The Rumour Mill - Completed

42. The End

LIBBY'S POV
The Summer had been truly awful, I'd spent the entire time either alone, slamming the door on Elliot's face, getting abused by Tom's mum or sending texts and calling Tom without a single reply.
Stupidly after Tom's furious call I'd gone round to house. I was fed up and sick and tired of his mum screaming at me and Tom swerving my calls so I took it upon myself to make him see me.

"What have you done?" Mrs Butler yelled as soon as she saw me. "It's your fault he's gone." I could hear the anger in her voice and despite herself she couldn't stop a solitary tear from sliding down her face.

"Where? He's gone where?" I asked both startled and a little dubious.

"I wouldn't tell you even if I knew." She lurched towards me and tried to push me off the steps. "Get out of here and don't ever come back again." She screamed in my face.

Yeah she was in no mood to talk. Every time I saw her over the Summer it was pretty much a rerun of that night. She'd ranted at me in the supermarket, she'd shouted at me as I filled up my car with petrol, she'd yelled at me as I picked up my mums dry cleaning - geez ENOUGH ALREADY!

As the weeks meandered slowly by my sense of optimism was growing. I resolved I needed more friends, I needed to make more of an effort, so come next Summer I'd have places to go and people to see. The last three months had been interminable, it was like Ground Hog Day the horror version.

My mum and dad had paid for me to keep the same room, so by late September I was more than ready to go back, face the music with Tom and get back to my future. My classes didn't start until the following week but I'd had enough, the waiting was killing.

I'd expected my mum to put up at least a bit of a fight to keep me for as long as she could, but even she knew I needed to get back. So by ten o'clock on the Sunday morning my little car was all packed up and ready to go, I had my customary food parcel from home and a packed lunch fit for three, I was good to go.

The drive back was quiet, even for Sunday morning the traffic was light. As I drove along the M1 my mind wandered to Tom, how he'd react to me, what he'd done over the Summer and more naggingly who he'd done over the Summer. The thought made me sick. My lonely, friendless holiday had given me plenty of time to consider my feelings for Tom and rerun our last encounter that day in uni. I'd imagined how different my Summer would have been if I'd just said yes and given things a go with him. But that now seemed like a very long time ago.

I'd admitted to myself weeks ago I'd been a fool, and despite my best efforts, over the last few weeks of university I'd fallen for Tom. But like an idiot I was the last to know about it. I focused hard on the road ahead and tried to ignore the stirrings inside my stomach. I was unsure if I felt excited to see him, nervous of how he'd have changed over the Summer, dreading the thought of him coming back with a new girlfriend in toe or just a little travel sick. Whatever it was I felt nauseous and the closer I got to campus the worse I felt.

As my cars pulled into the car park I decided there and then to get it over with, I needed to get things sorted one way or another with Tom. Leaving my car bursting with my essentials I headed over to his dorm.

In my mind I was rushing over there but in reality the closer I got the slower I was walking. I'd messaged and called him so many times over the Summer and not once did he reply. I could feel my heart palpating as I imagined him reading my begging texts, at first asking him to speak to me and later telling him I'd made a mistake I wanted to give things a go with him. No matter what I had said or written I got nothing back from him. As I neared his halls I felt a familiar flush of embarrassment as I yet again imagined him reading my texts and sneering at them or deleting them, even worse on occasions I'd pictured him with his arms wrapped around some 'far too beautiful for her own good girl' as the read and laughed at my texts together. Yeah with each step I got closer to Tom's room my level of foreboding was rising...rapidly.