Now I See You | ✓

Ten

I ignore everything and everyone for three days. I hardly breathe a word to Manal and Josie, don't pick up when my Mom calls and certainly don't reply to the three other texts that Aubin sends me over the weekend.

Zeb's the only one I feel like talking to, but even that just leaves me flat. He sits and listens as I blabber about how confused I am, because he's the best, but it just doesn't seem to be enough. He doesn't have any answers as to why I'm feeling the way I am. Not that it's his fault, but it leaves me more perplexed than ever.

Somehow, though, on Monday morning I manage to snap out of it. I get up out of bed and go through the motions of showering, changing my clothes and gathering all of my notes for class.

I make it to my 9am having only uttered a quick greeting to my housemates and sit down in a seat away from everyone else in the room, determined not to talk to anyone today.

I've felt sick all weekend, hated every second of each day and just wanted to stay in bed forever, because the world just feels all wrong.

I haven't heard a peep from Mason, nor do I plan on contacting him. He's been lying to me our whole lives and I'm so furious with myself for being far too naïve to see it.

It's been a whirlwind few days, in which my brain has refused to shut up, so it's hardly surprising that the whole time I'm sitting there, I keep thinking that people are watching me. I don't know if it's true, if they know about my connection with Mason, but you only need to take a quick peek on my Instagram profile to see him in every third post or so.

My classes drag slowly and make me want to pull my hair out. I can hardly concentrate, but I know that I can't keep skipping my seminars.

Mason may have betrayed me on so many levels, but there's no way I'm letting him ruin my college education too.

Fuck him.

But as I sleepily make my way from my final class of the morning, to the Beanery for a much-needed dose of caffeine and a bite to eat, my confidence flies out the window and I want the ground to swallow me whole.

Aubin Abaya stalks towards me with all the confidence of a man who feels he deserves some answers. Maybe he does, given that I've been dodging his messages all weekend, but I thought the whole point of friends with benefits was that we only really talked when we wanted a booty call.

He's always been a little difficult to read, but today it's downright impossible.

His dark eyes are simmering, but I don't think he's angry. His brows are knotted, but not in fury. Concern, maybe?

"Hey," I greet him dully when he pulls to a stop in front of me and I realise that there's no way out of this interaction at all. Even if I ran away, he'd catch me in two strides.

"Hey, Judah," Aubin replies, his words cautious. "How are you?"

I look away, hating the pity, the concern, the worry. I don't need that from him. The fact that he knows anything makes me want to curl up in a ball.

I'm a private person by nature and I hate people knowing my business like this.

"I'm fine," I mutter stubbornly, still refusing to look at him, wishing that there wasn't a big lump in my throat right now.

His arms cross his chest. "You've been ignoring my texts."

"Sorry," I respond, but it's half-assed. "Been busy."

There's a weighty pause and he sighs, shifting foot-to-foot. "Will you look at me?"

I really, really don't want to, because part of me thinks he'll see everything if he looks at me, but I don't know how to get out of it. So, I drag my eyes back to his, feeling the air shoot from my lungs as our gazes connect. "I don't want to talk, Aubin."