Page 115 of True Abandon

She narrows her eyes and laughs. “It was in his text messages.”

I move my arms about as if trying to grasp onto any semblance of reality and wake myself up from this dream. “How did you even get into his phone?”

“It’s your birthday.” She rolls her eyes.

My feet are burning the carpet. I don’t know why I’m here when I should be going after him. I run into my room and Olivia Benson. He must sense our need to get out of here because he runs into my arms.

“Goodbye Kelli.” I walk straight through the room and open the front door.

“Where are you going. Will you bring back beer? We’re out.”

I slam the door. I’m never going back.

chapter TWENTY FIVE

“Still no word?” Ali’i rubs my back as she places a cup of tea on the table.

My head is resting in my palm while other supports the weight of my body on the table.

I left my apartment last night and went straight to the airport. Jax wasn’t there and they wouldn’t let me through the gate without a ticket. Since I left my house without my bag, I couldn't even buy one.

Nowhere else to go, I came straight to Auli’i and Lani’s house. Kal and Benji packed my things so I didn’t have to see Kelli. Benji said he got her back good and I don’t even want to think about what kind of heinous thing he did to her toothbrush or underwear drawer or whatever he did. The less I know, the better.

I’ve been friends with Kelli for so long, I have a void in my gut. Sure, I should have seen her friendship for what it was: superficial. She likes my victim status because it elevated her self-righteous decisions. I just don't understand why I had to be the martyr. Or better yet, Jackson had to suffer.

His story has been on all of the major websites and entertainment programs. Seeing his reputation smeared across the screen is everything I was avoiding years ago. Watching it happen to him feels ten thousand times worse.

He was right. The villain has become the victim.

Except it wasn’t me, and while a huge part of me is sad, I’m also incredibly bitter. How could he believe I did it? He didn’t give me a chance to explain. He didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t care.

Lani found an image online that wasn’t blurred out. It’s not the best of pictures, but its lewd and indecent.

And for Jax it must be incredibly embarrassing.

“I’ve been calling nonstop.” I raise my head to Auli’i as she takes a seat next to me at the kitchen table.

She sighs, placing her hand under my chin to lift my face in appraisal. “You have not slept. It’s not healthy to treat your body this way.”

“How can I? “ I know I look pale and my insides feel hollow. Still, I can’t just sit here any longer. I stand and look around the room, getting my bearings on where I put my stuff. Mainly, my purse. “I have to get to work.”

“You can call in sick. Lani is already at the hotel handling everything for you.”

Lani is more than capable of handing my job. I just can’t sit still any longer. Just the thought of the hotel and my current guests, Alexander Asher and Noah Kanë, have me fidgeting with my keys. My purse was on the kitchen counter. “I’m antsy. I need to keep myself busy.”

Auli’i runs her hands along the palm leaf able cloth. Her kind eyes smile as she stands and motions toward the door. “Yes. The soul needs to keep moving. Come, I’ll walk you to your car.”

My car is in the front. While I want to run to it, I keep the painfully slow pace that Auli’i travels at out of a sign of respect. Although this morning she seems to be extra slow. We walk down the front steps in an unhurried pace and then stroll casually to the car, taking the longest route possible past a row of shrubs.

Her eyes close as she inhales a pink flower growing. Looking up into the su, she lets the heat radiate through her as if finding peace in nature.

“This is the Aloha rose,” she plucks a rose from the tree.

I take it, tentatively. “I thought it was bad luck to pick flowers?” I ask.

“Roses are meant to be shared.” She lifts her palm in the air as if to tell me to take a wiff. I really don’t have time for this, but I appease her. Bringing the rose to my nose I inhale the sweet fragrance. It’s mildly soothing.

“The pink cottage rose is the only nonnative plant to be a recognized as an official flower of the Hawaiian island. It’s pretty, right?”