Tara’s POVI woke up the next morning feeling frustrated and annoyed. The first thing I do is check my phone, and I see that Jane and Zoey have finally replied to all my messages and missed calls from yesterday. But their responses are so casual and brief that it makes me even more upset.Jane’s text just says, “Hey girl, sorry I missed your calls yesterday. Was busy with stuff.” Zoey’s message is equally dismissive: “Hi, babe, my phone was on silent. Everything’s good here.”These are not the kinds of responses I expect from my friends, especially after I’ve been trying to reach them for an entire day. Usually, when one of us is unreachable for any amount of time, we explain what happened and apologize for worrying each other. But these texts feel cold and distant, like they’re trying to brush me off.I’m fuming because their casual responses don’t match the urgency I felt when I couldn’t reach them. I was genuinely worried that something had happened to them, and now they’re acting
Xavier’s POVI freeze completely, feeling like all the blood has drained from my face. My eyes widen as I stare at Jasper, and my mind starts running through a thousand different thoughts and possible responses.I can see Jasper watching my expression carefully, studying every micro-expression and change in my face. He knows me well enough to recognize when I’m panicking or trying to come up with a lie, which makes this situation even more dangerous.When I notice that Jasper’s expression is starting to change from hopeful to suspicious because of my hesitation, I realize I need to say something quickly before he concludes that I’m hiding something terrible from him.“I went to a fitness gym,” I blurted out, the lie coming to me in a moment of desperation. “There’s this new place across town that I heard about.”Jasper’s eyebrows furrow slightly, and I can tell he’s not immediately buying this explanation. I need to make it more believable and give him a reason that would justify my s
Xavier’s POVImmediately, the question dropped from mum’s mouth, Jasper exchanged a glance with me and smiled, a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Maybe you should ask Xavier why he decided to ditch his twin brother.” With that, Jasper stood up and stormed out. A heavy sigh escaped my lips. My parents look back and forth between where Jasper disappeared and me, clearly trying to process what just happened and figure out how to handle this situation. I can see the concern and confusion in their faces, and I know they’re wondering what could have caused such behavior from Jasper.Tara looks just as uncomfortable as I feel, probably wishing she could escape from this family drama that she never asked to be part of. She’s staring down at her plate and seems to be trying to make herself invisible, which makes me feel even worse about subjecting her to this mess.The silence stretches on for what feels like forever, becoming more oppressive and uncomfortable with each passing seco
Tara’s POVI’m completely speechless. Sarah’s words hit me like a physical blow, and I find myself frozen in place, unable to process what she just said. The way she said it, the urgency in her voice, makes me feel like that kind of warning came from personal experience rather than just gossip or speculation.There’s something about the pain in Sarah’s eyes that makes me believe she knows something specific about Tony, something that hurt her personally. But what could it be? And how would Sarah know anything about Tony when she barely talks to anyone at school?Sarah seems to notice the sudden change in my expression and the way I’ve gone completely silent. She realizes that her warning has had a major impact on me, and she quickly lets go of my wrist.“I’m sorry,” she says quickly, looking panicked about her outburst. “I shouldn’t have said anything. I was being rash.”But I can’t just let this go. If Sarah knows something about Tony that I should be aware of, I need to understand w
Jasper’s POVI’m walking home from the coffee shop where I went to try to clear my head after everything that happened with Xavier. I needed to get out of the house and away from all the tension, so I just walked around town aimlessly for a couple of hours, trying to figure out how to fix the mess I’ve made of everything.My mind keeps going back to last night and the horrible mistake I made with Jane and Zoey. Every time I think about it, I feel sick to my stomach. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have betrayed Tara like that by sleeping with her two best friends?I’m so lost in my guilty thoughts that I almost don’t notice the two figures walking ahead of me on the sidewalk. But when I look up and focus, my heart nearly stops beating. One of the girls is Sarah, and immediately, the flashes of what happened last night come rushing back to me like a punch to the gut.Sarah was there. Sarah saw everything. She walked into my room this morning and saw me in bed with Jane and
Tara’s POVAs we find seats near the back of the room, I pull out my phone and check to see if Jane or Zoey has replied to the pictures I sent them earlier. The screen shows that I’m still connected to our group chat, but I notice that neither of them has responded to the photos I shared or returned any of my calls from earlier today.This is really starting to worry me more than I want to admit. Jane and Zoey are usually quick to respond to messages, especially when they’re funny pictures or selfies. We’re always sending each other random photos throughout the day, and they usually reply within minutes with laughing emojis or their own pictures in response.It’s not like Jane and Zoey to ignore me completely, especially when I’ve been trying to reach them multiple times throughout the day. I’ve called them both several times, sent text messages, and even tried reaching them through Instagram, but I’ve gotten nothing back from either of them.I suspect something is wrong, but I can’t