“No, I don’t feel up to it.”
“It’ll get better soon.” She hugged me and bounced off into the building to change.
I grabbed my bag and didn’t even bother changing before going back to the dorm. Later that night after a bit of distracted studying, out of sheer boredom and loneliness, I sent a text to Slade.
‘The write-up’s due in two days. I’ll work on a draft just in case.’
I waited for a few minutes to see if I’d hear back from him. Nothing. Like that was surprising anymore. A little while later, I texted Shawn.
‘Heard about you and Miranda. That’s awesome!
Sure, it was bait to see if he would text back so that we could actually start talking again, but he didn’t bite. I never heard back from either of them. Slade was partying, probably with those skank chicks from earlier. He was probably sleeping with one or both of them at this very moment.
Stretching out on the bed, I closed my eyes. I didn’t prepare for all of these emotions when the semester started. Back then, I wanted nothing to do with Slade, and Shawn was my rock. Now, I had nothing. I let Slade in and I lost Shawn. It was time to let him go and look forward to the rest of my Clark-brother-free life.