“I meant so little to you that you didn’t even stop for a single fucking second. You saw what you wanted to see so you could leave without feeling guilty.” All the puzzle pieces finally fit together. All these years I wondered why she left without saying goodbye. Now I know.
“Guilty for what?” She sets her glass of wine down and puts one hand on her hip.
“For playing me like a fool, for one. For lying to me about your age and where you went to school. For not telling me you had a fucking internship waiting on you in New York!”
Celeste gasps in shock. “How did you know?”
* * *
The Past
I haven’t heard from Celeste in two days. She was supposed to come by last night, but she never showed up. I thought maybe I misunderstood her, but when she didn’t show up tonight either, I knew something was up. I went to text her and realized I never got her number. So, I emailed her, only it bounced back. It didn’t bounce when I sent her the image of the tattoo, which means the account has only recently been deleted.
Unsure of where to go from here, I call Nick to get her info, but he doesn’t answer. Without leaving a message, I hang up and jump in my car to head over to NCU. While I’m scouring the huge campus that is almost empty since exams are pretty much over and everyone is leaving for the summer, I spot Killian juggling a couple of boxes.
“Hey, man!” he yells from a distance. “How’s it going?”
“Good.” I grab one of the boxes from him so they don’t fall. “Finally done?”
“Don’t you fucking know it. This is the last of my stuff. I’m heading out to New York tonight. Just dropping this shit off at my parents’ place before I take off.” Killian was picked up by the New York Brewers as a first round draft pick.
“Congratulations. You deserve it.”
“Thanks.” We start to walk together in, what I’m assuming is, the direction of his vehicle. “So what are you doing on campus?” he asks.
“I’m looking for a girl…actually you might know her.” Killian and Nick are good friends, so it would make sense he also knows Celeste. “Her name is Celeste. She’s friends with Nick.”
Killian stops in place. “Yeah, I know her. But why are you looking for her?”
“We hung out.” I shrug. “Forgot to get her number.”
For a good thirty seconds, Killian gives me a hard stare, and then he says, “She’s no longer here. She moved to New York a couple days ago.”
What. The. Fuck. “You sure?” I was just with her a couple days ago.
“Yeah, she actually left earlier than planned. She was supposed to be at her graduation, but didn’t show up. Nick said she skipped it and left for New York early. He got her an internship at some modeling agency.”
“She graduated from college?” Why wouldn’t she tell me she was graduating. We hung out for days, talking and getting to know each other. Her graduating from college seems like something she would’ve mentioned.
“Umm…no…” Killian looks at me confused. “Celeste is eighteen. She graduated from high school.” Jesus fucking Christ. I try to think back to our conversations. There’s no way I would’ve missed her telling me she was a fucking senior in high school. Holy fuck, she’s younger than my little sister. I just spent the last week fucking someone six years younger than me.
“You okay?” Killian asks, but I’m in too much shock to answer him. “Look, I don’t know what happened between you two, but it’s probably for the best if you don’t find her. Celeste…well, there’s no nice way to put this, so I’ll just say it. She’s a gold-digging bitch.” He shrugs, and I have half a mind to punch him in the face for calling her that. “I’m not saying it to be mean, but it’s the truth. Unless you have money, she isn’t wasting her time on you. If you want, I can get her number from Nick…”
“No, that’s okay,” I choke out, flabbergasted by these turn of events. It’s like I didn’t even know Celeste. I spent the week falling for a woman who was playing me for a fool. But why? She had to know I have no money, yet she still acted like she was falling for me just as hard. She gave me her virginity, spent the week in my bed. We hung out with my family, went to the movies. She even came to see me at the shop several times. None of it makes any sense. But it really doesn’t matter because she left. She got on a plane and flew over five hundred miles away without so much as a goodbye.
Thirteen
Celeste
“Did you really think you would leave and I wouldn’t go looking for you?” Jase asks. “You disappeared. I was scared out of my fucking mind that something happened to you. Then I ran into Killian and learned that the girl I was falling in love with was nothing more than a liar and a coward.” Jase takes another step toward me. “What was I to you, Celeste?” My name comes out as a sneer. “Something to pass your time with while you waited to graduate and go to New York? An experiment? You wanted to see how the other side lives…”