Forgetting Yesterday by Meg Jolie Read Free Book Online

her throat and gently asked, “What about the night you left?”
    “The night I showed up here? That was the single worst fight we ever had. He was furious.” I didn’t want to go into details. I didn’t think I needed to. Claire had seen the end result. For awhile there, I hadn’t thought I’d be able to get away. Maybe I should’ve admitted that to her but I was trying to hold onto a shred of pride. I had gotten away. That’s all that mattered.
    Finally Claire shook her head. “I have to say, when I turned on the light…when I saw you standing there, your face banged up like that…” She trailed off, unable to finish.
    “I know.” I squeezed my eyes shut tight, building some resolve. “I finally woke up.”
    Claire let out a shuddering breath. “I am…I am so sorry.”
    My head snapped back so I could look at her. “What?”
    “I’m so sorry. I should’ve tried harder to be there for you when your mom got sick. I knew how hard it had to be for you.”
    “Claire, you did try,” I reminded her. I was the one that ignored the voicemails, the texts, the e mails. “You had a lot going on. You were fixing up your house. Starting a business. You’d just met Sean. You were busy. You had a life. We were living on opposite ends of the state.”
    She shook her head stubbornly. “Still, I should’ve tried harder. I just thought…” she faded off and gave me a guilty look, “I thought maybe you didn’t answer because you were seeing someone. I mean, I knew you were seeing Jason. I thought maybe things were serious and you were just too wrapped up to call. I should’ve known better. Especially after the funeral. That was the first time I met him and he really rubbed me the wrong way. Before that night, I didn’t realize that something might be wrong. But when he told me to back off…and when I saw him grab you…” Her face turned grim and she sounded disgusted with herself. “I should’ve realized just how bad things were. I should’ve stepped in. I should’ve done something. But I just wasn’t sure and I didn’t want to make things worse.”
    “You did do something,” I firmly told her. “You gave me a way out. You gave me somewhere to go.”
    She didn’t look convinced. “It’s nagged at me, these last few months. And yet, I didn’t track you down. I had my suspicions and I did nothing.”
    I tried to shrug her off. “You know what? It’s over. It’s done. It’s in the past. There’s nothing that can be done about it now. And to be totally honest, all I really want to do is forget about it.”
    She looked ready to argue again but she must’ve noted how much this conversation was exhausting me. “Okay,” she finally said. “I just hope someday soon you find someone who treats you the way you deserve to be treated.”
    I could only nod. I wanted that kind of relationship.
    How had I turned into that person? The kind of person who tolerated such a volatile relationship? I didn’t know.
    He’d been a part of my life for nearly two years. I had loved him, even if it had been a twisted, dependant, unhealthy kind of love. I had been sure at one point that we’d had a future together. We’d talked about it. Planned it. I was sure he had loved me, in his own way. But things had changed. He had changed. Or maybe it was just me that changed. Regardless, he was out of my life now and I was starting over.
    “I’ve known for a while that I needed to leave him. It was just that I was so close to being done with school. I’d put up with him for so long, what were a few more months? I know my attitude toward him changed though. We were over. In my head and my heart, anyway, we were over. He could tell.” I paused, thinking about the last few months. The tension in our apartment had been almost unbearable. “I was afraid if I moved out before graduation, it would only make things worse. I was afraid he’d show up on campus, or track me down somewhere. That’s why I waited until I could