Page 84 of The Girl I Once Loved

It’s true.

I didn’t tell anyone about the grant, not even Daisy, because it killed me just thinking about leaving Noah. I couldn’t do it. I loved him too much. He was my world. Dartmouth had nothing on him.

“I think I need to sit down,” I stutter, feeling like the rug has just been yanked from underneath me.

“Come with me,” Stacy urges, pulling her car keys out of her pocket and pointing to a brand-new silver hybrid parked on the other side of the street.

I don’t fight her on this, and walk across the street with her, slipping into her car, doing my very best not to lose my shit.

“Are you okay?” she asks worriedly.

“Just fucking tell me the rest. Just tell me…” I pinch the bridge of my nose, trying as best I can to keep my wits about me. “Just tell me all of it.”

When she grows quiet, I have to grab her hand and look her in the eye to force her not to stop now.

“All of it, Stacy. Don’t fucking keep anything from me now. You owe me that much.”

She gives me a clipped nod and takes a deep breath, as if needing to muster all her courage to continue.

“Noah knew you’d never leave him willingly. He knew the only way he could get you to leave Thatcher’s Bay was if he hurt you. He just didn’t have the courage or will to do it. That’s when I came into the picture and offered him the help he longed for.”

“Right,” I rebuke sardonically, imagining how eager she was to have a hand in ruining me.

“Like I said, I’m not proud of my actions, but at the time, you and your feelings were the last thing on my mind. I thought I’d be doing myself a favor. That if I got rid of you, then Noah would come back to me. How stupid I had been. I guess I was just as clueless to the truth as you were,” she laments.

“Stacy—” I grind my teeth, needing her to continue on with her tale instead of explaining how little she cared for me. I got the memo just fine back in high school. I don’t need a reminder.

“Right… sorry,” Stacy hiccups with a sheepish grin, reminding me that she’s two sheets to the wind. “Where was I?”

“You were just telling me how you offered Noah your gracious help to get rid of me,” I seethe.

“Oh, right. Well, that turned into a shitshow right quick, didn’t it?” She blinks apprehensively, and I can tell she’s rethinking having invited me into her car, worried that I might hit her or something.

“I’m not going to hit you. We’re adults, for crying out loud,” I tell her in the hopes to ease her concerns.

When before I wasn’t above kicking Stacy’s ass for her part in tragically ruining my life, now it feels pointless.

“You know what they say?” She tries to lighten the tension between us. “You can take the girl out of Thatcher’s Bay but not Thatcher’s Bay out of the girl.”

Tell me about it.

“We don’t have all night, Stacy. Out with it.” I snap my fingers in her face to sober her up just enough to keep her talking.

“Right. So we set off on concocting a plan. One that would make sure you took your one shot out of Thatcher’s Bay and never looked back. I planned a party and invited anyone I could think of so our plan would look legit. Noah made sure to arrive early and began to drink his weight in alcohol, hoping that it would give him liquid courage to do what had to be done.”

“To sleep with you, you mean. That was your big plan, right? Me catching you two in the act,” I end her thought process for her. “Bravo. You played your part beautifully in ruining my life.”

“Trust me, it was no picnic for me either. Can you imagine how humiliating it was for me to do that? To act like I was okay and that it didn’t hurt me to know that Noah would move heaven and earth to make sure the girl he was actually in love with could have a chance at a better life than the one he could offer her?” Stacy defends ardently.

“Don’t talk to me about sacrifice.” I scoff.

“Why not? I made mine for the boy I thought I loved. Noah made his for the girl hedidlove. What didyoudo? You ran. You ran away, Skylar. It didn’t even occur to you that it was all for show. It’s like you didn’t know him at all. Noah isn’t a cheater. He would never cheat on anyone. Especially you.” She shakes her head, looking me dead in the eye like she can’t believe how stupid I am.

“It was all a lie? You didn’t…” I stammer, not believing what I’m hearing.

“Sleep together?” She shakes her head. “Noah never touched me. You saw what you needed to see that night. That was all.”

“You’re lying! You have to be!” I shout, trying to make sense of everything she is telling me. “That night you told me you paid off his mother’s hospital bills, and I know you did, because any time I tried to help Curt or my mom out over the years, they told me they didn’t need it. That they were financially stable.”

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