Finding Finley ✔

14

Sitting in class, I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket. I look up at the professor to make sure that she isn't looking in my direction before discretely pulling my phone out.

Darby: Finn, please. 

I sigh and swipe to delete the message before putting my phone away. 

For the past week and a half Darby has been sending me the same message, or a very similar message, and every day I delete it with no reply. I always read the message before deleting, just so she can see that I saw it and maybe get the hint that I don't want to talk to her. 

So far she hasn't gotten the hint. 

Kit saw Darby in the mail room at their apartment complex a week a few days after I found out about her boyfriend, she tried to talk to him but he also ignored her. She's sent Ellie a few texts asking her to convince me to talk to her, and while Ellie won't tell me what she replied to those texts, I know they're not polite. 

I run a different route every morning, I take the elevator when I visit Kit and Ellie because Darby always takes the stairs, and I avoid the part of the mall where Darby works part time in a store where I helped her get the job. 

A part of me wants to give her a chance to explain in hopes that maybe this is all a huge misunderstanding, but then the other part of me reminds me that there's no way to misunderstand the word boyfriend. 

Surprisingly, I haven't had a nightmare or panic attack since the night that I called Darby. I thought for sure that the whole situation would trigger them, but instead of the panic and fear I usually wake up with, now my dreams are filled of her and I wake up angry and feeling used. 

My phone vibrates again as soon as the class ends. When I'm in the hallway I check the message, my finger ready to delete yet another message from Darby, but it's not a text from Darby.  It's not from any number saved in my phone. 

Unknown: Finley, this is your father. I asked your mother for your number in hopes that we could reconcile our relationship. Please call me when you're ready to talk. 

I was ready for the tightening of my chest and the difficulty to breathe. I was ready for the panic, but instead I felt rage. I throw my phone in my backpack and ball my fists, my finger nails digging into my palm and breaking skin. 

How dare he text me asking for me to "reconcile our relationship". What relationship? What makes him think I want anything to do with him. I tried to talk to him two years ago and when that failed, he never made an attempt to fix it. The only good thing my dad has ever done is give Kit the money to fly to Texas and have his surgery, which as far as I know, he never even called Kit to see if he survived the surgery - he just saw that there were still two of us when he showed up at our mom's house back in July. 

I'm pissed,  but I'm also shocked that I'm so angry over this. Anger is usually Kit's thing. Between Darby and my dad, I don't know how much more anger I can take before I blow. 

They're both liars, they both broke my trust and neither one of them really care about me. Darby may have fooled me but I won't let my dad do the same, not again. 

Darby

"I don't know how to make this right, Beth." 

I'm sitting on my bed while Bethany rummages through my closet looking for something to wear on her date with Parker Daniels tonight. 

Parker is Finn's roommate and best friend since grade school, but I've never actually met him. Word around campus is that he's a player, but Bethany is convinced she's the girl to change that.