I banged the door to my hostel room shut, and made a beeline towards my bed, plopping down on it. My eyes took in the state of the room, all my luggage sitting on the floor; packed. Except the one suitcase I had banged open to find the infinity necklace that Brandon had gifted me. The suitcase's insides were decorating the floor like someone had pulled out the intestines from one's stomach and were reminding me of the tiring hours ahead I would have to sacrifice to assemble everything back into their respective place. My eyes traveled further and landed upon Rebecca, who looked up that the same instant like she had super-human senses that told her someone was watching her. Or, I reminded myself, that it could be the loud sigh that had left my mouth at the mention of him inside my head.

Rebecca scrunched up her spectacled face, her hand holding the nail polish brush, hovering mid-air. She frowned when I continued to sigh. "What's with the grumpy mood?"

"Brandon didn't come to the dinner at all." The words hadn't planned to leave my mouth. I had promised myself to bury them deep in the depths of my mind and not think about it again. As if that was possible. Now that they were out, it was as if I had jinxed it by saying the truth aloud. It couldn't be shielded further. This made them real.

He really hadn't come to the dinner at all.

Seth had been there. Liam had been there. Even Leo had come up to me to say hi. Brandon? Nowhere at all.

Rebecca voiced my doubts. "Is he avoiding you?"

Double jinx. Now that she said it, I knew for sure that he was avoiding me. I knew that I should have come earlier. The time between Brandon being in school and not meeting me, was enough time for people to stuff nonsense into his mind and make him avoid me. I touched the necklace resting on my neck, its cool metallic surface not providing me any comfort today.

I looked up to Rebecca who was still expecting an answer from me. "I don't know, Reb." Defeated, I shrugged.

"You really like him, don't you?" she whispered.

Without hesitance, I nodded. "I really do."

"What about him?"

"I think he does."

"Then, what's stopping both of you from fucking?"

"Rebecca!" I shouted, throwing my pillow at her. It landed straight on her face as she didn't bring her hands up to defend herself because of the wet nail polish. "I swear you're no worse than the four of them."

"Four of them?" she groaned out, her hair disheveled and covering her face. "You're close enough to hear their kinky jokes? I'm offended at this exclusion!"

*****