Page 98 of No One Else
24
Natalie
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HE TURNS TO GO ANDI reach out, clutching at him, gasping, “Wait.”
He looks back at me warily, sorrow in his eyes.
“I can’t- we can’t leave things between us like this. Please don’t hate me.”
“Did you think I wouldn’t find out about you two? God, wake up, Natalie. He doesn’t love you. He’s still cheating on you.”
Everything in me goes still. “What?”
He turns away from me, mumbling, “Forget it.”
“Evan, no.” I step in front of him, getting in his face. “What do you mean he’s still cheating? What do you know?”
“Forget I said anything,” he repeats. “It’s your life, you can do whatever you want with it.”
“Please,” I beg him, literally folding my hands in a prayer position. “If you know something, anything, please tell me.”
“Why?”
“Because-” Because I love you. Because I don’t want to be with anyone but you. Because this could be what Eden was talking about. A way to turn the tables back on Carter. “Because you loved me once,” I whisper. It hurts to voice the words, acknowledge that his love is something in the past, but I’ll say anything to get him to tell me what he knows. “If you had proof, then...”
“Then what? You’d break up with him and go out with me?” He shakes his head. “I don’t want to be your second choice.”
All that iron will I employed while breaking up with him completely crumbles. Tears roll down my cheeks in fat rivulets, blurring my vision.You’ve never been my second choice, I want to scream. All I can manage, though, is another breathless, “Please.”
He stares at me and then drags his phone out of his pocket, taking his time pulling something up on the screen. He looks down at it, indecision on his face. Whatever’s on there must be good. If he doesn’t show it to me, I can’t be held responsible for tackling him to the ground and confiscating it.
He finally gives it to me, the image of a blonde sitting on Carter’s lap and kissing his neck plainly visible. His hands are squeezing her ass, his expression looking like he’s definitely enjoying himself. “I went to a party at Sigma Chi house a couple weeks ago. Did you really expect him to change?” he asks sadly.
I keep my gaze on the phone, my heartbeat pounding, excitement flooding through my veins. I wipe my running nose with the back of my hand, trying to mop up the tears too. “This happened after we broke up?” My voice is shaky, not from shock or dismay like he probably believes, but from the hope springing inside me.
“A few days after.”
I look up at him, a wide smile breaking out over my face, the first true one I’ve had in weeks. “Evan, you’re a genius. Thank you.”
His brow furrows down, my response obviously not what he was expecting. “You’re not mad?”
I shake my head, clutching his phone to my chest. “You might have just solved everything.” I tap on the screen to send it to myself, only my name doesn’t pop up in his contacts. “Did- did you delete me from your phone?”
A guilty expression crosses his face for a second before he gives me a hard look. “Yes.”
My smile fades, the reality of what’s happened between us settling back in. I manually type out my number and send it, waiting till I receive the picture on my phone before handing him back his, then slip my cell in my backpack with its damning evidence.
