Reina-Ellis: How do you know that?
Cloud003: I just do.
I smile.
Cloud003: After all, you’re my slut, remember?
And he had to ruin it.
Jerk.
I type that word and send it over. He replies with a winking emoji. For some reason, it feels so intimate, like maybe he’s winked at me that way in real life. Maybe our connection was more than sex after all.
Despite Reina’s snobbish attitude, she reached out to him and asked to meet him, and I know for certain Old Reina didn’t put herself out there without a reason.
Did I know it was Jason back then? Honestly, with Reina’s level of secretive conniving, it could have gone either way.
“Aren’t you coming?” Lucy motions at her MINI Cooper.
“I have to meet Alex.” I cock my head toward a taxi. “I already called my ride.”
“Text us if you can hang out later.” Naomi opens the passenger door.
“I will.” I wave at them, keeping a smile plastered on my face until they disappear from view.
I lied.
I’m not meeting with Alex, but I had to say that so they wouldn’t question me.
If they knew where I’m going, they would either stop me or insist they come along. It will only work if I go there alone like I did before.
If I want to recover my memories, I need to go back to where it all started.
I slide into the back seat and tell the driver, “Blackwood Forest.”
I remain behind as Reina walks with her two friends. Lucy and Naomi are the ones who brought her out of her room yesterday and the ones she likes to spend most of her time with.
In the past, she would’ve been all over Brianna’s plastic personality—another thing that’s changed about Reina.
Owen told me earlier about some sort of war between Reina and Brianna over the captain position and how Reina kicked her supposed best friend off the team.
It sounds so much like Old Reina, and yet, it isn’t. I can nearly taste the tangible change in her.
The way she talks, walks, and looks is the same, but the attitude isn’t.
The constant talking back isn’t.
The fucking smile certainly isn’t.
That day when she brushed past me without a glance, I felt something I never thought I would feel again.
Grief.
I was grieving the new Reina, thinking she’d completely disappeared.
The moment she came out of her room with her friends, I released a breath. Then I got fucking angry at myself for letting her crawl under my skin this way.
She’s been doing it subtly, but it’s there. Every time I wake up, she’s the first person who comes to mind.