Maybe he left Laandia.
I don’t care. About any of it.
Only I do. I know I care because ithurts.Not because Ashton lied to me; technically no lies were told, but he was disingenuous. He was a false friend. Fake, just like what everyone thinks of him and his friends.
Maybe everyone is right. Ashton is a good actor.
He had me fooled.
“What are we doing here?” Stella asks as I sit in the car outside the three-storied Victorian that I called home for months.
It doesn’t feel much like home now.
“I need to see if I can do the stairs,” I tell her. “I want to come home.”
“Why?”
I haven’t told Stella about what happened. I haven’t even mentioned Ashton. And I know she doesn’t know anything, because she would have led off with a litany of curses against him when she picked me up.
“I thought you were getting used to castle life,” Stella continues. “You get taken care of there, so why come back here when you’re going to be stuck on your own. I can help but… Mom’s going to want to come over…”
“I can’t stay there forever.”
“You kind of can. For as long as you want, at least. What’s going on? Did something happen?”
I open the car door. “I just want to try the stairs.”
I make it up three before my toe starts to throb. It’s not a lot, but it’s something, and it’s enough to give me hope that maybe next week, I’ll be recovered enough to move home.
I just want to be out of the castle. Out of where everything reminds me of Ashton.
In all my thoughts about him, my spiralling at night, trying to remember everything he has said to me to find out if he’d ever given me a clue that he was as cowardly and fake as I give him credit for.
I can’t come up with anything, and I spend way too much time remembering every detail about our kisses.
“You okay if we stop for coffee on the way?” Stella says as we pull away from the house. “I was up early with the new litter ofpuppies.”
“Sure.”
Of course, for once, Stella can’t find parking and sends me in on my own. I only take one crutch this time, so I have a free hand.
Of course, Fenella is inside.
“Sophie,” she says rushing over to me the moment I step inside. “My brother is an idiot.”
I brush past her, heading to the counter with a lopsided gait. “Not as much of an idiot as I am.”
“Oh, no. You’re… Ashton really messed this up. He told me everything.”
“I doubt that.”
“He did. Everything our father told him to do. What’s been happening between the two of you. Sophie.” Fenella catches my wrist. “Ashton told me he’s falling for you.”
My heart gives a traitorous lurch, but I can’t… I can’t.
“That’s what he says.” I try to keep my voice strong and even but it wavers just a little.
And Fenella notices.
