I went back to the last picture of Anna and me and tapped on her name. It took me to her profile but I couldn’t see any photos or posts. I tried again. Still, I couldn’t get anywhere. I pounded my thigh in frustration.
Anna walked out of the bathroom. Dang it. Her eyes were red.
I frowned. “Did you block me on Instagram?”
Her hands shoved into the back pockets of her jeans. “Uh, yeah. A long time ago.”
“Why?”
Her chest heaved once. “Because I was mad and I didn’t want to see you on my feed.”
Again, “Why?”
She stared at me, lips pressed in a bloodless line.
I folded my legs, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “Did I cheat on you?”
She chewed the inside of her cheek and I could see her editing the words before she spoke them. “No. Not technically.”
“But I went out with someone else three days after we broke up?”
“Actually.” She rocked back on her heels. “One day. Like the very next night. And then you posted it on all your social media and tagged me.”
And the hits kept coming.
“Itaggedyou?” I choked.
“Yes.”
I gripped my hair. “What kind of jackass does that?”
She sat on the end of the bed, facing me. “You were hurt, so you were trying to hurt me. I think.” Her forehead furrowed. “I don’t know. Maybe you just didn’t care that much.”
There was no way. “Somebody who doesn’t care wouldn’t have tagged you. That’s just…hateful.”
“Yep. I cried myself sick when I saw it the next morning.”
“Anna.”
She chortled. “Don’t worry. I wasted no time letting you know exactly how I felt. My momma raised me better than to take something like that lying down. I FaceTimed you and called you some nasty names. Told you thank you for destroying us. For tearing usall to pieces.” Bitterness laced the last three words. “Then I told you to never speak to me again and promptly hung up on you.”
“Did we?” I made myself look at her. Look at what I’d done. Her red eyes betraying the sobbing she must’ve done in the bathroom, the way her shoulders were slumped, her arms crossing her stomach like if she stopped holding herself together, she’d fall apart. “Did we ever speak again?”
Her head shook, almost imperceptibly. “I blocked your number.”
“And that was it? I didn’t try to contact you anymore?” There’s no way I gave up that easily.
She sighed. “No, you did. You texted my Uncle Silas for a solid week, begging him to convince me to unblock you. And you got a couple of your friends to let you use their phones. But if it was a California number, I didn’t answer. You left a lot of voice messages, which I deleted without listening to.” Her laugh was heavy. “When I didn’t respond, you just started posting more pictures of you and her. I know because people at school would send me screenshots. It was awesome.” Her lips twisted in thought. “So that sealed it for me. I hated you. To my core. Then when you kept dating her through high school and into college, I realized you must’ve liked her before we ever broke up.”
My chest felt like someone was standing on it. Someone very, very large. His name was Blue Bishop. “And we never ran into each other when I came home to see my mom and Colt?”
Anna leaned on her hand, her head hanging to one side. “No. I made it a point to hang at home if I thought you were in Seddledowne. Bye weeks, Thanksgiving, Christmas, pretty much all summer.” Her smile was sad. “I did hear them announce that you were visiting at one of the Seddledowne football games. Over the loudspeaker. I’d come home for the weekend during my freshman year of college. Jonah…” She tucked a long strand of hair behind her ear. “That was my boyfriend?—”
“The one you just broke up with?”
She held my gaze. “The one who just broke up with me.”
“He broke up with you?”
