"Rise and shine."
Selene's eyes blinked open. There was a moment of fear as she realized she wasn't in her own bedroom. Then she reminded herself that she was in a cabin by a lake with her high school sweetheart.
She stretched out, closing her eyes as the sunlight came through the curtains. "Good morning," she greeted Declan.
"It's actually two in the afternoon but." He kissed her forehead. "Last night was..."
"Memorable," she jumped in, smiling at him.
"Amazing," he said, pulling her closer. His arms wrapped around her, pressing them flush against each other.
She laughed. "Amazing," she repeated, closing her eyes and breathing in Declan.
It was nearly half an hour later--Selene was practically dozing off again-- when Declan pulled away and stood up.
"I need to shower," he announced. "And then I'll make you breakfast."
She sat up, nodding.
"You could join--"
"Hard pass." She checked the nightstand. "I think I lost my phone."
His brows furrowed as he headed to his duffle bag to get a towel. "You had it in the car ride home."
"I know," she checked the nightstand on Declan's side. The only thing there was a few condoms and Declan's phone. "Can I use your phone to call mine?" she asked, picking it up.
He glanced at her then the locked phone screen. "Wouldn't your phone be dead?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I charged it in the car."
He walked towards her and unlocked his phone. "It's probably under the bed or something," he said.
"Yeah, but this cuts down search time." She kissed his cheek. "Go shower."
Almost hesitantly, Declan walked off in the direction of the bathroom, closing the bedroom door behind him.
Selene held up the phone. "Siri call Selene."
The phone did her bidding and Selene could hear a faint buzzing noise from her suitcase.
She headed towards it. Sure enough her phone was tucked into the front pocket of her suitcase.
She let out a little squeal and was about to lock Declan's phone when a message popped up.
It was a message from a contact that had been named 'Mark's Pizzeria'.
Selene frowned. Why would a pizza place be texting him when they had both just woken up?
She clicked on the notification.
'missed you last night' the message said.
Selene scrolled up the message thread.
' come thru' Declan had said almost two months ago.
'can't. Busy.' The person responded. 'see you tomorrow?'
'date with Selene :(' Declan answered.
Selene scrolled further up. She scrolled so fast she scrolled past it at first but then she came back to it.
A picture of Zoë with a pink bralette on. She stared seductively at the camera.
'i have to drop Selene off at home but i'll be there in a few' Declan had said to that.
Zoë sent him another photo. She was holding her bra strap away from her skin, almost as if she was about to take off the bra. 'take your time' she replied.
Declan had responded with a photo of him in this car, one hand on the wheel and the other on little Declan clearly visible through his pants.
Selene paused. Zoë and Declan were fucking behind her back. Her best friend and her boyfriend were fucking behind her back. Selene had an almost vivid flashback of the contact with the green heart emoji on Zoë's phone from the night they did face masks together; how apprehensive Zoë had looked when Selene had asked her who it was. How Zoë had never answered and just yelled at Selene for her phone.
She scrolled further up, checking dates. Trying to see if she had read the dates wrong or missed a text from Declan where he said he wanted nothing to do with her.
She scrolled past all the dirty pictures, 'i miss u' texts, and mentions of her name before she got to the messages from nearly a year ago; when Zoë and Declan were still dating.
There was a voice message.
Selene hit play.
Zoë's voice filled the bedroom. "She's just so annoying sometimes you know? I can't say anything to her; she's so fucking sensitive. Like the other day, I was at her house scrolling through facebook and then I got a friend request from Julian Dawson so I told her and she just completely freaked out and locked herself in the bathroom for ten minutes like she was going to kill herself or something. Get over it; you dated him in grade nine and you felt bad about spreading your legs because he still cheated on you anyways boohoo it was three fucking years ago, get over it. It's fucking pathetic at this point." The voice message ended.
Selene couldn't believe it. Zoë had told Declan about Julian. The messages were from before Selene and Declan had even started dating.
How many other people did Zoë tell? All her new friends? Did Selene's whole friend group know about what happened in grade nine?
Did they think she was pathetic like Zoë did?
Selene took deep breaths to calm herself down.
The bedroom door opened and Selene jumped.
"Woah scaredy-cat," Declan laughed. "Jumpy much?"
She stared at him. At that moment she realized this whole plan was futile from the beginning. The fact that he was smiling at her, without a care in the world even though he was cheating on her showed that Declan Grey was heartless.
"Oh, hey," he said, "you found your phone. Where was it?"
Selene couldn't speak.
Declan put on boxers and a pair of ripped jeans.
As he pulled a white short-sleeve over his head, Selene whispered, "You're an asshole."
