Wren, please talk to me. I miss you.
You can’t ignore me forever because I still have your bottle of wine.
Okay, yes you can just go and buy another one, but this one will go to waste and you always say that’s a crime.
Wren, pleaseeeeeee.
I want my best friend back.
Pathetic. That’s what I am.
I exit the chat and instead reread my as yet unsent message to Finn.
I wish I knew what you know. Maybe then I would know what’s holding me back from you.
Pa-fucking-thetic.
I groan and rest my head against the locker.
“You okay?” Nicole asks as she gets changed opposite me.
“Yeah.”
She watches me out of the corner of her eye as I check my phone for the fifth time in the past thirty seconds. Antoine is the one to acknowledge the elephant in the room.
“This have anything to do with why you’re being such a sour-faced bitch?”
“I am not being a sour-faced bitch!”
“She said, bitchily,” he mumbles as he pulls on his top.
I let out a breath and turn to my friends. “I’m sorry if I have been. I’m just…”
“Struggling?” Nicole asks with a pitying smile.
My silence is answer enough.
“Is this about the guy who drove to the hospital just to spin you around?” Antoine asks.
“He didn’t come just to spin me around,” I say defensively, crossing my arms over my chest. “He came to tell me some important news.”
“He came because he wanted to touch you.” When Antoine sees the way both of us are looking at him, he clarifies. “Not like that! I just mean like when you’re so obsessed with someone that you just need to touch them in some way—a hug, a brush against the cheek, something.”
I don’t miss that Nicole looks flustered as she says, “I didn’t think that was your kind of thing.”
“Doesn’t mean I don’t notice it or acknowledge it.” He puts his hands in his pockets, his gaze never leaving Nicole’s. “Besides, things change. People change.”
Okay, I feel like I’m looking in on a private conversation here.
“Do you guys want me to leave?” I ask, already inching toward the door.
Nicole jumps like she forgot I was here. I wouldn’t be surprised if she did. “No! No, I was just…asking a question.”
I see disappointment flash across Antoine’s face, and I wonder if the way he’s looking at Nicole is the way he’s always looked at her and I just missed it. And then I wonder if the way Nicole is looking at Antoine is how my face looks when I look at Finn, because her expression feels familiar—longing, want…and confusion.
Antoine is the first to look away from her, and by the time his eyes reach me, they’re their usual cool, expressionless blue.
“Anyway, what happened between you guys?”
