She broke down again, as soon as she sat in Sydney’s front seat. It was worse than when she’d cried earlier. Earlier she’d cried out of fear, fear of seeing Angel so out of control, fear of her complete inability to make him understand, but now she was crying out of anger; Angry that she’d been stupid enough to let it get to this.

Eric was right, she decided. Now was not the time try to explain, especially not with Sydney there. She’d wait until the morning to call him. By the time they reached her aunt’s house she was drained, emotionally and physically. She sat there looking out the window at the moon not wanting to move.

Sydney squeezed her hand. “Let’s get you inside.”

Sydney spent the night on the living room sofa and left early the next morning. The next couple of days were torturous. Sarah called Angel at least five times a day and sent him endless texts, all with no response. She couldn’t believe how unreasonable he was being. He didn’t even want to try to talk it out?

Sarah sat on her bed staring at her cell phone. It had only been two days since she’d last seen him and she missed him horribly. Didn’t he miss her too? If it was the other way around she would’ve already given in and answered his call. Could all his talk about him loving her so much have been a lie? Or maybe he just realized he couldn’t possibly love a liar.

There was a soft knock at her door. The door was open and Valerie stood at the entrance pouting. “How we doin?”

Sarah shook her head and pressed her lips together, looking back at her phone. She was so sick of crying but just looking at Valerie’s sympathetic expression brought a lump to her throat. Valerie sat next to her on the bed and hugged her. She squeezed her tight for a second then let go and patted Sarah’s leg. “Alright, so he’s being a jerk. Give him time. He’ll get over it.”

Sarah wasn’t so optimistic. Valerie hadn’t seen him that night. “No, I really think he hates me now.”

“Are you kidding? I’m sure he’s still totally whipped. But expect him to maybe want to… you know, play games.”

Sarah looked at Valerie who avoided making eye contact. “What do you mean?”

Valerie stood up and walked over to Sarah’s desk. “You know guys are stupid.” She picked up a pad of paper and a pen. Then came back and sat down again next to Sarah. She kept her eyes on the pad of paper and began to doodle.

“You hurt him, and maybe you know; now he’ll try to hurt you back. It happens. It’s immature yeah, but-”

“Valerie, what are you talking about?” She put her hand on the pen so Valerie would stop doodling. “Do you know something?”

Valerie’s eyes finally met hers and she took a deep breath. “Not really, but I talked to Alex.”

“And?” Sarah could feel her insides tightening up.

“Well, just so you know, Alex is worse than Angel so he really thinks you did Angel wrong. He had the whole story all mixed up, the idiot.” She began doodling again. “He thinks you were cheating on Angel this whole time and Syd’s been your boyfriend for years.”

Sarah squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself. When she glanced down, Valerie was doodling furiously. “What else did he say?”

Valerie stopped doodling but didn’t look up. “I just got off the phone with him. He said he was glad Angel was having lunch with Dana today.”

It hit Sarah like a ton of bricks, but strangely she wasn’t totally surprised. She’d always known in her gut that there was more to Angel and Dana. No wonder he wasn’t missing her.

Valerie touched Sarah’s hand. “Hey, she’s the most annoying person on the planet. There’s no way he could be into her. It’s so obvious what he’s doing.”

Angel wasn’t that immature. Sarah couldn’t see him playing games like that. But she could definitely see him being hurt and needing to reach out to someone. Someone that would make him feel better, and of course he’d picked Dana. Sarah stood up. She’d been thinking about it since yesterday. This just sealed the deal.

“I gotta get out of here.” She pulled the suitcase out from under her bed.

“Where you going?” Valerie asked.

“Back to Arizona, where I should’ve been all this time.”

CHAPTER 22

Angel waited impatiently for the light to turn green. He was already regretting having agreed to this. But he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Dana’s call that night. Breaking up with Sarah was without a doubt, the hardest thing he’d ever done, and he wanted to make sure he wasn’t making a mistake. But when he called Dana this morning she insisted she wanted to talk to him in person.

Alex agreed to cover for him at the restaurant. Even telling him to take his time and enjoy. As if he’d be able to enjoy anything the way he was feeling. He hoped Dana would keep it short and to the point. He was in no mood for much more. He was so tired from the lack of sleep the last couple of nights, and just thinking about Sarah made him want to bang the steering wheel.

He picked Dana up and she announced she wasn’t very hungry, but she could go for coffee so they went to Starbucks. She talked all the way there, but not about anything he wanted to hear. As soon as they got their coffee, he cut to the chase.

“So, let’s have it.” He said. “What were you talking about, Saturday night when you called me?

“Angel, I didn’t know you didn’t know anything. I’d hate to cause problems- ”