Trust me, babe

Chapter 34

Kathryn

"So, how was your day?" Sasha asked as the waiter disappeared into the kitchen with our orders. We were at a restaurant near Sasha's university — NYU's School of Law — and one of the many universities I'd visited with my grandparents during the past few days.

I sighed. "It was fine, I guess," I replied. "Though my legs are really tired from walking around campus after campus."

Sasha laughed. "Shouldn't you be used to walking around all day? At your job, I mean."

"There are chairs there," I replied, taking a sip of my water.

She laughed again, then sighed. "It's so good to see you again. I hadn't even realized how much I missed you until I saw you."

"I missed you, too," I said, although I couldn't help but think about the recent events with Kenzie. They had been looming at the back of my mind throughout my whole stay in New York. Every time I saw Sasha, all I could think about was if she was hiding something from me. Or if she had hidden something from me at some point during our friendship. I had thought I could trust Sasha and Kenzie but had already been proven wrong. Was it wise to trust Sasha now that I knew Kenzie had betrayed me?

"Are your plans for the future looking any clearer now?" she asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"I don't know," I replied. "If possible, I just feel even more stressed out by having to decide what I want to do after high school."

She nodded with an empathetic smile on her face. "It was a really stressful time even though I knew I'd always wanted to become a lawyer. But still, the stress of it all made me question whether it was what I actually wanted or not."

"Are you content with your decision?" I asked.

"I am. Now that I'm studying law I'm even more sure I want to become a lawyer. Even though my studies have barely begun," she laughed.

"I wish I'd find something I'm that excited about," I sighed.

"I'm sure you will," she comforted me. "But tell me everything about your day. I want to hear what colleges you visited and what you thought of them."

I did as she asked, telling her all the little details about my day. Except there was one thing I left out, feeling unsure whether I could trust Sasha enough to open up about it or not.

Grandpa had insisted on taking me to Times Square on our way from Hunter College to NYU. He had claimed it was something everyone had to experience when in New York and that it was practically on our route anyway. Back then I was totally fine with the idea, thinking Persimmon wouldn't forgive me if I'd been so close to Times Square without checking it out and sending her a selfie. But had I known what I would see there, I would've said a strict no. And had they known, they probably wouldn't have taken me there either.

We had been admiring the bustling of the square, Grandpa saying how it looked a lot better in the evening when it was getting dark, and all of a sudden I had spotted Mikey's face staring down at the square from one of the billboards. It had felt like his green eyes, the ones I'd once been so in love with, had been staring straight at me. It had been an advertisement for his debut album Broken. The album that most likely included tons of songs about me and our break up, all of them written from his point of view, painting me as the bad guy who hurt him. Because who would sing about their own cheating? Who would make a song about how they dated two girls at the same time?

Grandma had noticed the billboard as well. "You shouldn't have dragged her here, Benji," she'd whispered to Grandpa, pointing at the billboard.

I hadn't been able to tear my eyes off of it. There had been a lump in my throat and countless thoughts racing through my head all at once. I'd always thought it wasn't that easy to get your face on one of the billboards in Times Square but apparently even jerks like him could buy their way onto the screens.