I will always support you no matter what, I silently tell my own little peanut. “Abby Nora and I broke up.”
There’s a beat of silence on the other end of the phone.
Then— “Ziggy. No. What does that even mean?”
“It meanswe broke up. Our relationship is over. She doesn’t—”Dammit. Dammit, I didn’t want to cry. I suck in a deep breath and force the lump back down out of my throat. “She doesn’t like me anymore.”
“She doesn’t—did she say that?”
“She very much said that.”
“To your face?”
“At her baby shower. She didn’t get the memo that one of our other friends had me on video call so I could be there virtually.”
“And you’re sure?—”
“Mom. There waszeromistaking what she said. It was very,veryclear.”
“What did she say?”
“I don’t want to repeat it in front of the baby.”
“Oh, honey. Maybe you two can patch things up.”
I drop my head into one of my hands and squeeze my eyes shut. “I’ll forgive a lot of things for the people I love, but that doesn’t mean I need to stay in a relationship with them when they clearly don’t want me.”
“Sweetheart, Abby Nora wants you. She does. It was probably pregnancy hormones.”
“She called me a stuck-up cunt who thinks she’s better than everyone else.”
Silence rings loudly in my ears.
Where’s Jessica? Why doesn’t she need something right now?
Would it be bad if I went into the kitchen and knocked something off the counter and blamed the dog and said I have to go?
“Maybe you misheard—” Mom starts.
“I didn’t mishear anything.”
“But you’re best friends.”
I had the flu once while I was recovering from a pulled back muscle after doing something stupid in gym class late in high school. It was like morning sickness, but with a fever and severe back pain every time I threw up.
This is worse.
And not only because Abby Nora won’t be coming over after school to tell me what all I missed and make me smile while I’m recovering.
“Were, Mom. Wewere. And we’re not anymore.”
“But why would she say something like that about you?”
A familiar dull ache creeps up from the base of my skull, and my belly gives a warning groan as it starts to twist up again. “I don’t know. She was my best friend for over half my life, and she’s not anymore, and I can askwhyall I want, but it won’t change whatis.”
“Maybe if you reached out to her?—”
“Or maybe when someone calls you a cunt in a roomful of people, it’s on her to reach out if she wants to be friends.”
