After Jodie leaves and I work the rest of my shift without shedding another tear, I plan out what I’m going to write, and when I got home, I let it all out in a text:
While I guess I have to respect the fact that you want to end our relationship, the way you went about it was completely ass-y. You allegedly don’t love me, but having been your girlfriend for the past eight months, I figured I’d deserve something better than getting dumped in a parking lot. I am completely confused, since yesterday we decided to have sex, and today you want nothing to do with me. All I’m asking for is an explanation. You at least owe me that.
I hit SEND before I can change my mind and write something sappy. I sit back in my chair and wait. Then I read over the text again to see if it has the right emotional impact. Then I sit back in my chair again, until checking to see that I texted Hunter’s cell number and not his parents’ landline. Every time I pick up the phone, I’m forced to see my phone wallpaper, which is a picture of Hunter and me at the top of the Ferris wheel at the local fair. We’re smiling with our heads touching, and there’s a beautiful sunset behind us. So I quickly delete the pic and replace it with a photo I took of a vicious-looking purple anvil cloud during a hailstorm a few weeks ago.
I try to think if there have been any warning signs of Hunter being a heartless bastard over the last few months. Aside from the last week of him being a little distant, the biggest issue I had with him were his friends, who I knew I didn’t really like from the first time we hung out. It was a game night at Hunter’s house with Kim, Steve, and Brynn. I was fairly sure the date was going horribly, since Kim kept steering the conversation to classes I wasn’t taking and I found something so weird about Brynn’s seemingly forced friendliness.
I figured since they’d been longtime friends, they’d have Hunter’s ear and tell him to ditch me, and I made myself okay with that idea because I really wasn’t jibing well with his group. But something went right, because he asked me out “just us” the next week. We went to the local diner where we talked more about the Ringtones than anything else, but when I gave him some song suggestions, he called me a “genius,” and I was delighted to be thought of so highly. Especially since the last time I had really been around guys, they were calling me names and throwing ketchup packets at me.
So when he kissed me, I felt like I had hit the lottery, even if upon our first kiss, my first kiss ever, he shoved his tongue in my mouth right away and kind of slobbered on me. But I figured no one was perfect, and maybe he was just inexperienced with the whole kissing thing, like me. Besides, he was cute, and he liked me. And it meant I wouldn’t have to sneak lunch in the library anymore. What more could I ask for?
I think of that now. He asked me to hang out. He asked me out on our first date. He made the first move. And then he cuts me loose with no real explanation except that he’s suddenly lacking feelings for me.
I check my phone again. Nothing.
And then I cry myself to sleep, which is probably much more than a horrible kisser like Hunter deserves.
CHAPTER 4
This is not going to be easy. I know this the second I return to the scene of the crime, the RHHS parking lot, the next morning and an overwhelming sense of nausea comes over me. Luckily, I’m driving my parents’ car today, so I can take a moment to gather myself before I get out.
I look at the papier-mâché globe in the passenger’s seat. It was the reason why my parents let me borrow the car, since Dad doesn’t have to be at work until tonight and Mom is off. I didn’t tell them about the breakup, one, because I want to make sure Hunter and I are completely and totally broken up (I mean, what if we get back together?) and two, because I know they aren’t fans of Hunter. I feared they’d be relieved or something if I told them and that would just make me feel even worse.
Anyway, Dad saw me getting ready to leave this morning and was all, “It’s raining, you don’t want to ruin that! You worked so hard on it!” Which almost made me start sobbing, because I’d been putting the globe together for the past few weeks whenever I had a free moment. All I could think about when I was making it was how much Hunter would appreciate it.
I shake my head remembering that now.
I linger in the car, not wanting to go inside just yet. Instead, I stare through the chain-link fence of the house next to the school parking lot. There’s a white German shepherd lying peacefully on the grass, sniffing at the damp air and I almost envy him and his lack of angst. I know his name is Montague and that this would be a rare moment for him, as I’ve heard he’s kind of psychotic—like, using-cinder-blocks-as-toys psychotic.
Of course, it was Hunter who told me this, so maybe I shouldn’t believe it. I mean, if he’d lie about loving someone, why not lie about something minor like a dog’s playtime habits?
That’s when I notice Luke roll by on his bike. There’s a raincoat-clad figure standing on the
