My heart was going to burst right out of my chest.
Brittany set her things down on the table before dropping into the seat across from me with an exasperated sigh. “I hate Jessica. Have I said that yet? If I have, oh well. It’s worth repeating.” She shot me a scowl, but I knew it wasn’t aimed at me. She was frustrated. I knew all too well how rude and mean Jessica could be. “She’s a fucking bitch.”
I sighed. “Yeah… she’s always been like that. It was just more… toned down, I guess, when we were friends. Coralie protected me a lot when Jessica got into one of her moods.”
Brittany huffed and snatched her Frappuccino closer to her before shoving the straw into her mouth and taking an aggressive sip. When she set her cup down, she sighed and reached up to rub her temple. “I have a headache from hell,” she muttered, closing her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she looked a little calmer. “Enough about Jessica.” I arched a brow at her but let it be. “Tell me why you’re up this early on a day you don’t have classes.”
I sighed and stirred my straw around in my own Frappuccino. “I got up when Coralie did. I walked her to class.”
Brittany’s eyes widened the slightest bit. “You willingly got out of bed early on a day you didn’t have to so you could walk the girl to class, who, might I add, flipped your entire world upside down and abandoned you?”
I grimaced. When she put it like that, it sounded really fucking stupid. “It’s… complicated.”
She scoffed. “I bet it is. What’s going on, Mila? She hurt you. She abandoned you. She didn’t even bother asking you for an explanation. She just turned her back on you. That’s not best friend behavior.”
I chewed on my bottom lip for a moment, staring down at the grayish-white table we were sitting at. “She… the night we went out drinking, Brittany, I apparently told her everything that happened—the arrest, my parents, practically living with you. And Coralie went riding down a path of self-destruction and withdrew so far into herself, she went mute. The last time that happened, she lost a cat she’d rescued and had loved more than anything else in this world. He was practically her emotional support animal. What happened between us…” I swallowed. “It’s not worth the mental spiral she took.”
Even if I’d definitely taken one when it all happened. But despite everything I’d suffered, I didn’t want Coralie to suffer, too.
Brittany eyed me for a moment, her face unreadable. Finally, she said, “You still love her.”
I drew in a deep breath, then slowly—very slowly—released it, nodding my head. “Yeah,” I croaked, my throat suddenly almost too tight to speak. “I do.”
I was pretty sure I’d never stopped.
Nine
Coralie
Jessica:
How are you holding up today?
Me:
Idk. Fine, I guess. Bout to grab dinner for me and Mila.
Jessica:
Good. Make sure you eat. And talk to someone if you need to, Coralie. I’m here for you, and I know Mila is, too.
I left her on read, shoving my phone back into my pocket with a heavy sigh as the older gentleman in front of me finally finished giving his order to the young brunette guy working the register. When I stepped forward, he smiled at me, though it didn’t reach his eyes. He looked as tired as I felt, no doubt aggravated and just ready to go home. Customer service, especially customer service in the food industry, was fucking draining. I got tired just watching what these employees went through.
“Can I get two grilled chicken sandwiches, loaded fries for both, two chocolate milkshakes, and two sweet teas?”
He breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you for making that easy,” he murmured as his fingers began flying over his screen, hitting buttons to put my order in. “That’ll be $25.03,” he told me, looking at me again, his smile a little more genuine this time. “Cash or card?”
“Card,” I told him as I slid my chip into the card reader. Once it beeped, I took it out, slipping my credit card back into my wallet. After grabbing my receipt, I stepped off to the side to wait on my order. Pulling my phone back out of my pocket, I flipped over to my messages with Mila.
Me:
You gonna be at the dorm in like 20-30 mins?
Mila:
Yeah. Everything okay?
Me: