Chapter 96

Celeste

After what happened with Alyx, I didn’t go to school for a week. I just stayed in my room, ignoring everybody. Even Jack left me alone. I just couldn’t face Fiona. She had been calling me non-stop. I know she wanted to hear about the date, but I couldn’t talk about it yet.

I went back and forth between being angry and utterly devastated. I couldn’t help but feel like there was something wrong with me. The boy I had loved more than anything or anyone had brutally rejected me in front of everyone. And the guy that had been such a close friend and that I was starting to actually like turned out to be a creep.

There had to be something wrong. Normal people didn’t have this much of a disastrous love life. Take Fiona for example. She had gone out on so many dates. Maybe some of them weren’t splendid, but nothing terrible had happened to her.

In fact, I had listened to her talk about how amazing it was to be in the dating scene. Even if the dates were bad. She enjoyed every single one of them. I had always envied her for that. It seemed like such a fun time getting to know someone and letting them get to know you.

Before Matt and Alyx had ruined it all, I had been enjoying myself. But now I was thinking that it might be better if I just stayed single for the rest of my life. Especially now that I knew werewolves existed.

Not that I had anything against werewolves. Despite everything that had happened, Matt was one of the nicest people that I knew and he was a werewolf. But not all werewolves were going to be nice. I mean, one was attacking students on campus and had been for months.

I buried my face farther into my pillow. It was still damp from all my tears, but I couldn’t bring myself to care about it. I was kind of hoping I would just sink into the bed and disappear forever. I didn’t want to feel like this anymore. I didn’t want to feel, period.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen. I jumped when I heard my door bang against the wall. I heard the light switch get flipped and then someone stomped over to the bed, yanking the covers down in one swift movement.

I curled in on myself, as if I could hide from whoever it was. Like if I was in a small enough ball, they wouldn’t see me. Obviously it didn’t work.

“Celeste, get your ass out of bed! I have been worried sick about you and I think, as your best friend, I deserve to know what’s going on!” Fiona yelled and I made myself even smaller. Of course she was mad. It wasn’t like me to not talk to her for a week.

I moaned and covered my head with the pillow. I felt guilty, but I just wanted her to go away. There wasn’t anything she could do for me and I knew that if I talked about it, I would just fall apart again. I was already exhausted enough as it was.

But Fiona wasn’t going to give up. She took the pillow away from me as well. There was nothing left for me to hide behind.

“Celeste, what happened? Why are you like this? Alyx hasn’t spoken a word to me either. Please. Whatever it is, I’m here for you. You know you can tell me anything,” Fiona’s voice turned soft and I could clearly hear the worry and the hurt in it.

I finally opened my eyes and looked up at her. As soon as I saw her face, I burst into tears and launched myself into her arms. She held me, rubbing my back as she whispered words of comfort.

We stayed like that until the sobs finally died down and I found the strength to sit up on my own. Her eyes bore into mine and I could see all the unspoken questions. I rubbed my eyes with the palm of my hand and sighed.

“I don’t even know where to start…” I muttered, my voice hoarse. I hadn’t used it the whole time I’d been home other than for sobbing. I cleared my throat, but it didn’t help any.

“Just start at the beginning. The last time I heard from you, you were so excited about your date with Alyx,” Fiona prompted and I shuddered. I didn’t want to think about how excited I was. It just made the situation so much worse.

“Well, he took me downtown and we ate at a restaurant. We were having a good time. Then we went on a walk in the park and sat on a bench. We started making out. It was nice…until it wasn’t,” I told her and she pursed her lips. Her hands balled into fists in her lap.

“What did he do?” Fiona’s voice was tight with anger. I could tell she already had an idea about what I was going to say and she was getting angry.

I took a deep breath. “He wouldn’t get off of me. His hand went under my dress and I didn’t have the strength to stop him…if Matt hadn’t shown up…” My voice trailed off. I didn’t need to finish. We both knew what would have happened if he hadn’t.

Fiona went still, her head cocked to the side and her anger forgotten for a moment. “What was Matt doing there?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. But he clocked Alyx in the face and knocked him down. Then he took me home. I haven’t left my room since.”

“Good. Alyx deserved it. Next time I see him, I’m going to kill him,” Fiona muttered darkly and I couldn’t help but smile weakly at her. I was so lucky to have someone like her in my corner.

“I’m so sorry I ignored you. I was…I was having a lot of trouble processing it. I just needed some time to myself, but I shouldn’t have cut you off like that,” I told her and she took my hand in hers, squeezing it reassuringly.

“And I’m sorry I came charging in here like that. I was just worried about you,” Fiona said and I gave her hand a squeeze back.

“Matt said he still cares about me,” I told her after a couple of minutes of silence. I was still trying to wrap my head around that bit as well. Matt could have fooled me. He’d completely ignored me for three months. How could he say that to me?

“And? He probably just meant it like ‘You’re my best friend’s little sister,’ type of way. I wouldn’t get your hopes up. He was a complete asshole to you at the ball and for the past three months. Who cares if he saved you?” Fiona asked and I had to agree with her.

But there was still a part of me that wanted to believe he meant more than that. As much as I hated to admit it, the feelings I had been able to bury for Matt were clawing their way to the surface. I was so close to losing myself in him again.