She put on a pair of sweatpants over her pyjamas.
"What?" Declan asked, his brow furrowed.
"You're an asshole!" she yelled at him.
His brows furrowed further. "Is--is this some sort of prank?" He glanced around the room as if looking for a hidden camera so he could go 'haha I have foiled your plans.'
She zipped up her suitcase and lifted it so it was on its wheels. "No, this isn't a prank."
Declan's eyes searched her face. "Sel, you're going to have to explain to me."
"You have no idea what you did?"
He shook his head, half laughing. "Was I in the shower too long? Did you think I died?"
She lifted his phone. "Mark's Pizzeria texted."
Declan's face dropped. She paused, staring at him. Waiting for an explanation that would somehow make sense. Even a denial. "Sel--"
"Don't talk to me."
"Sel, I can explain."
"I don't want to hear it." She rolled her suitcase out of the bedroom.
Declan followed behind her. "Why were you going through my phone in the first place?"
Selene struggled to lift her suitcase down the wooden staircase. She managed to scoff. "Seriously? You're fucking someone else and you're trying to blame me for going through your phone and make me look insane?"
She finally reached the bottom of the staircase.
The rest of the group had gathered in the kitchen with plates of breakfast. Selene's stomach growled. "I'm going home," she announced.
The group had turned to her.
"Now," she said.
Carlos stood.
"Selene," Declan said, his eyes filling with tears. "Let me take you home. I can explain everything. I love you."
She laughed bitterly. "Bullshit." The air of the room had gained some sort of frigidness. Selene plowed through it. "I'm so stupid. Zoë told me not to fall for you. She fucking warned me."
"What?"
"Oh yeah. When you broke up with Zoë we made this whole plan that I would lure you in and make you fall in love with me and then break your heart. We would talk and she gave me notes on how to hurt you the most. She even helped me message you." She laughed bitterly again. "Look how the tables have fucking turned."
"What?" he asked, his voice breaking.
She leaned in. "I don't love you. I never fucking loved you and I pity anyone who ever will because you are a fucking piece of shit." She watched his eyes as her words sunk in.
"You don't mean that," he said as tears started to fall.
"Oh but I do." She became aware that she was still holding his phone in her hands. She threw it onto the wood floor, face down. The crack sounded throughout the living room to the dining room. "We," she pointed between the both of them, "are fucking done," she spat. "I never want to see you again for as long as I live."
Someone put their hand on her shoulder. "Let's go," Carlos said.
She glanced at him, his face was stoic. She turned her gaze to the kitchen. Verona, Roman and Ruby's faces were the same. They all avoided eye contact with her.
Tears threatened to fall. Fuck. She would never be able to talk to Verona again; not only was she losing Declan but also losing her new friends.
She grabbed her suitcase and headed out the door with Carlos.
They didn't speak for the majority of the car ride back.
Carlos mostly ignored her with the radio blasting as she cried. He only spoke once to say, "There's tissues in there" and gesture at the glove compartment.
"I broke my promise," she said after nearly twenty-five minutes had passed.
"Huh?"
"I broke his heart." She dabbed at her eyes again. "I definitely did not go easy on him."
"Well, my promises didn't account for him being a complete asshole," Carlos said.
"So you didn't know?" she asked. Carlos shook his head. "Huh. I thought you two were best friends."
"He wouldn't tell me; I'm a liability."
"What?"
"Who was it?"
"Zoë. What do you mean by liability?"
Carlos's ears turned pink. "It was grade nine, we sat near each other in science class--"
Selene cut him off. "Declan told me this already."
Carlos turned to her then quickly back to the road. "He did?"
Selene nodded. "On our last date; he said that's when he first realized he had a crush on me. I smiled at him and he fell or some shit like that."
Carlos's hands gripped the wheel tighter. "Selene," he said slowly, "Declan stole that story from me. That's when I started liking you. Declan always teased me about it because when he got with Zoë that was supposed to be my in to get with you but I was too nervous. I found out Julian was fucking some sophomore girl and I told Verona to tell you. Then you disappeared and you came back single and happy. And then next thing I know he was saying 'you snooze you lose' and dating you."
"He dated me to prove a point to you?"
"I think at first," Carlos agreed. "But I think he actually started to like you--to love you."
Selene looked down at the tissue in her hand.
"So, revenge plot, eh?"
She rolled her eyes. It all seemed so stupid now. Now that her chest ached, her eyes were puffy and her nose was red. "Yeah," she said simply.
They didn't speak for another twenty minutes until Selene said, "Can you drop me off here instead?"
Carlos nodded and she redirected the GPS to Zoë's house.