Three's a crowd

41

I didn't go to school the next day or the rest of the week for that matter. In fact I barely left my room, isolating myself in my own little bubble of self destruction, pain, and unwillingness to talk about any of it.

I hadn't turned my phone on either and clearly my parents were getting worried. Each morning they would knock and leave food at my door and each time I tried to eat it my stomach would turn.

On top of the emotional turmoil I was also sick. Most likely a result of sitting in the rain. This was a different type of sickness than I was used too. I was fatigued, my whole body ached, and the constant vomiting had caused me to lose my voice, because apparently hell could be worse.

When the weekend finally arrived I was feeling better physically. Mentally I felt awful. Without physical pain I had nothing left to focus on but the giant ache in my heart.

It was Saturday when that dull ache opened up into a gaping hole.I thought that I had experienced pain these last few weeks but I couldn't have been more wrong. Life wasn't done throwing me curveballs just yet.

I was sitting on my bed wrapped in my blankets when I could hear him talking to my parents.

"How is she?" He asked

"She still won't come out of her room. Riley I don't know what happened but I think she needs time." Mom replied.

"Aunt Bailey it was all a misunderstanding. If she would just let me explain.. I miss her and I'm worried about her."

"She will come around. Just be there for her when she is ready to hear what you have to say. Oh and Riley!"

"Yeah."

"Everything happens for a reason, even if we don't understand it."

"Thanks, but I'm not giving up." His voice was fading as the front door opened. "I'm not going to lose her over a misunderstanding with..." his voice trailed out and I didn't catch the end of it.

I heard the mustang crank and drive away as the rain started to fall again, tapping violently against the window. As the sound of the car faded I turned my phone back on and read through all the messages.

"Britt please let me explain." "It's not what you think." "I love you, please talk to me." "Britt I'm begging you to hear me out!"

One from Ava read "Are you okay? People at school are saying you and Riley broke up? Call me back!"

Kyle had also sent one "I'm sorry about the other day, can we please just go back to the way it was?"

I skimmed through the voicemails, all from Riley which were all frantic apologies. After hearing each one I deleted them until I came to the last one. The one that broke me more than I already was.

"Britt, it's me" he was crying,"look I know you don't want to see me, and I know you don't want to talk to me but I promise it's not what you think. I love you and I've always loved you and only you. I really wanted to explain this in person and I hope you listen to this message because the phone call you heard wasn't me cheating on you. I swear I would never do that to you! Anyway I really am sorry and I hope you can forgive me because I don't want to live my life without you in it."

I sat my phone down in my lap and thought about what he had said. He had told me that he didn't cheat, but still hadn't explained who it was on the phone. My trust in him was so deep that I didn't know if I could trust myself to make the decision on whether or not to believe him.

Still I felt like I owed both him and Kyle a response. I had been hiding for a week so I sent both of them a simple 'okay' back in response.

I wasn't ready to discuss anything with Kyle anymore than I was ready to see Riley but we still had half a school year left and I really didn't want my parents to worry to the point they made me move with them.