Where Have You Been

Chapter 20

Niall’s POV

I pat the seat next to me on my bed, and Adrienne gladly accepted, scooting a little but closer than I desired. I tried to discreetly move myself another few inches away from her, saying:

“Adrienne. Things with us… haven’t been working out so… smoothly” Adrienne’s perky attitude darkened. I could see the cogs working in her head as she answered.

“Uh-oh. You found the text, didn’t you” she instinctively recoiled a bit after she said it, as if expecting an eruption of anger. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to send it… I just saw your conversation, and…” her voice trailed off after catching sight of my confused expression.

“The text? Our conversation? Excuse me?” I was trying to piece the parts together, but I had never been so good at puzzles. Then it hit me, like a slap across the face. I could practically feel the ghost of a red mark on my face.

“You saw my conversation” Adrienne nodded, “With Zoe.” I finished, and she nodded again. I picked up my phone, reading through our past messages:

Zoe: “Hey. Thinking of you ;)”

Zoe: “Fine, then we should stop texting. I guess this is goodbye.”

The two contradicting texts made absolutely no sense. Unless… there was another text in between those ones. A text that an outside factor (namely, Adrienne) had sent.

“Adrienne. Did you text Zoe?” I tried to remain calm, but the fury building inside me was making my hands shake uncontrollably. Avoiding my glare, Adrienne indicated to my phone. She let her raven-hair veil her guilty face as I fished through my deleted messages. Then, there it was. In all it’s relationship-slaying glory:

Niall: “We can’t text one another anymore. This is getting farther than I ever meant it to. Lay off of my girlfriend and me. It’s better if we just stop contacting each other forever. Goodbye.”

I lay my head in my hands. At this point, Adrienne was crying, too. She sat beside me, silent tears streaming down her face. I didn’t need to tell Adrienne what to do. I simply pointed to the door, and smothered my face in a flotilla of pillows. I could only hear Adrienne’s silent pitter-patter of footsteps as she left the room. She sounded vulnerable, and undeniably innocent. But she was not, this much I can guarantee.

A light tap on my shoulder caused me to spring up from my bed. It was Liam, offering his arms out for a hug. I accepted them, awkwardly thumping him on the back, trying to imitate a man-hug. I heard Liam wince, so I drew away and sat down on my bed.

“Hey, mate. Don’t worry. It was for the best.”

“No, you don’t understand. She texted Zoe.” Liam looked puzzled. “From my phone. Pretending to be me. Told her that we should stop texting.” I tried to utter the words, but they stuck to my mouth like peanut butter. I could only hand Liam the phone, and point to the screen, where the message was still flashing brightly. How could my phone be so exuberant about this when it had killed two of my relationships?

The “two of my relationships” part left me hanging. No wonder Adrienne was so mad. No wonder ZOE was so mad. I was double-timing both of them. I was unbearable ashamed of myself. It was all I could do to send Zoe a: “we need to talk” text, and catapult myself onto my bed, hoping god, if there was one, could prove it to me and grant me some sleep.

Zoë's POV

It was early in the morning when I received the text. 5:30, to be exact. I had, stupidly, forgotten to turn off my phone, and my message tone vibrated through the house, awakening the beast (my mom). I wasn’t going to let this idiot—whoever it was—wake me up for nothing, so I read the text, squinting as the bright light illuminated my room.

“We need to talk” from Niall. I groaned. I was just on the verge of forgetting the whole incident, and he had to make it fresh in my brain. A 5:30 am on a Saturday was hardly the right time to “talk”. I ignored the text, channeling the “Taylor” in me to guide me through the situation. I decided that what was done was done. If Niall had said that we should stop texting, we should have. I was just obeying his orders. And I certainly wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of running right back into his arms.

Later that day, I contemplated calling Taylor. But I remembered that she was in Cancun (lucky biotch), and didn’t want to interrupt her vacation. I was left alone on the wood floor of my room, meditating on the meaning of life, and trying oh-so-hard to not think about Niall.

Niall’s POV

It had been 3 days. No response from Zoe.

A week. No response.

4 weeks. Nothing.

I was not letting this go so easily. There was only one thing left to do. Find Zoe.