Five People Traveled With Four Seats, Then They Panicked When I Left Chapter 05

Five People Traveled With Four Seats, Then They Panicked When I Left Chapter 05

When the plane landed, I turned my phone back on.

Messages flooding in.

There were more than a dozen missed calls from Felix.

Sawyer and Alden had called several times too.

The last message in the group chat was from Pearl.

[Rae, where are you? We’re all worried.]

I stared at “we’re all worried” for a second.

Then I texted my roommate I’d landed.

The second I put my phone down, Felix called again. I answered.

“Rae, so you finally picked up?” His voice was low and serious, “Where are you?”

“I just landed.”

“I know you landed. Which airport?”

I paused. “I’m here for work.”

Silence.

“What work?”

“The job offer I got before.”

“When did that happen?”

“Two weeks ago.

Felix sounded lost. “Wait. Hold on.”

“You’ve had a job lined up for two weeks? Out of state?”

“Yeah.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

I almost laughed at that.

Two weeks ago, I’d actually meant to tell him.

The five of us had been having dinner that night.

I’d just opened my mouth to say, “I have something to tell you,” when Pearl grabbed her stomach and said

she’d been feeling off

Sawyer went to get her some medicine.

Alden started looking up nearby urgent care clinics.

Felix took her cup and went to get her some hot water.

By the end of dinner, nobody’d asked what I wanted to say

I told myself I’d bring it up another time. Not anymore..

Felix was still waiting. “Say something.”

“Nothing to say.”

“What do you mean, ‘nothing to say’?” His voice sharpened. “Something this big, and you didn’t talk to

me?”

“You didn’t talk to me when you decided to stay here.”

“That’s different.”

“How?”

He had no answer.

Several seconds passed before he finally spoke, “Rae, are you still mad about the trip?”

“Come back first. We’ll talk when I get back.”

There it was again. Come back.

He’d never once considered that I might not come back.

I watched people streaming out of the airport.

“Felix.”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s break up.”

Dead silence.

After a long pause, he said, like he hadn’t heard right.

“What did you say?”

“We’re done.”

“Rae, you’re ending this over a few bus rides?”

“No.”

“Then is this about Pearl?

“No.”

He sounded more desperate. “Then you have to tell me why.”

I tightened my grip on my phone.

For years, all I’d wanted was for him to ask me why.

Now he finally had. But I didn’t really want to answer anymore.

“Felix, think back over these past few years.”

“See how much you can remember.”

I hung up.

When he called again, I didn’t answer.

The cab driver glanced back at me.

“You’re headed to Pine Valley Tech Park, right?”

“Yeah.”

I muted my phone.

Outside, the streets were totally unfamiliar.

But for some reason, I wasn’t scared at all.