Unloved (Undone #2)

Chapter 42 Freddy

CHAPTER 42 Freddy

I’m not in my bed. That’s the first thought that swirls through my head when I wake up.

I rub my eyes furiously with one hand, the other reaching and fumbling across silky sheets until my phone is in my hand. I look at the screen:

11:30 a.m.

16 missed calls they were a real power couple.”

My grip on the sink tightens.

I don’t say a word—I probably wouldn’t if I could. Even the thought of talking about Ro with Carmen makes my knees weak.

Damn it , did I drink enough to have some kind of alcohol poisoning?

“But it looks like things are working out for you two?”

My head whips toward her. “What?”

Carmen looks a little struck by my reaction and I close my eyes, trying a breathing exercise or a dozen. Calm. The fuck. Down.

“You’re… Freddy, you’re passing. That’s incredible for you.”

As it usually goes with Carmen, all her compliments are gently backhanded.

“I should go,” I mumble, my limbs starting to feel numb.

“Freddy.” She tsks. “So sensitive.” That fucking word. It still chafes just as hard, like sandpaper on a bleeding wound that hasn’t closed since that day on the front porch of the damn house I’m currently inside.

If she notices the color leaching from my face at her mocking tone, she doesn’t say a word, continuing right on.

“I’m only asking as her friend. Tyler mentioned she’s been difficult on their cohort… Has she seemed different to you?”

“What?” A flare of anger on Ro’s behalf centers me again and I find myself grateful for it.

“Ro— She’s been different lately. More assertive, but she’s causing some waves with the boys on my team.”

I want to roll my eyes—Carmen Tinley wouldn’t take another girl’s side if it was a life raft out at sea. She’d rather drown waiting for a group of young fishermen to be at her beck and call.

“She’s a great tutor,” I say. “Better than Tyler ever was.”

She snaps and her eyes brighten. “Oh, that’s right! He was your tutor sophomore year. You know that’s when they started dating?”

I’m not surprised she knows. Carmen has always had a too-close relationship with her students, toeing the line of what’s appropriate, but moderating it by being so well liked. I remember drunkenly trashing her in a review online, annoyed with her near-perfect score and the amount of anonymous accounts calling her hot .

“Don’t care.” I shake my head. “But he’s not fond of me and has made that crystal clear.”

I might as well have said he helped me pass astrophysics with the way she reacts, laughing and nodding.

“I—oh.” Her head swivels toward the bed and she steps away, returning with my phone in her hand. “You’re getting another phone call.”

“I need to take it.”

She smiles, and I feel nothing beyond the sinking ball of guilt and regret in my stomach.

“I’ll make you some coffee before you go, sweets.”

I flinch again at the haunting nickname but wait with a clenched jaw until she’s gone before answering.

“Ro?”

“Goddamn it, Freddy.” Bennett’s gruff voice growls through the speaker. “Where the fuck are you?”

Shame threatens to overwhelm me. “I’m— I’m, I’m—”

“We had practice this morning and you, what? Slept in?” He lets out a long breath and I can almost see his thumb and forefinger start to massage his brow. “Are you at least with Ro?”

“What? No—wait, why?”

“He’s not with her,” he calls, away from the speaker. “Fuck.”

“What’s wrong with Ro? What’s going on, Ben?” The panic claws my throat.

“We don’t know,” he mutters. “But she left voicemails for Rhys and Sadie last night in a panic saying she was worried about you and that she was getting a ride to you at the house, but she never showed, and no one has heard from her.”

Dread curls in my stomach, and I feel a bit like I’m drowning. My hand trembles as I pull the phone away from my ear and click to her unopened texts—

“Freddy?” Carmen enters the room and pads over to hand me a coffee. “Everything okay?”

“Is that Ro?” Bennett asks.

“No,” I grit into the speaker. I hear Bennett curse before he hangs up on me. But his disappointment stays with me long after.

Her text thread taunts me on the bright screen of my phone.

PRINCESS

Call me.

Please call me back. Text me. Let me know you’re okay.

Freddy, please, answer the phone. I’m scared.

My stomach swoops at that one, but I shake my head and continue slowly. The texts are hard enough to read, but add my pounding heart and thunderous headache and they’re nearly indecipherable.

PRINCESS

Just tell me where you are and I’ll come to you.

Everything is gonna be okay, Matt. I promise. Whatever it is, I’ll fix it.

I click out of the messages, seeing mostly the same sentiments over and over. Like she was trying to soothe me while I was unreachable.

While I was drinking myself into a stupor and sleeping in Carmen Tinley’s expensive bed.

If I got rid of any of it before, the self-hatred is back in droves as I grab my jeans and shirt off the floor before calling a too-expensive Uber to take me straight to campus.