I watched the clock, watching time tick by. I was tempted to call her, but I doubted she would even answer. I was tempted to call Hazel, but she might not even know where Gabriella was.
A couple of hours later, I heard the front door open. I was in the kitchen, pulling out supplies to make lunch. I turned and spotted Gabriella walking down the hallway to her room. She was wearing the same clothes she had on before, but they didn’t cling to her, which told me they were dry now. Anger hit me.
She had stayed in her soaking wet clothes until they dried because she didn’t want to come home.
I threw my handkerchief onto the counter and started down after her. “Gabriella.”
She turned as she got to her door. I watched her eyes look at me for a moment before looking away, embarrassed. “Yes?”
“Are you kidding me right now?”
She turned around now, looking at me, confused. “What?”
“This has to stop,” I said, pausing a few feet from her.
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re avoiding me!” I snapped back. “You can’t keep avoiding me. If this is going to work, we have to figure something out.”
“I’m not avoiding you.”
“Bullshit! You are! And to the point that you stayed outside in the middle of winter in soaking wet clothes rather than coming home and running into me to change.”
Her face went a deeper shade of red, and she chewed on her cheek. She wasn’t denying it.
I frowned. Had I damaged our friendship beyond repair? Had I screwed up so badly that we couldn’t fix this like I thought we could? “Do you hate me that much?”
Her eyes snapped up. “What?”
“If you hate me that much, you could have just said so. You don’t have to tiptoe around. You could have made yourself sick being out there in the cold like this. You were just yelling that at me, so why didn’t you take your own advice?”
I expected her to stay quiet, but instead, anger flashed across her face. “You were the one who avoided me first, Westley. You stopped coming to join me at the library. No explanation, you just stopped. You avoided me at every opportunity. You don’t get to act surprised that I just matched your actions.”
It was like she’d slapped me, and I felt my shoulders drop. I couldn’t argue with her on that. I had pulled away. I put the distance in the friendship first. But I never thought it would ruin it. I thought if I gave a little space, you would be okay.
I swallowed, not sure what to say now. “I… I…”
“Just give me space,” she said, softer now. “I understand that we have to get along because of this situation, but that doesn’t mean I’m not hurt still from what you did.”
I watched her open her door and step inside. She shut the door, and I swallowed, knowing that I was a large part of why our friendship was ruined. If I had handled things better, maybe we could have talked to each other like we used to. Maybe things wouldn’t be so messy.
Chapter 9 - Gabriella
A few days later, I still felt uneasy about our conversations. I knew he was a big part of why our friendship ended, but I could still see the hurt in his eyes when I brought it up. If he truly hadn’t cared about it, he wouldn’t have looked so broken.
I sighed and rubbed at my eyes, having slept like shit since. I kept seeing his face, the hurt look, and the way his shoulders sank. I watched the pain flicker in his eyes, and I knew that he wanted to say something, but I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t want to listen to some half-ass excuse. It wouldn’t make me feel any better.
But now I was wondering what he would have said. How would he have tried to explain his fuck up? How could he just toss our friendship aside so easily? I was telling myself I didn’t want a reason, but deep down I did.
“What are you doing?”
I jumped, not realizing that Hazel had stepped into the living room. She had her hair in soft curls, and she was wearing a sweater skirt with a matching sweater. She was holding a pair of black boots with heels and a deep red purse.
I looked her up and down a few times. “What are you dressed up for?”
She frowned. “Did you forget already? It’s Brandon’s surprise birthday party today.”
I frowned, having forgotten. I had been so occupied with what was going on with Westley that I forgot I was supposed to help Nora and Jade set up for it. Shit.
