When I got back to my room the first thing I did was check my phone. Still no response from Hunter. This was getting weird.

I stared at my phone, deciding whether to call. Screw it,I thought. Even if he was being a jerk by not responding to texts, I still needed to talk to him. I found his number and put the phone to my ear. The phone rang a few times—which meant it wasn’t off—and went to voicemail. I left a message asking where he was and threw the phone on my bed.

An idea dawned on me as I looked at the keys sitting on my dresser. I could go over there to see if Hunter was there. Seeing the kittens might also make me feel better.

I grabbed my keys, put on my coat, and left. Part of me hoped he would be at his apartment. Part of me had a bad feeling about his reason for not picking up the phone.

Hunter wasn’t at his apartment. As I kicked off my boots and hung up my coat, I heard the kittens eagerly mewling, excited to have a new friend to play with. All six of them came running to me as I walked into the kitchen. As I gave them loving pets, I noticed dirty dishes filled the sink. Judging by the brown line ringing around one of the pots, it looked like the sink had been filled up with water and left to sit for days.

Had he not been home for a while? Afraid that the kittens hadn’t been fed, I looked to their food and water bowls and was relieved to see they were reasonably full. Even if it wasn’t Hunter, someone had been in the apartment within the last few hours, because the kittens went through food and water like locusts.

The more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed that it hadn’t been Hunter who fed them. Life got crazy for everyone sometimes, but things would have to be pretty hectic for a clean freak like him to ignore his dishes for days. My guess was he hadn’t been home.

At the same time, it was hard to imagine why he would be sleeping somewhere else. Was he hurt? Sick? The more I thought about it, the less sense it made.

Then an ugly thought flashed through my mind: there was no way he was cheating, right?

I shook my head and brushed it aside, afraid to even consider the idea. After writing a note on the fridge’s whiteboard asking him to call as soon as possible, I left his apartment and walked over to Huck Cafe. I had just spent several days alone. Being around people sounded a lot better than going back to my dorm room and staring at the wall.

I got my usual large black coffee, found a table, and sat down with my sketch pad in my lap and my phone on the table. When was Hunter going to get back to me? The messiness in his apartment increasingly worried me the more I thought about it. It was so out of character for him to leave things as untidy as he did. There was no way he would allow that if he were home for more than a few minutes at a time.

I looked around from my seat, hoping to find something or someone to sketch. As I scanned, I heard Hunter’s name above the general buzz in the shop. I found the source of the conversation after a moment’s search: two girls wearing pink sorority t-shirts sitting a couple tables over from mine. The girl on the left had her blonde hair in a sloppy ponytail, the one on the right had wavy shoulder-length hair.

“I thought he was dating that girl whose mom got murdered,” Ponytail said.

“Me too,” Wavy answered. “But Shannon said she saw him and Ada walking into the health center, and he didn’t look right, like he was really stunned or something.”

My spine straightened and I nearly dropped the coffee in my hand. I subtly tilted my ear to listen more closely.

“That’s weird,” Ponytail said. “Why would they be at the health center together?”

“I don’t know. They used to be a couple, right?”

Ponytail took a sip of her iced coffee. “Yeah, but that was like two years ago.”

Her friend twirled her hair. “Maybe they never totally stopped sleeping together.”

All the air left my lungs at once. I suddenly wished I was back in bed. This was rampant speculation, but I still hated it.

“I don’t know. Even if they still hook up sometimes, they wouldn’t go together to the health center. Unless―”

“What if she’s pregnant?”

My skin prickled and the hairs on my neck stood on end. This was getting ridiculous.

Ponytail’s eyebrows shot up into her bangs. “Oh my god, no way.”

Her friend pounded the table, leaning forward. “Come on. How many explanations could there be?”

“I don’t know, that sounds crazy.”

“Then what could it be?”

“I don’t know,” Ponytail said, shaking her head.

“I mean it would make sense. I’m not saying it’s for sure, but it would make sense, and I’m not hearing any better explanations.”

“I guess.”

I couldn’t listen to any more. Hearing that Ada and Hunter had been seen together when I couldn’t even get ahold of him was bad enough. I didn’t need to listen to these two girls speculating on why they were together. They would always go for the craziest explanation. That’s how gossip was.

Still, as I packed up my stuff my stomach felt like I’d been punched repeatedly. Even if Ada wasn’t pregnant—and who knew, anything felt possible at this point—it was still pretty shady that they’d been together at the same time he had been impossible to get ahold of. I searched my brain for more reasonable explanations for why he’d been going with her to the health center. Maybe they’d just been having a great conversation and he’d wanted to continue it, so he walked with her while she picked up a prescription or something. Maybe he went with her to get the results of a test. Not a pregnancy test. Like a test for cancer, maybe. Shannon, whoever that was, could’ve also been lying.

Thinking about the possibilities wasn’t making me feel any better. Trying to figure this out without more information would only drive me crazy. I just had to add it to the already long conversation I was going to have with Hunter, whenever that f**king happened.

I finished packing up my sketchbook and headed for my dorm. Maybe being around people wasn’t so great after all.

Chapter Twenty-four

THE CONFRONTATION

Ponytail’s words echoed through my ears as I trudged through the snow toward Floyd Hall in my black winter coat and matching pom pom beanie. The sky was gray and snowflakes were falling lightly down. The weather guy on TV called this a “dusting,” if I remembered right. I had paid a lot of attention to the local weather when I was taking a break from school and living with my aunt and uncle. It was just the right amount of stimulation to get my mind off my mom for a couple minutes. That had been a relatively pleasant couple minutes at the time.

Walking, staring at the snowy ground, I realized Ponytail had been right about one thing—Hunter was dating that girl whose mom got murdered. That girl was also seriously wondering where the hell he was. I needed to talk to Hunter as soon as possible. Pondering what had happened to him was driving me crazy.

Why had he left his apartment a mess? Why hadn’t he tried to contact me for days? What was he doing with his ex-girlfriend? I didn’t expect him to be a mind reader, but hanging out with your ex-girlfriend when your current girlfriend couldn’t get in touch with you was obviously going to piss your current girlfriend off. Especially when she was trying to deal with something terrible.

Why, of all places, would he be with her at the health center? It was attached to the college hospital; maybe he was going for a follow-up from some fighting injury. But why would he be with her? Why not ask me to go with him?