Page 6 of Love is Strange
Chapter Eleven
Driving back to campus,my phone dings over and over, messages from Isabel and Luke coming in. Parking my car, I unlock my phone and read over the texts.
Luke: What the fuck did you do?! Why did you send her that picture?!
Isabel: Luke cheated! I need someone to talk to.
Humming to myself, I make my way up the three flights of stairs to our room. The only good thing about being on the third floor is that my ass will look great combined with the time I spend at the gym. Before I even have the door open wide enough to walk inside, Isabel throws her arms around my neck sobbing. Patting her back, I walk her backward as I attempt to soothe her. I should feel bad about what I have done, you know women standing together and all that crap, but I don’t.
“What exactly happened?” I question, running my hand through her brown hair.
Hiccupping from crying so hard, she answers, “Someone sent a picture to my email. I would have never even got it before… you know… but my mom called me. That’s when I saw the notification.”
Faking sadness, I squeeze her hand. “Thank goodness your mom called then! I just can’t imagine how you feel.”
A phone ringing breaks the silence, her phone. The person calling is Luke and I want to scream. He didn’t make that much of an effort when we broke up. Of course, that was probably because his mother hated me on sight. Mama Ryan told me I would never be good enough for him, I wonder what she will say when I’m wearing his wedding band.
“Thanks, Natalia. I think I’m just going to sleep now.”
Nodding, I give her hand one last squeeze and lay down on my own bed. My dreams are filled with Luke, our wedding, and our children. Sleeping soundly, I wake early and head to buy Natalia more food and water. I’m sure she is hungry for a hot meal so I even pick up a breakfast sandwich from the coffee shop, I’m that good of a person.
Parking outside of the cabin, I walk up to the door and announce myself since I know she gets paranoid. Natalia doesn’t answer though. Walking into the small cabin, I turn until I find what looks to be the lock from her chain. She somehow smashed it to pieces. Crunching tire tracks sound outside halting my exit. Someone just showed up but it isn’t the cops. Trying my hardest to make out the people, I listen to the car doors close, coming around the black car is Natalia but with her is Isabel.
Walking up to the door, Isabel shoves it open catching me off guard. Bitch. Landing on my ass, I feel something hit me in the head before I see black. I don’t know how long I was unconscious but when I wake up I’m tied to a damn chair with both of them staring at me as if I’ll bite.
I should have known that Natalia would get loose. I didn’t plan on her running straight to campus in search of Isabel, I let too much slip when I was with her it seems. I wonder what these two will do. They haven’t called the police yet, mostly because they are dumb, but there’s something about the wild look in Isabel’s eyes that makes me uneasy. Bitch must be psychotic or something. I would know that look anywhere, I have seen it before. My mother had that same look.
“Oh my god, oh my god! What are we going to do?!” Natalia whisper-yells, as if I’m not sitting right in front of them.
Cocking my head, I look to Isabel and wait for her to answer. I want to know what she is thinking of. Was it the way I rode Luke’s cock all night while she cried herself to sleep, or is it even more nefarious? Will goody-two-shoes Isabel off me in an effort to hold onto her man?
Wringing her hands together, she starts to let loose the tears she’s been holding back for… less than 24 hours. Rolling my eyes, I pull against the ties holding my hands together. Scoffing to myself, I feel the cloth give just a bit before it loosens completely. Come on! Say it with me, electrical ties, hell even duct tape would have worked better.
“We'll call Lukas. He’ll know what to do,” Princess Isabel commands.
I should have known if someone was going to deal with me, it wouldn’t be her. She wouldn’t dare get her hands dirty. What kind of person keeps someone tied up while they talk about offing her? Monsters, that’s who. The idiots don’t even check my binds before they walk out to call Luke. I know this is my chance, it might be the only one they give me. I didn’t get this far by letting someone else handle things for me. Picking up the little notebook on the table, I write a little note before I all but skip away and out of the window. I have more important things to worry about than those two.
Rubbing my stomach, I hike into the woods and away from those psychos. I finally saw the test this morning when Isabel was sleeping. I could barely contain my excitement. I just know Luke will feel the same way when he finds out. I’ve walked further than I realized when I come to a clearing and a road. Flagging down a driver on the road leading away from town, I hop into his truck without a second thought.
Tipping his hat to me, he asks the obvious questions, “What’s your name and where are you headed?”
Grinning, I lay on my true southern drawl, “Pleased to meet you, sir, I’m Ashley Ryan. I’m headed out to New York. My husband, Luke, is meeting me at the bus stop in the next town over. My car broke down a little ways back.”
Epilogue
LUKE
Isabel calledme to let me know Natalia wasn’t really Natalia. I admit I was so fucking confused by all that she told me. My ex-girlfriend from high school was pretending to be her roommate or something. I just couldn’t see Ashley doing that. She had her issues, sure. But the Natalia I know doesn’t have Ashley’s purple eyes. Besides when I left she was fine, well not fine as in she was happy but not crazy.
Parking my Jeep, I shake my head and walk up to the cabin door. It just can’t be true. Following the other woman and Isabel into a room, I freeze when I see an empty chair with only a notebook resting on top of the wooden seat. The ladies are panicking but I’m more concerned about the message Natalia, I mean “Ashley” left. Right there is all the answer I need. Scrawled onto an old yellowing page are the words I always told her.Until we see you in our dreams. But there’s more, she signed it with two names,Ashley and Mari. My world tips on its axis at the thought.
She’s pregnant, again.
We were young and dumb the first time it happened. She lost the baby right after I left for college. We didn’t even know she was pregnant until she had the miscarriage. Hell, we weren’t even together anymore. I was a wreck, and apparently, it made her break.
“What does it say? Is she gone?” Isabel asks, hope in her voice.
Nodding, I throw the notebook across the room, “Yeah she’s gone. Her and my baby.”
