Whenever we attended parties, my ex-best friend eventually escaped to a secluded corner to charge her social battery. Darla was part introvert, part extrovert. It shouldn’t surprise me to find her slinked away in the woods, recuperating from the loudness of the Remington mansion.
Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I glared at her. Hurt and beyond exhausted. Unable to understand how she could throw away sixteen years of friendship without an explanation and move on like we didn’t have the best memories.
“What?” I hated the wavering quality of my voice.
As much as I hated the fact that I missed her so much.
As much as I hated the fact that if things were different…I’d be telling her I was pregnant and getting the emotional support I so badly needed at this moment. And now I couldn’t evenconfide in the one girl who’d been like my sister because she removed me from her life.
There was a slight crack in Darla’s armour. A softness in her brown eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Why do you care?” I straightened, pushing my hair back and cringing at the sour taste of vomit on my palate. “You’ve ignored me for weeks, and now you want to talk when”—I pointed at her phone—“I’m at my lowest? Are you here to gloat because I got cheated on?”
The softness was quickly replaced by resentment.
“I was here before you, getting some fresh air.” She shook her head. “And you know well enough that gloating and being petty isn’t my style. No one deserves…”
No one deserves to get cheated on and be made into a spectacle.
That’s what she wanted to say.
“What have I done to you?” I implored against my better judgement, wiping at my remaining tears. “I don’t understand, Darla. I was never bad to you.”
You were my best friend, my co-captain, my sister. What happened to us?
I zeroed in on her left wrist. She no longer wore the friendship bracelet I gave her when we were eight. Why did that hurt so much?
A heart-wrenching wave of homesickness swept over me. God, I needed to leave this place and lick my wounds in peace.
“You’re right. You weren’t bad to me,” she agreed, depositing her phone in the pocket of her miniskirt. “You werehorrible, and you still haven’t owned up to it. You’re just like all of them, Ella. Mean and fake. How does it feel to finally get a taste of your own medicine?”
I’d taken so many hits tonight, but her calling me mean and fake—comparing me to the rats of St. Victoria—was a differenttype of pain that made me flinch like I’d been struck. “What in the world are you talking about? I don’t fucking get it, Darla!”
“You never did, Ella. That’s the problem.” Darla chuckled bitterly. “Don’t pretend to be innocent. You know why I’m done with you.”
Anything I said right now would be irrelevant when her walls were up again. I couldn’t reach her and she wouldn’t hear me.
Physically, this was the closest we’d stood in weeks. Emotionally, I’d never felt further from her.
Everyone who entered your life had a purpose. Sometimes it was to stay forever and guide you through your journey. Other times it was for a temporary period to teach you a lesson. While people come and go, the only constant in life was the relationship you had with yourself. The only relationship worth nourishing.
In this split second, I realized that Darla’s time in my life came to an end long before tonight. I just needed to accept it and move on. No matter how much it fucking hurt.
All good things come to an end and nothing lasts forever.
Not friendships.
Not romantic relationships.
And certainly not the love of dark brown-haired, blue-eyed boys with charming, lying smiles who claimed to love you until the end of time.
“I don’t, Darla,” I replied, backing away, my stance unsteady. My head spun and a dull ache spread through my gut. “Nor do I care anymore. I’m done with you, too.”
Darla remained silent, having already made peace with our broken friendship.
I jogged out of the woods and towards my car.
As if this party couldn’t get any shittier, I found my cell phone lying on the ground next to the driver’s side door.
