Friction

He walked over to me, presumably to explain himself, but I didn’t want to listen.

I screamed at him, “How could you? You said you loved me! When were you going to tell me you were playing me?”

He tried to wrap his arms around me, but instead of falling into them like I normally would, I hit him.

“Don’t touch me!”

“Addy…”he started.

I cut him off, “I don’t want to hear your pitiful attempts to redeem yourself!”

I was making a scene and to be completely honest, I didn’t care. I looked like a mess, tears streaming down my face and my make-up running. I could feel my voice becoming hoarse, but that didn’t matter, either. My heart was breaking before my very eyes.

“I understand you being mad at me, but don’t take it out on Kieran. I hear you’ve become pretty good friends.”

“Tristan, you were cheating on me with my new best friend! How do you want me to react? To forget it even happened? You were with another guy, Tristan! How am I supposed to react to that?”

I looked at Kieran, “How could you do this to me? I was supposed to be your friend!”

Kieran looked scared of me at that moment, “I didn’t know, Addy. I wouldn’t do that to you.”

Then, it hit me, “All those times you broke our plans, it was to see him wasn’t it? Wasn’t it?”

“Maybe we should take this outside,” Tristan said walking toward me.

“Stay away from me!”

“Addy, this isn’t the best place to discuss this. People are looking at us.”

“I don’t care! You were the one stringing me along, when the whole time you were with another guy! You deserve to have people hate you!”

“Addy, please?”

“Am I making you uncomfortable, Tristan? How do you think I feel? You weren’t the one being cheated on. Are you gay? Is that what I am, your cover up?”

“No.”

“No, what, Tristan? No, you’re not gay? Or I’m not your cover up? Which is it?”

“I’m not gay.”

“Then, why were you with him? You were kissing him!”

“I’m bisexual.”

“Is that supposed to make this better? Just get away from me! I don’t want to see you anymore!”

I turned back to Kieran, “Well?”

He hesitated, “Yes.”

Barely above a whisper, I asked, “Did he say he loved you?”

Kieran looked at Tristan before he answered, “Yes.”

I fell to the floor, sobbing.

I felt someone touch my shoulder. It was Kieran.

“Just go away.”

“I’m sorry, Addy.”

Izzy picked me up, saying, “Let’s go hun.” Looking at Kieran, “I’d stay away for awhile if I were you.”

He just nodded as we started walking away.

“Where are your keys?”

I fumbled around in my purse, since I couldn’t see through the tears. After about a minute of searching, I handed them over to her.

After helping me into the passenger seat of my car, Izzy pulled out of the parking lot and starting driving us back to my apartment.

The drive from The Abbey to my apartment was probably the longest fifteen minutes of my life. Every few minutes, I could feel Izzy turn and look at me.

I knew she was worried and I was thankful, but I just wanted to be by myself.

When she pulled up, I was able to get myself out of the car.

Izzy was right beside me before I knew it, steering me towards the stairs.

I was glad then that I wasn’t alone because, well, I’m not sure I would have been able to climb the stairs without hurting myself. I wasn’t walking as well as I thought.

We were finally at my door and Izzy was unlocking it, hurriedly.

As soon as I was in the door, I collapsed on the floor.

“How could he do this to me, Izzy? I don’t understand.”

“He’s a jerk and can’t make up his mind. Just forget about him,” she said, pulling me into a hug.

“I don’t know if I can. How will I be able to face Kieran again? All I’ll ever see is Tristan on him.”

“Don’t worry about that right now. If he’s really your friend, you’ll be able to work things out with him.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded. “I’m sure. Do you want me to stay with you?”

“No, I think I need to be alone for a while. I don’t work tomorrow, so you can take the car. I’ll come pick it up tomorrow when I get up.”

“Okay, but I’ll stay if you need me to.”

“No. Go home. You deserve to get some sleep. It’s been a long day.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. I’ll be fine.”

“You can call me if you need anything.”

“Okay.”

Izzy took one final look at me before walking back out of my apartment. After about ten more minutes of sitting on the floor, I was able to crawl to my bedroom and climb into bed.

Images of Tristan and Kieran together kept popping into my head whenever I would close my eyes.

After another two hours of sobbing over Tristan, I was able to cry myself to sleep.