I Confirmed Cambridge While He Was Laughing With Her Chapter 05

I Confirmed Cambridge While He Was Laughing With Her Chapter 05

My message feed stretched down three full screens. I opened Hazel’s first.

[Did you land okay?]

[Silas showed up at the apartment.]

[He found your note.]

[He’s been blowing up your phone nonstop.]

[He asked me where you went. I didn’t tell him.]

[He found that necklace you bought him.]

[He sat on your bed for ages, didn’t move.]

I didn’t reply to her.

Silas had twenty–three text messages and nine missed calls.

His earliest texts were relatively calm.

[Jennifer, where are you?]

[All your stuff is gone.]

[Call me back.]

Then panic set in.

[What do you mean we’re done? Everything was fine, why break up?]

[Where on earth are you? Hazel won’t tell me.]

[Jennifer pick up the phone.]

His final message came through at 3:00 a.m. his time: [I found that S–charm necklace.]

I grabbed my suitcase from baggage claim and headed to customs.

The officer glanced over my passport. “Exchange student?”

“Yes.”

“Travelling alone?”

“Just me.”

When I cleared customs, my phone buzzed once more. Silas calling again.

I stared at the screen for five seconds, then hit decline. He redialed. I declined again. On the third attempt I shut my phone down entirely.

My new room was small: one bed, one desk, and a window looking out onto an unfamiliar leafy

tree.

My roommate was a blonde British girl. She smiled and greeted me. “You’re from LA? That must’ve been quite the trip.”

“Yeah. Really far.” Far enough that he could never reach me.

That night I lay in bed. The ceiling was plain white–hot the dull grey of my old apartment.

I turned my phone back on. Messages poured in once more. Silas had sent a very long paragraph.

[Jennifer, I have no idea why you left all of a sudden I went through our chat logs and noticed you’d

been turning me down constantly lately. I thought you were just in a bad mood. I had no clue you

were applying for Cambridge. Why wouldn’t you tell me? I’m your boyfriend. You should talk to me about big things.]

Back at Pre–Orientation Cadre Camp, I begged him to make Martha stop, and he said I was

overreacting. When that humiliating drawing went up on the bulletin board, he called it childish and

only got the AT to post a bland notice. When forty–seven people voted guessing my bra color, he

sent a throwaway meme.

I didn’t reply. By morning, several more messages had piled up.

[I’ve been wearing that S–charm necklace.]

[I never realized you saved two months‘ worth of breakfast money for it.]

[Where are you? Please tell me.]

Martha also messaged me: [Jen? Silas says you left? Where did you go? He’s totally losing his mind, text him back quick.]

She still called me Jen.

I muted both conversation threads. I pulled up my Cambridge class schedule. My first lecture was

nine a.m.: Introduction to Linguistics.

A new city, new timetable, new life. No more running errands, saving seats, or picking out

necklaces for someone else.

Outside my window, the leaves of that unknown tree rustled in the breeze.

Another text from Hazel popped up: [Apparently he showed up at the academic advisor’s office, demanding to know where you are. The advisor wouldn’t give anything away.]

[Don’t tell him anything.]

[I won’t.]

[Thank you.]

[Just take good care of yourself over there. Don’t ever put yourself last again.]

I set my phone down and pulled back the curtains. The sky outside was brilliant blue.

Nobody knew who I was. Nobody knew my past. No one would point and whisper about me in

cafeterias. No one would yank at my bra straps.

This feeling–this was relief.