Melanie

When I got on campus, I was expecting the worst, but apparently Amber was sleeping over at Dustin’s house because she wasn’t home the first couple of nights that I was there. I know that she knew I was there, but she didn’t show up to class that we had together and since it was finals I started to get a little worried. I know that she was wrong and treated me badly, but she was still the same woman that I’d known for so long since boarding school. I still wanted to make sure she was okay.

I asked around and didn’t get that much of an answer. No one had seen her and everyone told me that I should ask Dustin. I don’t know if that was said to be mean or if I should really call him. When I tried he didn’t answer the call and I had to wait outside of his class until it was done to speak to him.

He had a strange look on his face as I made my way to his desk. He hadn’t seen me in several weeks and I hoped that I had changed a little, that I was somehow stronger because of him. But it wasn’t something that could be seen on my face or in my clothes.

“Melanie. I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“No, I guess not. I didn’t want to come by this way, but I was looking for Amber and I wondered if you have seen her or not.”

“No, not in about a week.”

“I thought you guys were together?”

He shook his head and I wondered why that was. He had ended a two year relationship for her. Would they have even been together in the first place if he had been single?

“I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t like that. I was stupid Melanie. I’ve tried calling you several times. Last I heard you went home for a while.”

“I’m just back for my finals and then I’m leaving.”

“I would like to see you before you go.”

I knew then that he was going to try to get me to take him back. He never really was that hard to read and I could see now that he was regretting what he’d lost, but it was too late. Not after what happened. Not after Amber.

This was why I was here. “So you really haven’t seen Amber? She’s not answering her phone and she hasn’t been home in several days.”

“She felt really guilty after you left when you found out, I don’t know what happened to her.”

“Alright well thanks anyways.”

I had to get out of there. My skin was crawling and I couldn’t believe that I’d wasted so much time dating a guy like Dustin. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I obviously hadn’t been thinking all that correctly.

“Wait, that’s it?”

I turned back around and he was getting up, but not walking any closer to me. I knew that I could have him back and there was a small part of me that wanted to, just to make sure that Amber knew I could and then to leave him when he thought I was his again, but that would do me no good. There was no revenge that would somehow make us even, so I was going to make sure that I didn’t even try. I was over him and all of the crying and sadness was a waste of my time. If nothing else, that was worth seeing him again to realize that I wasn’t his anymore and I wasn’t going to let him bother me anymore.

Amber was a mystery and I called her mom to see if she had heard from her. I didn’t want to alarm her, which I did; I was just trying to make sure that she was okay. She’d always talked about taking her tuition money that her parents gave her and just disappearing. I wasn’t sure if she was really going to do that or not, but part of me hoped that was what happened to her. I wanted there to be something good that came from it all.

I wasn’t going to think that the day was a waste, but it was hard to not worry about Amber. No one had heard from her and I wondered if her mother was going to call the police and put out a missing person’s report. I told her to call me if she heard anything and she said that she would. I had been her daughter’s best friend for a long time. She didn’t know what had happened between us, so I knew that she would.

The rest of the week, I tried to focus on my studies and the exams that I probably should have studied a little more for. It was hard to do when I was at home, my mind elsewhere, but I figured I did well enough.

I got on a flight going back home pretty quickly after that and I knew that I had done the best I could do with the week that I’d had. It was all up to the grading now. I’d done what was needed. It was time for me to get back home and spend some time with the family and try to ignore my feelings for Carl. That sounded a bit harder than all of the exams the college could throw at me.