The Good Ones Go

The next morning Chelsea wakes up to a phone call an hour earlier than her alarm should sound. She groans in frustration at the fact that everyone just loves to interrupt her sleep on days that she needs it the most. On top of it, the phone calls that wake her are never any good, and she dreads the conversation she'll have when she picks it up.

"What?" she asks the caller irritably eager to get off the phone and knock back out.

"Chels?" she hears a familiar whisper from the other line that sends her stomach up to her heart.

"Toby? Why are you calling so fucking early?" she asks him as she pulls the covers up to her neck anxiously.

"I'm sorry, I just had to tell you," he whispers again, and Chelsea furrows her eyebrows as she holds back a yawn wishing that this could have waited.

"Tell me what, Tobes?" she asks. Her nerves are getting the best of her, and she wishes he would get to the point so she could go back to sleep.

"I came to Jess's house to get my textbook and to take her to school, and I saw them in bed together, Chels. I'm so sorry," his whispers are a ramble as he looks around to make sure Jessica couldn't hear him.

"What are you talking about, Toby?" she asks suddenly awake.

"Your boyfriend. He's here. In her bed," his voice resounds through her mind echoing over and over again.

Suddenly she is dizzy, nauseous, and shaking. She couldn't believe it. No, it couldn't be him, he just wouldn’t. They just fixed things. He was doing good. He wouldn't fuck it up.

"Are you sure, Toby, maybe -" her desperate words are cut short.

"Chels, it's him," he states definitively: crushing the little bit of hope she had that Colson was still faithful. "I'm sorry," he adds again.

"Thanks, Toby. I appreciate this," she tells him. She's surprised that she's even able to form sentences - that she is still conscious. Her thoughts are racing, and her stomach is churning. The emotions that are running through her are too tumultuous to separate.

"Alright, bye," is the last thing he whispers before he hangs up. Chelsea's not registering anything anymore. Her phone is still up to her ear, and she's just staring at Colson's half of the bed still made.

Her body heaves over and the banquet dinner spills out of her guts and onto her dark hardwood floors. The banquet. She should have taken those glances more seriously - she should have asked him stay the night. Maybe she shouldn't have taken him in the first place. She groans and lifts herself off the bed and starts cleaning up the mess she's made.

How could he do this? How could he keep doing it? What wasn't she giving him? She crashes down on the floor and begins to sob. How could he devote so much of his life to her and treat her this way? Did any of it mean anything? What was so wrong with her that he needed someone else?

She takes a deep breath and shakes her head. It's always the same thing: he fucks up, she blames herself, he promises to change, and then he fucks up again. None of this is her fault, but somehow he keeps fucking with her feelings over and over again. She sighs. She needs to get up and stop feeling sorry for herself.

This is her fault. The only reason he's treating her this way is because she is letting him, and she isn't going to let that happen again. She lifts herself off the ground and walks in to the bathroom to wash up. The makeup she puts on exudes confidence, and she pulls on some denim shorts and a comfortable shirt afterwards. Once she's dressed she grabs her purse and leaves her sanctuary, ready to face the long day ahead of her.

Though she gets to campus relatively early, when she walks into her first class Jessica and Tobias are already there sitting front row. Jessica's face immediately breaks out into a wicked smile, and Chelsea takes a deep breath ready to pretend that she doesn’t care about what happened between her and the man she loves.

She walks in without hesitation and sits right next to Jessica, "Good morning, guys. Did you enjoy your evening, Jessica?" she asks provocatively. She needs to have balls if she's going to get through this.

Adam walks in a moment later and throws a weary glance her way, and she knows that Toby has told him what happened. He walks over to sit next to her, and he has the urge to reach over and give her a hug, but he refrains because the moment is too tense.

"Actually yea - I ditched my plus one for yours," she taunts as she runs a skinny hand through her blonde curls.

From her right side Toby rolls his eyes disapprovingly, and the look he shoots Chelsea is an apologetic one.

Chelsea smiles confidently letting him know she' okay. She would be in control of this conversation, she decides. "Took you long enough," she admits to the woman.

Jessica laughs, "no, I just never really tried before." She's trying to get under Chelsea's skin. If someone had told her a year ago that their friendship would end up taking this route, Chelsea wouldn't have believed a word.

