"This is what she had become."
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Cleopatra Banks' last week in the small town of New Chelsea is nothing like she would have imagined it, but nothing could have prepared her for the stinging betrayal she's faced with and suddenly the prospect of...
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His phone pinged loudly for what was probably the hundredth time that afternoon.
And for the hundredth time, he ignored it.
His jaw ticked and he rolled his eyes. He didn't know why Lacey wanted to talk to him the day after breaking up with him. She was more confusing than all three of his female friends put together.
First it was Alexis who always seemed to be angry at him for reasons beyond him, then it was Shanice and her new star sign craze and then Cleopatra with her mixed signals. To make matters worse, Alexis and Shanice were constantly at each other's throats.
And now Lacey was at it again.
Girls should come with user manuals. He decided, removing the phone from his dashboard and placing it on silent, completely ignoring Lacey's texts.
It was always a pattern with them. They'd break up, ignore each other for about a week and then Lacey would come running back despite the accusations she always threw at him and like the sucker that he was, he'd let her back in but he was tired of it. Lacey was nice enough, good looking too. She ticked a lot of boxes on his list but she was way too clingy and insecure.
Why did he always fall for the insecure ones?
And now Cleopatra would be leaving soon.
As though the universe had been privy to his thoughts, the very girl appeared right in front of him with her hand in Maxwell's.
Nigel watched from the inside of his car as the pair walked away hand in hand, Maxwell's mouth wide open and shoulders shaking as he laughed at something Cleopatra must have said. His hands tightened around the steering wheel and his jaw clenched at the sight before him.
"That little prick," He muttered angrily under his breath. He could feel his temper rising. Why did she have to fall for Maxwell so blindly, knowing exactly what kind of reputation he had? And where were they going? Cleopatra had never mentioned anything during lunch about hanging out with Maxwell later on.
It was probably a good thing that Cleopatra was leaving after all.
Just then his cousin got into the passenger seat and started rambling on the minute her butt touched the seat.
"Hey!" She punched him on the shoulder, scowling angrily at him. Where was his head today?
Nigel mumbled something incoherent under his breath at the sound of his cousin shouting at him and barely flinched at her lame attempt at a punch, eyes still zeroed in on Maxwell and Cleopatra.
"Nigel! I just finished telling you some major important news and you're not even paying attention to me, what's wrong with you?" She continued to pester him but he still didn't budge.
She then noticed that his gaze was directed forward and whatever he was looking at seemed to be stealing all his attention.
She followed his gaze and in the distance she could make out Cleopatra and Maxwell's silhouettes. They seemed to be holding hands and they kept looking at each other. A smile tugged at the corners of her lips.
