The Dating Deal

Ch. 4: Too Many Exes

Ashley

The Wellsfield campus was beautiful in the mornings.

With its majestic Victorian-style buildings and tree lined pathways, the campus was charming at all times of the day, but there was something magical about it in the wee hours of dawn. It soothed my frayed nerves.

Heaving a sigh, I wrapped my hands around the steaming mug of coffee as I looked out the huge café window. A lone biker pedaled along the cobblestone path, but the campus was serenely still, a little early for the student rush.

Over the past week, my insomnia had returned stronger than ever. I had barely gotten a few hours of sleep at night. After going to therapy for years, I knew it was stress induced. It had started when my parents' marriage was going through a rough patch then reared its head during exam seasons.

Given that exams were months away and my parents' relationship was going great, I suspected this time it had something to do with my encounter with Shane and Juliette at Kris' party.

While I had tried my best not to let it affect me, I couldn't stop thinking about it. Constantly. The inevitable confrontation and humiliation that waited ahead of me swirled in my head until the walls started to close in and it became impossible to stay inside my room.

April and Nicole didn't know about Shane or my insomnia. If they saw me pacing the living room like a ghost in the middle of the night, they'd ask questions. They'd worry, try to stay up to give me company, coax me to share my problems with them and... I wasn't ready for that.

I wasn't ready to share my ugly past with them and watch them change their attitude towards me. Surely, they wouldn't want to be friends after they learned what I did. And then I would be alone again. I didn't want that. Not again.

So I kept the truth to myself for as long as I could.

I grabbed my bag and pulled out my headphones, connecting them to my laptop. Pressing play on my writing playlist, I opened the folder of my drafts and started typing away.

Time slipped away as I let the chords of the music tune out the background noise while I weaved the words coming from my heart. My writing was amateur and flawed and a hundred things wrong, but I loved how quiet my mind became when I started putting words together. It was therapeutic in ways I could never explain.

I got so lost in my world that I barely noticed the influx of customers in the café. Nor did I notice the familiar voices. Or see the people approaching my table until it was too late.

A harsh knock on the table startled me, and I instinctively shut my laptop. I looked up to see the two people I had been dreading running into.

Shane and Juliette.

"Hey," Juliette greeted, a small smile on her lips. "Mind if we sit down?"

Yes.

"No," I said, clearing my throat and averting my gaze.

"Thanks!" Juliette beamed.

Shane pulled out her chair before grabbing another from a nearby table to sit down himself. I didn't realize he had any gentlemanly qualities. He certainly didn't have them when we were dating.

Shane met my gaze once, his dark eyes flashing with such strong annoyance that it took me off guard. Even when we had broken up, he hadn't been so outwardly prickly with me. Not even when I had tried talking to him at the end of prom night.

What had changed?

Judging from the scowl on his face and the way he crossed his arms, I could tell he wasn't all that thrilled to be here. Juliette, on the other hand, looked extremely pleased. Her brown eyes almost sparkled with joy. It was a little unnerving.