The Girl in the Hoodie

{PART TWO} 32

[Chapter thirty-two]

~2 YEARS LATER~

-Noah-

"Noah, dude, you stare at that letter every night, why don't you just open it?" Dylan questions, leaning on the door frame of my room with his arms crossed.

"She didn't didn't tell me why she was leaving, she didn't say goodbye," I start listing, not looking at him. "She said goodbye to everyone but me, so why the hell should I open the letter?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because the letter might explain everything!" Max shouts, appearing in the doorway next to Dylan.

Carter left two years ago, not a word to me and hasn't contacted anyone but Megan since. Last year, we graduated high school. This year is our first year of college. It's been about four months since the college year started. Max, Dylan and I are dorm mates, and Megan has a room to herself.

I'm not going to lie, I think about Carter everyday, but I hate her for leaving. No goodbye, no nothing. Even a text saying, 'Hey, Pebble, I'm moving back to New Zealand, bye asshole' would have sufficed, but she didn't even try to come see me for the last time. All I got was this damn letter that she had Danny give me and she also told him to tell me that I was right.

And I knew exactly what she meant.

I was right about her hiding something from me.

I moved on from Nevaeh. I'm dating Hazel now, but I can't say I'm happy. She's clingy and annoying, but Carter wanted me to move on, so I did. I'm not going to continue to let some silly high school crush stop me from dating other girls.

If she was just some silly high school crush, why are you so mad about the fact that she left?

Aren't you supposed to be agreeing with me?

I'm your subconscious, idiot. I'm the logical side of you. Why the hell would I agree about the stupid things you think?

See what she's done to me? My subconscious has a Mexican accent and wears a sombrero, and argues with me all the damn time. I'm going crazy.

Dammit, I hate Nevaeh Carter!

No, you don't.

Shut the hell up, Pablo! Yes, I do.

"She should have told me to my face, or at least given the letter to me herself," I start, my teeth gritted. "Not given it to my little brother to give to me."

"Did you ever consider that the fact that maybe, just maybe, she's hurting too?" Dylan starts. "And that if she tried to say goodbye to you in person, she wouldn't have been able to leave?"

"Wouldn't that have been a good thing?" I ask, standing up, putting the letter in the bottom left drawer of my desk and harshly pushing my wheely chair in.

"No," Max shakes his head. "Not if you knew the reason, which you would if your stubborn ass would just read the motherfucking letter!"

Ever since Carter left, Max has matured a considerable amount. Of course he's still goofy and childish at times, but he's a lot more serious now.

Dylan's still the same, although you can tell he's also matured a bit more. He and Joey Sanders have been in an on again-off again relationship ever since senior year.

If only Carter were here to talk some sense into him.

Megan's a whole different story. The reason she doesn't have a roommate was because she didn't want one, and every time she got a roommate she would do something to get them to move out, so they eventually stopped assigning her a roommate. Apparently she and Carter always talked about going to college and sharing a dorm, and that's the only person she wants to room with. She has a few female friends, but they're not very close. She usually just sticks with us.