He Told Me to Stay Away, So I Left and He Followed novel · Chapter 9 of 32

Chapter 9: Listening

I looked at Whitney across the lawn for a long time.

She was laughing at something Pete said, with a cupcake in each hand and a smear of frosting on her thumb.

She looked exactly like my friend.

"Whose kitchen?" I asked.

Miles closed the laptop.

"Hers," he said. "Sophomore spring. We went out for three weeks."

I turned on the swing to face him.

"You dated Whitney."

"For three weeks. I ended it. She didn't take it well, and she kept turning up at my building and calling me at night."

He rubbed the back of his neck.

"The last night she followed me into her kitchen and wouldn't let me leave. I told her I couldn't stand it anymore. I told her to stay away from me."

"You said that sentence."

"I said that sentence. She was holding her phone out at me the whole time. I thought she was just crying."

"And you never told me."

"She asked me not to tell anyone. She was ashamed." His mouth twisted. "Then she turned up in your sound class, and the two of you became friends, and I thought she had moved on. I thought telling you would only make it ugly."

"For three years, Miles."

"I know."

"I told her everything. I told her about the note. I told her about Seattle before I told Maggie."

"I know that too."

I stared at my hands.

Every warm thing she had ever said came back to me in a row. The notes. The coffee with vanilla. The glasses she would hold, so I would look nice in the photo.

I felt sick.

"The day at the lab," I said. "In the hallway. What did she show you?"

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