that, he slammed the door shut and she heard his footsteps echoing down the stairs as she collapsed onto her bed and let the tears flow.

Chapter 27 - Sam

Sam couldn’t focus on anything to do with school for the rest of that night or the next day. She even ended up calling out of her Monday and Tuesday night shifts at Topline. If she was going to completely get over him, then she most certainly couldn’t be around him again. Just being in the same room as him seemed to impede her ability to think straight and made her emotions go all haywire.

She was just so angry.

And sad.

And frustrated.

And confused.

She spent most of what would have been her Tuesday shift searching the Help Wanted papers for a new job. She knew she technically had one at Peet’s, but for some reason, she just couldn’t bring herself to call them up.

When she sat beside Kristin for Dr. Cho’s nephrology exam, Kristin didn’t even have to ask.

“Callum might be in an even worse mood than you right now,” Kristin said as they were readying their IDs and making sure they had enough pencils and scratch paper.

“You know I don’t want to talk about him. Can we just act like I never met him?”

“Well, he is acting like a sourpuss and it's pissing Drew and Micah off. I have been tasked with asking you to fix whatever caused this mood he has stumbled into.”

Sam groaned in frustration. “I’m not fixing anything. Hecaused thismoodhimself. He can wallow in it.”

“Like you’re wallowing in yours?” Kristin countered.

Sam rolled her eyes. “Stop. I want nothing more to do with him. Besides, I don’t ever plan on laying eyes on the man again so it’s not my problem to fix.”

Kristin grabbed Sam’s shoulder and twisted her so they could finally face each other.

“What about hanging out at Micah’s? And work? Are you just never going to go back? We had so much fun out at their pool last year. You can’t tell me you aren’t going to want to go back out there this summer.”

“Well, ifheopens up another tattoo shop somewhere far away and is gone for most of the summer again then I will come and hang out with y’all at the pool. If not, I think I’ll stick with getting a tan on our back deck.” She turned back to face the front.

“Sam. Stop this. I don’t know what happened other than seeing him rush out the door and then finding you a complete mess in just your underwear, but something is up.”

“Kristin. Please stop.”

“Listen. I’ve left you alone about it like you asked, but it's been days now, you need to talk to me. You aren't yourself. You haven’t even been to work. After this exam is over, you and I are having a girl’s night. Okay? We can get wasted and you can tell me all the reasons Callum Barker is worse than a piece of dirt.”

Sam smiled at her friend. “I think I need that.”

“That’s why I’m here,” Kristin whispered back to her just as the exam started.

******

Sam was a nervous wreck as she walked out of the auditorium. Her mind was mush, and she didn’t know what half of the questions were asking, let alone what the right answers were. This was the first time she could recall not being confident about a grade. When she opened the doors to the outside hallway, she found

Kristin waiting on a bench.

“Please tell me you thought that came out of left field in there?” Kristin asked and Sam was somewhat relieved that it wasn’t just her who felt completely blindsided.

“I have no idea what that was. Did we even study that? I mean, what was his plan? Try and fail half the class?” Sam asked as they passed by a girl currently vomiting into a trashcan.

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