Elsa: I go to parties.
Kim: Are you sure?
Elsa: Sometimes.
Elsa: So are you coming or should I come over?
Neither?
Still, I type.
Kim: Let’s meet at the party!
At least that will give me time to stay with my head a bit more, bargain a little, tell it to leave me be for a while.
The whole thing.
I’m about to throw my phone away when it vibrates with another text. I expect it to be from Elsa or Ronan, but it’s not.
Unknown Number: What are you doing?
Kimberly: Who are you?
Unknown Number: You better be not doing that nasty business or I swear I’m coming through your fucking window.
I pause, my heartbeat escalating. My finger
s tremble as I type.
Kimberly: Xander?
Unknown Number: The one and only.
Oh, God. Oh, shit. Why is he texting me?
Kimberly: Since when do you have my number?
Elsa would never give it to him.
Xander: You think Ronan can have your number and I can’t?
He stole it. I know it without a sliver of doubt. Even as kids, whenever Xander couldn’t get what he wanted, he pretended not to care about it anymore, then he snuck behind everyone’s backs and took it anyway. Just to prove he could.
Before I can give him a piece of my mind, another text comes from him.
Xander: What did Jeanine tell you?
I bite my lower lip so hard, I’m surprised no blood comes out. I really regret opening up to him about my relationship with Mum all those years ago. Not only does he know all my dirty secrets, but he’s the only one in the know about how my mum makes me feel so small and insignificant.
I wish I could tell him things have changed since a long time ago, but that’s not the case.
That doesn’t mean I can’t lie about it.
Kimberly: Nothing.
Xander: You expect me to believe that tyrant actually let it go as if it never happened? Try again.
Why is he being weird all of a sudden? My head has been working overtime since Elsa’s bathroom. It’s like being on a constant high and refusing to come down.