AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Let me tell you. You made out with a guy you don’t know, and you let him finger you in the lounge area of Ember. I found you having an orgasm with his hand still up your skirt.”
Ava felt sick to her stomach. Even though Sam had told her the details, they remained out of the reach of her memory. It must be true because Sam wouldn’t lie to her. She put her hands over her face and shook her head. Sam sat on the bed next to her.
“Do you want to tell me about it? Why?”
“Where do I begin?”
“Start from the very beginning.”
Ava took a deep breath and told her what Sam had suspected all these years. She started with the incident at Cameron University, the one that brought her to New York. Then Ava told her about the suitcase in the hall closet when she came back four years ago after her accident. The letter she found in her old sweater pocket, the rose painting at camp, the weekend in Saratoga and California. Finally, she told Sam about the devastating email that Xander had sent her breaking it off permanently. She called it up from her saved emails on her phone and showed it to her.
Sam whistled loudly after she read it.
“I’m sorry, but I find it hard to believe that someone who was so passionate about you, risked his life for you, saved your life, would ever write something so vicious. There has to be something more to this.”
“I doubt it. I haven’t heard from him since he wrote the email. I feel like such a fool waiting all those years for him to come back. I thought my prayers had been answered when I found him. I feel so used. He never cared about me, he just saw me as a piece of ass.”
“I don’t believe that. I saw the way that man looked at you. At the time I wished Justin looked at me that way. Now I know what it’s like because Robert gives me that look. Is this why you have been doing all this? The screwing around, the drinking, messing up at work? Are you trying to prove something to yourself?”
“I thought if I acted like I didn’t care then the pain would go away. It just made it worse, and I feel horrible for what I’ve been doing.”
She lay back in bed and looked at the ceiling. Sam pushed the t-shirt she had changed Ava into the night before, up her belly.
“When did you get this?” Sam said referring to the tattoo.
Ava pulled the t-shirt back down. “Last week. Wait, two days ago.”
“I saw it last night when I was helping you get changed. I examined it when you passed out last night. I know you have his initials, and yours woven into the lines. You need to look closely, but they are there.”
“How did I fuck everything up so much?”
Sam stroked her arm. “You’re lost. You need to find your way back. I want the old Ava, not this one. Please find your way back.”
“Please don’t tell Robert.”
“I won’t. They’re your secrets, and you need to be the one to tell them.”
Ava sat up to hug her best friend. Sam had always been there for her and brought her out of her shell. She was a great friend.
She told her that she was going to take some time to visit her family and new nephew down in Georgia. She needed to get her head together. She needed to find her way home.
