“Nope.” I shake my head. “I most definitely did not. I wrote, called, or texted most every day for ten months, Sydney. Even when I heard nothing back fromyou!”
She almost chokes on her wine. After composing herself, she says, “What are you talking about? I wrote to you constantly, and you never replied. Not even when I told you about—”
“Told me about what?”
“Nothing.” She chews on her bottom lip in an obvious tell.
I move a little closer and tentatively place my hand on her knee, over her dress. “Syd.”
“Drop it,” she hisses, avoiding looking at me.
Tension bleeds into the air as we both contemplate what has just been revealed.
“Are you telling me the truth, Sydney? Were you still contacting me?”
She turns to face me with glassy eyes. “Why would I lie after all this time? What would I have to gain?”
“Exactly. Why would I?”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” she whispers, swiping at an errant tear that leaks from one eye.
“Tell me what happened after I left.” It is hard to remain calm when my brain is churning all kinds of thoughts, but lashing out won’t help.
“I didn’t hear from you after that first week. There was radio silence, but I kept texting, calling, and emailing you, and nada. I never heard from you again even though I continued communicating with you for months until I was forced to give up when it was abundantly clear you were never going to reply.”
Her confession shocks the shit out of me. All this time, I thought she didn’t care. That she had given up on me immediately. “I don’t know why I never received your calls or messages, but I swear I had not given up on you. After that first week, I continued sending texts and emails, and I called you every day, but you never picked up.”
Shock splays across her face as she stares at me. “I never received anything from you. I swear.”
“Hang on a sec.” I pull out my cell as an idea occurs to me. “I rarely use my old email account anymore, but I still have it connected to my phone,” I explain as my fingers race over the keypad. I type in my password, and the inbox loads. Sydney quietly sips her wine as I go into the sent items and filter it by year. I’m relieved the log is still there. I’m guessing randomly using the account over the years has kept it active. “I have a different phone now, so I can’t show you the hundreds of calls and texts I sent, but I can show you this.” I hand her my phone, and she takes it with trembling fingers.
Tears flood her eyes as she scrolls through pages upon pages of sent messages, all timestamped to prove I’m telling the truth.
“What happened, Jared?” she whispers, turning to look at me. “Why did I never receive any of these?”
“I can’t explain it.” Though I’m starting to form some theories. “I tried to come see you one time,” I add, dragging a hand through my hair. “I was going crazy not hearing from you and panicking that something had happened. I begged my parents to let me visit, but they told me I had to forget about you. I was so angry at Mum. She’d promised she was on our side, but it was a lie. Anyway, when it was obvious they weren’t going to let me see you, I booked a flight and ditched school for the airport. I didn’t even have a bag. I didn’t care. I just needed to see you. To know you were okay.”
“What happened?” she asks, tucking hair behind her ears.
“The school called my parents when I didn’t show, and they used my cell to track my location. Dad showed up at the airport and dragged me out kicking and screaming.” I grind my teeth to the molars as I revisit the scene in my head. “I was so angry and so frustrated. I refused to speak to my parents after they confiscated my passport and secured it in their safe.” I grab fistfuls of my hair. “They sent me to a boarding school for the last two years of school.”
“Oh my god.” Her eyes startle wide.
“It was hell. A fucking prison. You couldn’t get in or out of the grounds without parental permission, which my parents refused to give. We weren’t allowed access to social media or cell phones, but I did have email, and I continued emailing you constantly.” It took me a long time to speak to my parents after I graduated school and relocated to L.A. I was really angry at them for sending me to that hellhole.
“Jared, I was doing that too. I hadn’t given up on you. Not even when I knew you were hooking up with other girls, I—”
“Woah, stop there, sweetheart. What other girls? There was no one but you. I told you that, and I meant it.” I see the disbelief in her eyes, and it kills me. “There weren’t any other girls.”
Her lips purse. “Don’t lie to me, J. I saw the proof.”
I wave my hands in the air. “I don’t know what you saw, but it wasn’t proof.”
“He showed me the picture!” she snaps, shoving my phone at me and wrapping her arms around herself. “It broke my heart,” she sniffles.
“What picture? I have no clue what you’re talking about.”
“The one of you with your arms around two pretty brunettes. You were out partying, and you looked happy, while I was miserable as fuck and feeling like a goddamned fool!” She glugs wine like it’s water while I wrack my brain to try to remember what it could be.