Adam discreetly places a hand on her bare knee, but Chelsea ignores it as she joins in with the sarcastic laughter. She is incredibly hurt, but she's had enough practice to know how to hide it well. "Yea, because getting Cole naked is so hard to do," she teases.

"Well, you managed it, so clearly it's not," Jess shoots back bitterly fighting for the upper hand.

"Oh, Jess, I know always being second best is difficult for you, but you've got to learn to play nice," she tells her glad that she was was able to stay calm so well.

"Second best?" Jessica shrieks; did Chelsea miss the entire conversation they're having? She won.

"He never wanted you when he had me. Now that he can't have me he's got to move on to the second best," she clarifies with a straight face. As much as she wants to taunt the woman, her character won't let her. She feels Adam give her leg a squeeze, and she turns to shoot him a look that says she's got it under control.

"He can't have you?" Jess is confused. This conversation isn't going how she'd planned it. Chelsea was supposed to be in tears by now, and the fact that she isn't is irritating.

"We're not together anymore: I left him last night," Chelsea smiles, "so if you thought you could get to me by telling me about how you fucked his brains out last night, you're wrong. I wanted to have a relationship, not be a babysitter." Her words leave her lips so confidently that even she is surprised by them.

Adam lets out a sigh next to her. His eyebrows are raised at her words, and he doesn't know how to feel about the situation. He's distraught that she's had to go through this, but maybe this is his chance.

Jessica is left speechless. Even Chelsea is impressed with herself; she never knew she was such a great actress. Even though she's lying about everything, it feels good to be in control of the situation. Just saying she deserves better than Colson made her feel it. In a way she is glad he cheated again. Now she could start fresh and live her life with no one holding her back because that's what Cole did: he held her back.

She was able to make it through the week surprisingly well. Cole didn't bother trying to call her, and she thinks it's because he needed time to figure out how to hide his guilt. It was Friday afternoon again, and her Ethics class has finished. She's waiting for Travis in front of the campus parking structure because he picked her up this morning, and she knows he'll be there to pick her up again. It's grocery-shopping day, and if she's being honest she can’t wait to smoke with him and get her mind off all the drama that had suddenly crawled its way into her life. She reads her book on the bench as she waits, only looking up when she hears a car approaching. She watches it pull up in front of her and sighs to herself. It's Colson, and he rolling down his window calling her over.

"What do you want, Richard?" she asks him. She's not getting in the car. She's done.

"What you mean, baby? I took the day off and told Mills I got you today. I wanted to spend the night with you, babe," he tells her; he's pretending like he didn't do anything wrong, and it's infuriating. How was he so good at this? How long has he been pretending with her? She hadn't spoken to him since Thursday night so clearly he thought everything was fine, but he was in for a surprise.

"We're over, Richard. Leave me alone," she tells him. The most serious look is plastered across her porcelain face, and she doesn't regret a single word that leaves her lips.

"Over? When did that happen?" he asks playfully. He assumes she's joking as he gets out of his car to talk to her.

"When you decided that it would be a good idea to fuck that two-faced bitch last Thursday night," she tells him before grabbing her bag and walking away. Now that he's out of his car she had to leave. There's no way that she would sit there and let him apologize his way back into her arms.

"Wait, baby!" he yells after her. "I'm sorry, baby, I was drunk. I'll stop, you know I can change; I'll work on it, just give me another chance," he promises again. She's tired of hearing the empty promises. She's tired of handing out chances.

"Yea, you can change, Colson, always the same fucking story, but you never do!" she yells at him sick of being taken advantage of.

"Fine then!" he yells back. He's getting angry. There he goes again: he could never keep MGK out of their relationship, and Chelsea is done with it. If she couldn’t have Richard, she didn't want MGK.

"Then what?!" she yells back.

"Then maybe you're fucking right, you can do better!" he shouts. He's pissed. He's letting her slip through his fingers, but there's nothing he can do to change it.

She doesn't need to be told twice. Without looking back at him she walks to her usual bus stop. Her heart aches more and more with every step she takes, but she knows it's for the best. As much as she loves him, she couldn’t handle who he is anymore. She's maturing, and he's still the little wild boy he used to be in high school. They used to be perfect for each other, but now they're just incompatible.