Strings (1 of 2)

Chapter 54 - Who Is This

"Hello," a perky voice rings out when the line picks up.

I sit up in the bed and hold out the phone to check the contact name. No, it says N for Nathan... this is his number. But this is most definitely not him.

"Um... hi..." I stutter into the phone. "Is... uh... Nathan there?"

"He's in the shower right now." She beams and my eyes widen as my chest tightens, a weight laying heavy on my lungs.

Who the fuck is this girl?

"Who is this?" She asks, sounding confused but still in a chipper innocent voice.

"His... friend. Who is this?" I reply. Please God let this be a sister that he never mentioned before...

"Do you want me to take a message for you?" She ignores my question in what I now know to be a fake-nice tone. This is not his fucking sister... I'm sure of that now.

"No." I say quickly and hang up.

The phone drops from my hand on to the bed and I start pacing around the room.

Who the hell was that?!

Hours ago... literally hours ago... we were together. We were laughing, kissing, even fooling around at his place. Now there is some other girl at his apartment while he showers?

There is a sinking gut feeling I can't ignore. I want to rise above this and think clearly, but this ache is gnawing at me, eating any rational thought I have.

This girl means something to him... I can feel it. 

I shouldn't care after all the shit I said to him about being jealous, but that was before we talked about being exclusive. I didn't think he was still fucking around when I wasn't there. I thought we agreed it was only us now. No one else.

I pull on my hair as I walk around, somehow the tugging feeling helps calm me a little. I can hear my parents' mumbled voices from down the hall as they get ready in their room. They better not come in here right now... I can only deal with so much of their shit for one day.

Why wouldn't he tell me about her if he was seeing someone else? I wouldn't have been able to say anything against it after Dean and Chris... he could have brought it up.

But he chose to keep it a secret. He chose not to tell me when he had every chance.

My phone starts buzzing on the bed and I see a N pop up.

Fuck...

I grab it and answer quickly before I can stop myself, even though I'm not sure which one of them I hope less it to be on the other end.

"What?" I say as calmly as possible, keeping my voice steady.

"Emily," Nathan's deep voice rings out and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. "Sorry, I missed your call."

He missed my call?

"Who answered?" I say in a low voice, ignoring his apology.

"What?" He replies and I roll my eyes.

"A girl answered the call and said you were in the shower." I explain in a strained voice through my clenched teeth.

"What?" He says again, making me angrier.

"Okay, if you don't want to tell me, that's fine. I just didn't realize we were still fucking other people. A heads up would have been nice." I speak evenly and carefully so he doesn't miss a word. I move the phone down to press end and he yells out my name.