Taking Back That Which Is Mine

“I don’t even know, she just came up to me at the cafe and said that I had something of hers that she wanted back.” Crosby was talking. They were sat in a semicircle facing the lake, Crosby at one end and then the boy with long dark hair, the girl and then the other boy with the dirty blond hair at the other end.

“You stole something from her?” the dirty blond guy asked.

“I just told you didn’t I, I don’t actually know her.” His voice sounded stressed.

“You’d better hope she’s not from the mafia or something,” the other guy with dark hair said.

“Yeah or she’d probably kill your whole family.”

“Shut up Dylan.”

“She was super hot though.” The dark haired one said. “If I was you I’d dump Emma and go after her.”

“Are you kidding?” Dylan asked. “Her skin was grey, she looked like a zombie to me.”

“What are you talking about? Her skin was just really pale.”

“It was grey Keane, grey. You’d have to be a frickin necrophiliac to want to shack up with her.”

“Hey, that’s not something you should joke about.”

“Guys enough okay, she’s just some girl.” Crosby said. For some reason, the space where my heart should have been felt empty at his words. “I don’t know what she wants from me, but whatever it is, I don’t have it.”

“I thought she was nice.” The girl in their group finally spoke. Looking closer, I could see that she was actually quite pretty, her wavy white hair resting on the ground beside her, her eyes light and sparkling.

“How do you know?” Dylan scoffed, “you didn’t even say anything to her.”
The girl shuffled away from Dylan towards Keane. “I just thought she was nice,” she whispered.

Keane wrapped his arm around the girl glaring back at Dylan while she nestled into him.

“I was thinking of dumping her anyways.” Crosby said out of nowhere.

“What?” Dylan sat up suddenly attentive. Keane didn’t look surprised and neither did the girl.

“She’s just so snotty and spoilt, it’s sickening,” he said.

“Really?” Dylan asked, “I thought that was why you liked her.”

“No, I liked her because at the time, she was real. In the hospital, she didn’t care about being rich and all that, she just wanted to enjoy life. But I guess in all the panic about nearly dying I just missed how selfish she was. Everything she does is for herself, no matter how ‘good’ it is.” He did the little quotations in the air. “She’s self-obsessed and that’s not the type of person I want to be spending so much time with.”

“Well then just dump her.” Dylan said.

Crosby just shook his head. “It’s not that simple.”

“Sure it is.” Dylan answered. “You don’t like her anymore, so you break up with her. Just like if we weren’t friends anymore.”

“I don’t want to hurt her though.” Crosby brushed a hand through his hair.

“Crosby, somebody’s going to get hurt, there’s no such thing as a nice breakup.” Keane pulled the girl into his lap now wrapping both arms around her.

“And don’t even think about asking to still be friends. Not in this situation.” Dylan added

“That would just make her feel worse.” The girl giggled.

“I know, I know,” Crosby sighed. “I’ll just have to get it over with.”

“It’ll be fine.” The girl patted Crosby’s head. I could feel my stomach tensing up and my mouth forming into a frown.

“Let’s change the subject.” Crosby said before the other guys could say anything else.

Their conversation became incredibly boring, discussing mundane things about their life, so I decided to climb the tree next to me and take a nap.

When I woke up, the sun was rising, my chest felt cold and empty, the beating of my heart had faded away like a distant dream.