Falling For Casual

Chapter 12

   Vanished. Gone. A ghost. That's what he's been all day. Not even twenty-four hours since the wedding of my nightmares and he hasn't said a word to me. No matter how many times I pull out my phone, the screen reflecting my downturned lips, his name doesn't pop up once. It makes me want to tear my hair out. Where the hell is he?!

   I put my phone to my ear, Delaney's voice coming through the other side to either quiet my thoughts or justify them. I hope for the latter.

   "He hasn't texted you at all?" she asks in disbelief.

   "It's one in the damn afternoon and I haven't heard a word from him. He better be in the fucking hospital."

   "After all the bullshit from yesterday and he has the nerve to just ghost you," she scoffs. Is that what he was doing? Ghosting me after making things official less than a day ago? Maybe he wasn't ready. Maybe he didn't ask me in person because he'd gotten cold feet and couldn't deal with my reaction if he took it all back. The realization that yesterday might've been the last day I'll ever hear from him makes my neck burn with rage. I try to swallow it down but it just bubbles back up to the base of my jaw, waiting and ready for me to let it all out.

   "As if yesterday wasn't bad enough," I say. "I've got to go." But I don't really have to go anywhere. All I want is to hear another opinion of the situation to see if I'm losing my mind. My fingers race across the screen as I text Autumn to tell her not only about the shit show that was the girlfriend proposal, but also how this man turned into Casper the friendly fucking ghost.

   My phone vibrates before I can even send the message to her, Texas' name in bold letters making the hairs on my body stand at attention. I take a deep breath first. I don't know if I want to read it immediately or just let the time pass because whatever he has to say might just fuel this fire burning inside me. I stop walking all together, and sigh because I know myself. I go to the message and my eyes start to water.

   'Hello gorgeous'

   It's like a punch in the gut reading those stupid words. It took him till the fucking afternoon to decide to tap his useless little fingers against his phone screen and press send. And it wasn't even to tell me how much he enjoyed yesterday or how much he missed his pretend wife. It was something so basic, almost platonic. It was the same stupid messages I got in my social media inbox from random strangers. No. At least theirs was something more imaginative, something more eye-catching. This message was boring.

   I don't have the strength to type something back. I can't pretend anymore. I'd already pushed down my emotions yesterday, and I wasn't about to continue this charade of being this girl who just let people walk all over her. That wasn't who I was anymore. That may have worked when I was a teenager, but I didn't take notes on how to manipulate and how to use people to get what I wanted just for it to all be forgotten now. No way.

   If this is how Texas was going to play it, game on. I click my phone shut and walk back to my job, hoping the distraction of children will keep my mind off him and off my phone. If I'd been at home today I probably would've texted him back. It wouldn't have been nice either. He would have seen who I really was. Angel would be the last thing he'd call me after I said all I needed to say.

   After a few more hours pass, I call Delaney to share the anticlimactic return of my so-called boyfriend.

   "That's it?!" she shouts into my ear, her shrill voice being the exact thing I need to continue the hate I now feel for Texas.

   "That's it," I repeat. I groan as I wait for the bus to take me back home where Delaney and I would no doubt continue this conversation in person until we both were exhausted. Leaning against the lamppost, I hear another text come in. "Hold on."