“Yeah. I do.” I turn to walk away, but am stopped by a sudden thought. “Would you’ve given me his home number if I didn’t have it?”
“Most certainly not,” she says, but she sends a wink after it. “That information is confidential.”
Huh. Maybe she’s more invested in this conversation than I thought. I offer her a smile before hurrying from the office with a wave, heading outside to call the Reid household.
“Hi, John,” I say after a gruff voice picks up. “Is Jaxon available?”
“No.”
I pause, waiting for additional information, but apparently that’s all I’m going to get. Jax’s dad has always been a man of few words, though my mom told me once that he was a lot more fun before Jaxon’s mom’s lupus flared up. As we were only four at the time his mom’s heart finally gave out from the related complications, I’ve only known John as a grumpy old man.
I did, however, expect more than just a single-word answer since he’s usually a lot nicer to me than he is to Jaxon.
“Oh, well, do you think he could call me when he becomes available?”
A heavy sigh comes down the line, and my stomach starts to twist. I knew something was wrong. I just knew it. Now he’s going to tell me they found him lying in a ditch or that he’s—
“He left, Izzy. Though it doesn’t surprise me that he was too self-centered to have the courtesy to tell you.”
That knot that was forming in my stomach? Yeah, it just dropped all the way to the ground. “What do you mean?”
“He packed a bag and his guitar and left town.”
That can’t be right. He wouldn’t do that. Or he would do that, but he wouldn’t do it without telling me. Why wouldn’t he tell me?
“Why?” Emotion threatens to close my throat as tears flow into my eyes.
“You know how he is. Impulsive and selfish.”
I just stand in shocked silence. I don’t know that about him.
“I don’t know what else to tell you, Isabel. I don’t think he’s coming back,” John says.
“Oh. Okay,” I whisper, even though that’s not the Jaxon I know. “Did something happen, or…” I trail off, not sure how to ask Jaxon’s dad if they’d had another fight.
“He’ll come home once he realizes he can’t make it as a musician,” he says, his voice growing gruff.
I want to tell him that if anyone can make it as a musician, it’s Jaxon. He has the drive, and there’s no one in the world with a voice like Jaxon Reid. But my head just can’t wrap itself around the fact that Jaxon leftwithout saying goodbye.
“Okay, well…thanks,” I say before hanging up, my whole body numb.
Not sure what to do, I pull up Jaxon’s contact and hit the green button to call him. I let it ring until his voicemail picks up.
“Are you really gone, Jax?” I ask, the tears dripping down my face now. “Why would you leave without saying goodbye? And in the middle of the school year? I just… You tell me everything. Literally everything. Why didn’t you tell me?”
I end the call, wiping my cheek before sending him a text.
Me
Please call me. I just want to make sure you’re okay.
But it was more than that. I needed to know why—how—he could leave me like that. I needed him to know that somewhere inside me, my heart was breaking.
***
One day later.
Me
