“No. This is all me,” she tells me. “Elliot has nothing to do with it.”
I’m torn between curiosity and anger. I can’t understand why she felt she had to come out here and pull me away from Drake. Also, I know Whit. She likes to be the center of attention and let’s face it, during this week she has been anything but that. I twitch my hips, tapping my foot as I make little dents in the wet sand with it. “So let’s hear it then. Enlighten me,
Whit. Tell me what’s so important.”
“I can’t tell you here,” she whispers.
Her vagueness is irritating and I snap, “This isn’t even about me is it? It’s about you!”
She sneers at me and cocks her head to the side. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“God, Whitney! For once just once could you stop thinking about yourself? You’re just jealous because for the first time since the second grade I’m the one who’s getting all the attention.”
Whit points to her breastbone with widening eyes. “Me, jealous? You have got this so wrong it’s sick.” She leans forward and gestures to Drake behind me. “This isn’t about me! I’m not jealous and I can’t believe you’d even go there! I came here to tell you something important and you accuse me of being jealous! Where do you get off, Robin?”
“Whatever.”
Whit backs away. “Yeah, whatever is right. Since you think you know everything why don’t you figure out what I was going to tell you on your own before it’s too late.” Then she spins around and sprints back toward the bonfire.
What does she mean before it’s too late?
I turn around, keeping my eyes on the sand and walk back to Drake. “I’m sorry about that,” I say.
But when I lift my head up, I realize something.
Drake’s gone.
~13~
Feelings are everywhere—be gentle.
~Author Unknown~
I’ve walked up and down the beach at least a dozen times, but there’s no sign of Drake anywhere.
On top of that, my fight with Whit has me on edge and I feel like someone has just punched a hole through my chest. It started off slow and then began building. Now the massive abyss is huge and my entire body is a black hole. I’m nothing. I’m empty.
Water trickles over my toes and I squint. I can see the dim glow of the once raging bonfire in the distance. A lot of people have left and there are only a few stragglers left. I wonder what time it is. Or if Whit’s still there. Or if maybe she’s out wandering around the beach looking for me. Probably not. She seemed pretty pissed when she took off earlier.
I’m perplexed by her hidden info. The urgent message she felt she had to tell me. Obviously the information involved Drake. But what did he do? And that’s what makes everything so complicated. I don’t want to believe he’s capable of being anyone other than the dream guy I’ve built him up to be. Closing my eyes I picture his beautiful face. With his pouty lips, chiseled jawline, and grayish blue eyes. He can’t be capable of being treacherous and deceitful. He just can’t be.
And even though I know Whit is an attention junkie, and sometimes self-centered, I know her. She’d never deliberately try to hurt me or keep something important from me. Especially if she knew that whatever she knew was going to hurt me.
I feel terrible for lashing out at her the way I did. She didn’t deserve that. I abandon my search for Drake and head back toward the bonfire. I need to find Whit and apologize. I need to make things right between us because as much as I hate to admit it, this is all my fault.
Jogging, I make it make to the bonfire in about ten minutes and when I reach I stop for a moment to catch my breath. As I examine the crowd of people left, I notice that Whit isn’t there. So where is she?
Spinning around, I smack into someone and Elliot, places his hands on my shoulder, steadying me. My eyes roll up and focus on his as a huge smile curls on his lips. “Hey, there,” he greets me and slowly drops his hands.
“Hi, Elliot.” I step away from him, putting a half of a foot between us. “Have you seen Whitney?”
Elliot drops his gaze and kicks up sand with his tan, bare foot. “She left a while ago.” He picks up his head and tilts it. “She seemed pretty upset.”
“Yeah.” I hang my head down and sigh. “We sorta got into a fight.”
Elliot nods. “I kinda got that impression.”
“Why? Did she say something to you?”