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“Well then.” I push the sheets back and slip out of the bed. “I’ll get my things together and we can be off.”
“Abs,” Liv chuckles. “You don’t have to leave right now.”
I look at her with a sad smile, that breaks another piece of my already fractured heart and whisper, “The sooner the better.”
* * *
It doesn’t take long for me to get dressed and pack my things into the small duffel bag Elliot had Millie bring me.
The girls are quiet as we make our way downstairs, watching me with a mix of wary and confused expressions.
“Abs.” Theo gives me a little smirk.
“Hi,” I offer, trying to resist the urge to flee.
He probably thinks I’m a fool, for clinging to the notion that Elliot would ever return my affections.
“What’s going on?” Reese eyes the bag slung over my shoulder.
“I’m going back to my dorm room,” I say.
“You’re… Does Elliot know?”
“He’s not my keeper.”
“Whoa, Abs, that’s not?—”
“Reese, leave it,” Liv hisses, stepping up beside me. “We’re going to get her settled back in.”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that.”
“We’re coming.” She marches over to Reese and presses a kiss to his cheek. “See you later. Try and stay out of trouble.”
He glances to the door leading to the hallway. “Maybe we should wait for him to get back.”
“He left?” she whispers, but it isn’t quiet enough, and a sinking feeling spreads through me.
Of course he left.
I don’t hear the rest of their conversation, I’m too numb.
Too embarrassed.
They all know how I feel about Elliot. It’s not like I’ve done a very good job at hiding it.
At times, during the constant teasing and encouragement, I actually believed that it meant something.
It hurts that it doesn’t.
“Abi, you ready?” Raine asks and I realise she’s moved toward the door. Theo is there too, pressed in close beside her. Her protector. Her shadow.
They’re lucky. All of them. To have found such unconditional love. To know that they’ll always have somebody there to stand beside them no matter what.
“I guess I’ll see you around,” I say to no one in particular, heading toward Raine and Theo.
“You make it sound like it’s goodbye,” Oakley jokes. But it’s lost on me. Because we all know things are different now.
Even if they don’t know the truth—and I hope they never find out—I can’t go back.
