Winter [Completed]

EIGHTEEN

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December 21st
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"If I'm acting different, I caught on."
—unknown

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Imani POV

I slept in my old room last night.

I hated every second of it, but every time I see him I'm reminded of how he doesn't trust me, and it hurts. I'm still upset with Ethan, and until we talk about it, I don't want to sleep with him and pretend everything's okay. I refuse to pretend everything's fine when it's clearly not.

Wiping the sleep out of my eyes, I get out of bed and slip on some Nike shorts. After checking the time on my phone, I head to the bathroom.

I stop in the hallway for a moment and glance at Ethan's slightly ajar bedroom door. I chew on my bottom lip, before shaking my head and walking into the bathroom.

After brushing my teeth and washing my face, I study my reflection in the mirror. I adjust the straps of my tank top and pull off my headscarf, letting my braids fall over my shoulders as I try to figure out why Ethan's been so secretive with me lately.

Since when do we keep things from each other? If there was one person I could trust to always be honest with me, I thought it would be Ethan, but now I'm not so sure. If he's keeping this from me, it makes me wonder what else he might be hiding.

I turn, startled, when Kelly clears her throat.

She looks different with her arm cast finally off. Almost normal, but not quite. I raise a brow when she just stands in the doorway without saying anything.

"Imani," she croaks, her voice hoarse as if she hadn't spoken in a while. She holds her arm as she tries to maintain eye contact. "Can I, um, talk to you for a sec?"

I eye her skeptically before nodding slowly. "Um... yeah, okay."

Kelly's eyes widen in surprise. "Really? I mean, cool. Um, come on, follow me."

What is she up to? I follow behind her as she leads me toward her bedroom, glancing back at me every once in a while to make sure I'm still following.

When I walk into her room, I'm taken aback. It looks exactly how I remember it, but it feels different. It doesn't feel like the same room Kelly and I spent hours in binging Netflix shows just a couple months ago.

I catch Kelly watching me curiously as I study her room and I frown, wrapping my arms around my waist.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" I ask, not daring to take a seat anywhere. I feel like I'm inside a museum, literally everything in here could trigger a memory. My presence here feels wrong.

Kelly takes a seat on her bed and beckons me to sit beside her. "You okay? You look worried."

I laugh nervously and force my face to relax as I sit beside her on the bed. "I'm fine, I'm just confused." I furrow my brows and in the nicest way possible ask, "Why exactly am I here?"

Kelly only smiles, as she reaches over and begins to rummage through her nightstand. "I wanted to show you something."

Show me something? I fiddle with my fingers to stop my hands from shaking as I focus on keeping my breathing steady. Why me?