Page 172 of Need You To Choose Me

I didn’t want to leave. In the last few weeks, Bluebonnet has turned into my home.

But she saidI.Not we.

She was leaving.

Without me.

My heart starts beating faster as I just stare at the empty doorway. Something wasn’t right here. What would she have to take care of?

I follow after her, my anxiety growing deeper. “Mom! You can’t le?—”

She opens the car door and shoves the bag inside before looking up. “I’ll be back, Savvy.”

With that, she slips into the seat, the door to our beat-up car slams shut with a loud groan. I watch as she looks over her shoulder, reverses out of the driveway, and speeds away.

Never once glancing in my direction.

“You look like a mess.” Becky’s eyes narrow as the door closes behind me, and for a moment, I wonder if coming here was a good idea after all.

“I betCoachkept her up all night long.” Jessica wiggles her brows suggestively. “I wish somebody kept me up for something more fun than studying for my finals.”

The bile rises in my throat when I remember the hurt expression in Blake’s eyes as I slammed the door in his face last night. The expression I put there when I pushed him away, but seeing my mother for the first time in the last fifteen years messed me up.

Why the hell was she here after all this time? What did she want?

Different questions were popping into my mind as I tossed and turned the whole night, mixing with the memories of the past I worked so hard to forget, only for them to come up to the surface in a blink of an eye.

Fifteen years, and she still had the power to hurt me.

It was like I was that nine-year-old girl all over again, just wishing for her mother to notice me, to love me, to choose me.

But she never did.

I can see the gossip is true after all.

A shudder runs through me just as a hand lands over mine, snapping me out of my thoughts. I blink to find Becky watching me with a worried expression. “Are you okay?”

“I— Yeah. I just need that coffee. I slept like crap.”

“I’ve gotcha,” Jessica chimes in and grabs a to-go cup.

Becky’s eyes narrow at me. I shift my weight from one foot to the other, feeling uncomfortable under her watchful gaze.

“What’s really going on?”

Shit.

“Nothing, I’m just tired.” I look away, a strand of hair falling into my face and shielding me from view.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks.” Pulling out my wallet, I place the bill on the counter and grab my cup. “I’ll see you guys later.”

Before they can say anything, I turn on the balls of my feet and go for the door, only to crash into somebody as I step outside.

“Oh, I’m so…”

“Savvy.”

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