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Which should’ve been the end of that After all, she banned ure I can re But nope To top it all off,sure I haven’t tried to contact hi with him

Why else would he have cut her off yet still pay for e? Why else is my life still perfect when hers is now shit?

Her words, not mine

We are still very fortunate

We both have roofs over our heads Food in our mouths There was once a time, before him, e had neither

Still, regardless of all of that, I can’t help but think so bad happened to him Why else wouldn’t he reach out to me? Maybe he’s sick? Hurt? The what ifs don’t leave Nofeeling never goes away

I finally cave, deleting the text to Erin and replacing it with one for Ronnie

Me: I know it’s been a while since we’ve talked I’m sorry I should have contacted you sooner Are you okay? Erin asked me not to reach out, but I’m worried

Okay, narcing onany trophies in the maturity department, either

I tried to respect her wishes as long as I could I really did

The text bounces seconds after I send it I worry my bottom lip as I resend it

Bounced

Again

With my heart heavy and my mind confused, I make it to my class

Heather gives me a wave She’s not in her usual seat Instead, she’s closer to theI look over to where we noruess I’ late today

I head in her direction, taking the spot beside her

“What’s going on?” She narrows her eyes at me

“Nothing” I shrug

AtBecause it sure doesn’t look like you’re fine”

Of course, she noticed

Heather and I have been friends since freshman orientation She lived in the dor e for years, I was too driven to screw it all up by going to house parties, so she dished all the dirty details to me secondhand

I touch my hair

“What do you mean?” My eyebrow lifts as I pat the loose strands down “Am I a mess?”

“Not areally hard when you walked in here”

My chest expands as I inhale deeply “I was thinking about Ronald,” I adh