“There’s no other valid reason for him doing what he did,” Everleigh adds.
I shake my head. “This can’t be love. Love doesn’t feel likethis.” Like I weigh a thousand pounds and nothing at the same time. Like each of my extremities are in a vise and all of them are slowly ripping me apart. Like nothing is worth getting out of bed for.
“Love is as big as the heartbreak it causes,” murmurs Sebastian, lifting to his feet. “Now, let’s go. You’re not staying down here half the night by yourself.”
“Says who?” I rasp in an attempt to lighten the load on my chest. It doesn’t really help.
“Both of us,” Everleigh says firmly, crossing her arms as she matches Sebastian’s stance. “He’ll take your legs, and I’ll take your arms. We’ll carry your ass back upstairs if we need to.”
“You do know I can just hoist her over my shoulder, right?” he says with a smirk as he glances down at Everleigh.
“Shut up.” She nudges him in the side. “I was trying to add to your point. That there’s no way in hell we’re letting her stay down here on her own.” She holds out a hand to me. Sebastian does the same. Reluctantly, I pocket my phone and ear buds andgrasp each of their palms. They hoist me to my feet, and then I’m tugged forward in a group hug, two sets of arms circling and squeezing me.
We stand there for a minute before I pull away and follow them out and to the elevator. We ride it up to our floor, and when the doors slide open, Sebastian ruffles my hair before promising to reach out tomorrow. Ev and I wave our goodbyes and make it inside our quiet apartment.
We toe off our shoes and end up in the kitchen. Because I skipped dinner, I grab an apple out of the fruit basket and rinse it under the faucet. Everleigh pours a glass of orange juice in silence before a raised voice travels out from the bedrooms.
I snap my gaze to hers because Sylvia is the only other person who would be here. And we haven’t exactly spent a lot of time with her. She’s been too busy doing her own thing, and honestly, I’m surprised she’s home. There are some nights she doesn’t return at all, or is out super late.
“She wasn’t home when I left,” Everleigh tells me in a muted voice. “Is someone with her?”
I crane my neck and focus on what I’m hearing. I can’t make out the words Sylvia says, but can definitely tell it’s her. No other voice joins in when she quiets for half a minute. “I don’t think so. She must be on the phone.”
Everleigh’s eyes go wide as she creeps to the other end of the kitchen near the hallway. She’s there all of a second before Sylvia’s door rips open, and she stomps toward us. She doesn’t see us at first, her sights set on her phone. But then she raises her chin and catches us already looking at her.
Everleigh does a good job acting as if she wasn’t just trying to eavesdrop on her conversation. “Hey, Sylvia. Everything okay?”
Sylvia gives her a dirty look, her phone still clutched in her hand like it’s a lifeline. “You break up with Tristan, and now yousuddenly care about what’s going on around you?” She rolls her eyes. “Typical.”
A flash of hurt crosses Everleigh’s features. “That’s not true. I cared about you while I was with him as well.”
“Whatever,” Sylvia huffs out. She grabs something from the junk drawer at the edge of the kitchen. A charger by the looks of it. “You don’t need to feel bad pushing everyone but Tristan to the side now that you two are over.”
“Sylvia, that’s not what this is.” The tone in Everleigh’s voice tells me she’s taking offense to Sylvia’s harshness.
A spark of defense flickers in me. “She was just trying to be nice,” I tell Sylvia. “You don’t need to bite her head off.”
Sylvia purses her lips and turns on me. “Please, I don’t need you up my ass, too. Tell me, has that piece of shit boyfriend of yours set you free yet? You look fucking awful.”
You don’t even know.
She squints at me, and it’s like she can read my mind. “Oh, my God. He dumped your ass, didn’t he?” She throws her head back and laughs. “And here I thoughtmynight was turning to shit.”
Shame builds in me until it traces along my body, outlining me from head to toe. I don’t know why. I’m not the one whose character is in question. Still, I don’t want anyone questioning Colson’s, either. A handful of excuses rests on my tongue, ready to come to his defense despite how he has treated me.
“You’re better off without him. Just like you were better off without Webber,” Sylvia remarks like she has the right.
I don’t miss how she doesn’t ask if I’m okay. If I need a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen to me. There’s no dedication on her part, no assurance she’s there for me and no promise of making his life a living hell for causing me pain.
I hold my excuses back, not giving her a single ounce of my attention. She wouldn’t understand, anyway. It’s clear who my real friends are—Sebastian and Everleigh.
I square my shoulders with my apple in hand and shove past the girl who I was close enough at one point to want to live with. As I make my way down the hallway, I hear Everleigh say, “You know, you don’t have to always be so mean. We’re not your enemies.”
I slam my bedroom door closed after that and attempt to sleep.
SEVEN
COLSON
