One Way Ticket to Anywhere | ✔️

Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

"Matt? What on Earth are you doing here?"

He looked dumbfounded. Shaking his head, he said, "It's spring break, Raegan."

I didn't understand. Matt had never left the country and he had always been satisfied with that, laughing at my constant whining about wanting to see the world and giving me that small, sad smile whenever I'd show him an article like, "The Hottest New Travel Destinations you want to visit RIGHT NOW". He had never understood the overwhelming feeling of wanderlust that I had been captive to my entire life. "Right, but--"

"Goodness, Matt, there you are! You can't just disappear like that." A girl had popped out of the pub that was located on the corner. She stopped dead cold when she saw me, the same panicked look drawn across her face that Matt had on his.

Emma.

The Emma who had left me here alone in Europe wanting to "finish out her senior year the right way". And now she was in fucking Amsterdam and didn't even bother to shoot me a text? She hadn't so much as checked in with me since the day she told me she wasn't coming.

I couldn't fucking believe either of them.

And then I saw another girl pop out of the bar, the panicked look instantly sprawling across her face as well. She surveyed the situation, her eyes bouncing back and forth between Matt, Emma, and I.

It was Ada Whitman, Emma's best friend. Emma and I had been inseparable in middle school, people even got us confused. But Emma had always gotten frustrated with me for looking out for myself first and so she had cut it off with me, refusing to speak to me. Within hours it was like Ada and her had been friends for life. Things were never the same between us again.

Looking back on it, it was truly the dumbest thing, but it had hurt like hell in the moment. I had hoped this trip could be a reconciliation of our friendship, but in a classic Emma fashion, she'd cancelled last minute like leaving me stranded in a foreign country with no one wasn't a big deal. It hadn't surprised me at all that she'd done that, but it was unforgivable nonetheless.

"Well this was an unlikely reunion, wasn't it?" I said bitterly, glaring at each of them bitterly.

"What are you doing out here all alone?" Emma asked concerned. God, she had no right. She was the one who'd left me here alone.

"Oh, so now you suddenly care if I'm alone or not?"

They all looked down, obviously ashamed. I scoffed. What a bunch of walking contradictions. It was so weird to think that just a few weeks ago these fakes had been my entire life.

I turned to walk away, but I stopped at the sound of Matt's voice. He was the good one. I could never stay mad at him. "Raegan, wait. I'm so sorry. I should have told you we were here. But I just wasn't sure if you even wanted to see us. You packed up and left literally overnight and we haven't heard from you since. We all just kind of assumed you had moved on."

Hands in his jacket pockets, soft blue eyes pleading at me, he stood there and all I wanted to do was to run into his arms and have him whisper in my ear that it was all going to be alright, just like he'd done our entire childhood. I hadn't really thought about the fact that it was really me who'd abandoned everyone, not the other way around. "You're right, Matt, I'm so sorry. I've been so caught up with everything that's happened here I hadn't even thought of that. I love you so much."

Matt grinned at me. "I love you too, Raegan. Do you want to come drinks with us?" he asked, gesturing toward the bar. "Unless you're with someone?" He looked around, waiting for someone to pop out of the darkness. But the only man I knew was miles away and at this moment I just really needed a break from him and the insaneness that plagued people everywhere he stepped. I just wanted a night with my friends.