I DIALED XAVIER'S PHONE number, and hit send.

He picked up after two rings.

♡

Oscar glanced uneasily toward the screen door. Bailey was taking a while for a little phone call. It had been five minutes already; but he'd accept her privacy, no matter how hard it would be. He even felt the mating pull all the way in here, and he could feel distress tugging at the invisible lines connected between them. He sighed heavily, the fork he was holding in his hand clattering to the plate below him. He wished he could understand what was going on with Bailey, but how could he when all of her problems were so... human? 

♡

"Hello?" His voice was honey, choking me as it forced it's way into my throat.

"Hello." I responded, dislodging the pain in my chest. I was so mad--terribly, horribly furious.

"Bailey? Is that you? Sorry, I deleted your contact." As he spoke, my grip tightened on my phone. I wanted to scream, to shout that he betrayed me. He told me he loved me, for God's sake! But, that would get me nowhere, so I spoke evenly.

"Why did you leave me?"

He didn't answer at first, probably shocked or thinking up an answer. "Because, Bailey — look, I don't know… I really don't have an answer. I'm coming to where you are, okay? It's not that far, and I want to get out of my house anyway-"

"What? No, Xavier." My voice shook. "No. Don't." I can't face him in person.

"Bailey, we need to sort this out, face to face." His voice was reasonable. His argument was reasonable. Everything was reasonable - I just didn't want him disturbing my escape and ruining everything for me. Everything that I've already built, everything that I've begun building. "I'm on my way, okay? I'll be there by dinner."

He hung up, and my hand went limp at my side. I didn't even get to the part where I yelled at him for texting me last night what he did. He had messaged me an image of him and the girl he had been cheating on me with smiling drunkenly into the camera. It's funny how my own passion - taking photos - can break me as much as it can heal me. It can capture good, but it can also capture something that can ruin someone's life.

I loved Xavier. I probably still do, in the little fragments of my heart that Oscar had yet to heal.

I exhaled, wishing it could cast out the demons that bombarded me, and started with the only thing I could do. I deleted everything on my phone that reminded me of him and changed his contact so there was no hearts adorning his name - he didn't deserve it anymore.

Instead, I put the hearts after Oscar's name.