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She shrugged. “Sorry. I thought he’d freak out. But I forgot how chill he is.”

Yeah. Chill. I glanced at the clock on the wall. The minutes ticked by slowly as the music blared.

I headed downstairs early and waited by the curb for Jacob’s truck.

And waited.

And waited.

I shot Jacob a text that went unanswered and waited some more.

I sat down on the curb and waited until I could see my breath in the cold night air. And I sent another text asking if everything was alright. But he didn’t respond.

I waited until I was shivering and my eyelids grew heavy.

I pulled out my glasses and glanced at my phone again. Jacob still hadn’t returned my texts. And I’d been sitting outside for over two hours.

I texted him letting him know I was heading home. But that he could come up through the trapdoor so we could talk.

I decided to walk instead of calling an Uber. I let the autumn chill seep into my bones as I walked home. My nose was running and I sniffled. For some reason the sound made my eyes water. I kept my head down in the lobby, but as soon as I was alone in the elevator, I let my tears fall.

I kept shivering even once I was back in my room. I climbed into my bed with my phone in my hand and pulled the covers up to my chin. But I still kept shivering. And I felt my pillow grow wet on the side of my face from my dripping tears.

I should have been somewhere in the middle of nowhere with Jacob right now. Curled up in his arms looking up at the stars.

I sniffled and turned to look up at the glow in the dark star he’d given me. Normally staring at it in my dark room made me smile. Tonight it just made it feel like Jacob was really far away. And I had this sinking feeling that from now on, he’d always be far away. I pulled the blankets even higher, but I kept shivering.

It was possible that Jacob was busy helping Axel. That he’d lost track of time. That maybe something else had come up.

But it felt a lot more like my boyfriend had just broken up with me.

Chapter 15 – You’re Just Not My Type

Monday

Jacob didn’t respond to any of my calls or texts over the weekend. He didn’t show up to the family football viewing party at my place.

I’d asked Aunt Brooklyn where he was.

She’d barely looked me in the eye as she told me he wasn’t feeling well.

So I sent him soup. He didn’t respond. So I sent him a different flavor. He didn’t respond to that either, so I sent him another.

But the more soup I sent, the more I realized that I didn’t know Jacob as well as I thought I did. Because I didn’t even know his favorite kind of soup.

And for some reason I couldn’t stop shivering.

“Are you okay?” Sophie asked as she grabbed some books from her locker. “You look really pale.”

“I think I caught a cold Friday night.” Not in my chest or head or anything. It was in my bones somehow.

She groaned. “Okay, enough with all the vagueness. I’ve been waiting for you to spill all the deets all weekend. Tell me everything. Was it so romantic?”

Sophie hadn’t come over on Sunday either. She had been scouting out alternate locations for the Sadie Hawkins dance, despite my requests for her to not. So she had no idea that I’d been holed up in my room crying endlessly. “We didn’t do it.”

“Oh.” Her face sunk. “Maybe at the Halloween party then. That would be fun.”

My bottom lip started to tremble.