Chapter 3 Wilderness 3

Chapter 3

Savannah

We all helped each other bring in the groceries and our things. Kat took the room upstairs while Rence and I were on the first floor.

"I don't like Katherine." Rence said as I put our clothes in the cabinet at the side of the room.

She doesn't like you either. I thought.

The room we have is simple and big. There is a king-sized bed in the middle, where Rence is currently sitting, while a few steps to the side, you'll find the bathroom. There is also a big screen mounted on the wall, and a small settee too in the corner.

"Well, you called her a bitch. Do you expect her to say thank you?" I replied and put his briefs in the drawer.

He shook his head.

"I'm not dumb, Savvie. What really happened in the grocery store?

Did a guy ask for your number?" He asked.

"No." I answered and finally closed the cabinet. I then stood up and faced him.

"Are you cheating on me?"

My eyebrows shot up. For whatever reason, the man in the store flashed in my mind. Shit, no.

"Jesus, what kind of question is that? We were in that store for fifteen minutes and you think I can cheat in fifteen minutes? Are you kidding me?" I said. As far as I know, I haven't done anything.

"Why are you so mad? I was just asking."

"You were accusing me of something I didn't do."

"Asking, not accusing. Don't be so defensive." He replied. "I'm sorry if it sounded wrong." He immediately added.

I just shook my head.

"I'm gonna take a quick shower." That's all I could answer before I walked to the bathroom.

When I finished showering and getting dressed, Kat invited us to go outside. She said there was a campfire set up on the side of the house. It wasn't snowing hard and I would love that more than just staying in a room with Rence and possibly having an argument again.

The owner was considerate since there was dry and chopped wood already stocked in the shed behind the house. We took that and brought it to the side of the house, where there was a campfire set. Kat put the woods that we collected inside the concrete fire pit. She lit it up while Rence and I sat on the surrounding wooden log chairs. I took the marshmallows and he took out the barbecue sticks.

When the fire was already alive and burning, Kat sat beside me and took marshmallows from the bag on my lap. There we sat and roasted marshmallows on the fire. However, as we sat there, the hairs on the back of my neck rose as I felt like I was being watched......again.

As I was chewing the burnt marshmallow in my mouth, I discreetly looked around. It was super dark since there were no streetlights here or neighbors.

I swallowed what was in my mouth and shrugged the strange feeling off.

We decided to go inside thirty minutes later because the snowfall intensified again. So much so that it was killing our campfire. We all went to our rooms since it has been a long day. Rence decided to take a hot shower, while I was laying on the bed, using my phone.

My brow furrowed as his phone's notification sound pinged several times. I tried to ignore it but it kept on pinging. Out of curiosity, I put down my own phone and reached for his on the bedside table. When I turned his screen on, I saw that he had a lot of messages from Telegram, but it didn't show what the messages were since his phone had a password.

I should leave his phone alone, but my curiosity got the best of me, because who would text him this much at this hour? He told me his family knew he was with me on the trip, and his military siblings got deployed somewhere in the Middle East and won't be contacting him for a while.

I swallowed.

He never told me his password but I saw him type it out a few times. So, I tried it out and it worked.

I thought the messages that would greet me would be from his groupmates, since he said they were the ones he was texting when we last argued about his phone usage.

But instead, I saw a message exchange between him and a girl named Ashley.

My chest tightened and my lips parted. He was exchanging nudes with her. My ears are ringing and my heart is pounding in betrayal, my finger scrolling through the messages.

I looked at the timestamps of each message......he was texting her all the time, when he was watching movies with me, and eating with me. Tears burned my eyes as I couldn't look away from the screen.

It does hurt...but I felt more betrayal than heartbreak, because a part of me knew this is a possibility with his behavior. I just refused to believe it.

And what really broke me, is he was texting her around the time he told me he was texting his groupmates. He lied to my face while looking me in the eyes.

My hands began to shake lightly, but I managed to look into his other direct messages.

I let out a harsh laugh and my tears finally streamed down his phone screen.

He's flirting and sending nudes to six more girls. He told one of them that his girlfriend just died and he needs sex to grieve.

"Why are you looking at my phone?!" He asked loudly.

I didn't even notice that he had already come out of the bathroom. When I looked up, I saw that he was just wearing a towel around his waist. He saw the tears on my cheeks. His eyes widened, his fists balled at his sides.

"You lying piece of shit!" I stood up and threw his phone on the wall.

"You crazy bitch. Why did you throw my phone?!"

"That's still your concern?! You gaslit me into thinking that I was crazy for accusing you!"

"Maybe you are-"

I chuckled to myself as tears rolled down my cheeks.

"You motherfucker, how dare you! Even now you're still gaslighting me!" I yelled at him while I was sobbing. My heart contracts with pain.

He swallowed.