College Fund

//Everything Was Hunky-Dory//

"I'm sorry, what?" I repeated, unable to believe what Bria was telling me.

"Don't make me say it again," she pleaded. When I refused to break my gaze, she sighed and gave in. "Okay, I know we were planning to go to Italy together and continue to Belgium and Austria and everywhere else, but I just can't do it, Cass. I miss Will. He misses me. I want to take him home and introduce him to my parents and everything. Please tell me you understand. Don't make this any harder on me."

"Bria, I-I didn't expect this. You're ditching me for some guy?"

"No! I'm not ditching you. I would never ditch you."

"Well, that's certainly what it sounds like you're doing." I crossed my arms over my chest.

Bria sighed. It was clear to me that this was hard for her and I was only making it harder, but I didn't care. This was what she deserved. Here I thought things would actually get better in France. I thought maybe the trip would finally be about Bria and I being friends and supporting each other. Clearly, I thought wrong.

"Cass, listen to me. No, really listen." Bria stared at me, her arms crossed, until I finally gave in and met her gaze. "Good. I love you, you have been my bestest friend forever. That's never going to change. This trip was supposed to be fun; it was supposed to make us both super happy. But I look at you now and I don't see the happy girl I had hoped to see. You rarely smile, you barely laugh, you never seem to enjoy yourself. So I'm thinking that... maybe it's time to try something new."

Her words made me stop and think for a moment, mostly because that was the most intellectual thing Bria had ever said. It didn't take me long, however, to find a fatal flaw in her sweet talk. "Is that so? And you think the way to solve that problem is for you to go to England with your boyfriend and ditch me here? In France? By myself?"

Bria hesitated. "No... I think you need a change of scene too."

"And what do you suggest, Dr. Bria?"

"I think you need to face your problems." Bria blurted out suddenly. "You just got up and left Mapletown. Well, you can't run forever. I think you need to go back and clear up the mess you left behind."

I bit my tongue. My first impulse was to get all defensive and protest against what Bria was saying, but I had come to learn over the course of this trip that my first impulse was not always right. So I made the very mature decision to take a deep breath and plaster a smile over my face. "You know what Bria? You're right."

Bria's eyes widened and blinked at me slowly. "I'm... right?"

Her shock just showed how very few times Bria was right in her life. I would have laughed if it had occurred under different circumstances. But considering the news I had just received, I barely smiled. "Yeah Bria, you're right. Don't make me say it again, you know it's not something I like to say." Admitting that somebody else was right was one of my absolute least favourite things.

Bria gave me a smile. It wasn't even a strained one. Clearly she thought that if I admitted she might be right on something then everything was hunky dory and she was completely forgiven. "Thanks for understanding, Cass!"

"So when are you leaving?" I asked, trying to look nonchalant by flicking a piece of lint off my t-shirt.

She looked down at her phone; I guess she has some plane information in there. After a moment she replied, "Probably in three days? I'm flying to England from here, meeting Will at the airport and then we catch our connecting flight to Toronto a few hours later."

"How long have you been planning this?"

Bria looked down at her feet shamefully, which told me she had been thinking about this behind my back for a long time. "I don't know, ever since we left England, really."

Her words hurt me. Maybe if she had just talked to me about things, our friendship wouldn't have felt so strained. Instead, she was trying to blame it all on me, as if it was entirely my fault our trip wasn't working out like we originally planned it.

"So," Bria continued. "Are you going to head back to Mapletown?"

"Well I'm certainly not going to go to Italy by myself." I snorted.

"You could stay here with Margaux and Sage and their mom. I'm sure they'd love to have you."

I laughed. I had a feeling Margaux's mom wasn't a huge fan of me, and who could blame her? All she knew about me was that I wasn't in school and I almost got her youngest daughter into a car crash. Those weren't exactly two things that would earn me the kid-of-the-year award from Mama Margaux.

"Fine." Bria stuck her nose up in the air haughtily. "Don't take my suggestions. But you can't say I didn't try." She then proceeded to storm out of the bedroom.

I sighed. Bria had tried; it wasn't her fault she was awful at giving advice. Typically Margaux was the one I reached out to when I was unsure of what to do, but I didn't want to bother her. As far as I knew, she had locked herself in Sage's walk-in closet and had been skyping Spencer all morning. I was praying they were sorting out their differences, but I didn't know for sure. Either way, she had enough on her plate without me bothering her with my own issues.

That left me one person to call: Eric.

Even though I hated to admit it, I needed Eric. I really did. I needed his reassuring presence, I needed him to hold me and tell me everything was going to be alright like he did on the bus. So I swallowed back my pride and called him.

His contact picture was a picture we had the waitress take for us at that French restaurant we went to before Sage's show. I looked disgusting because I had started to laugh, and I have the ugliest laughing face in the world. But I chose the picture anyway because Eric was smiling, a real genuine smile, not that stupid smirk he usually plastered on. His arm was around me and he was smiling and I was laughing and it reminded me of a simpler time. Even though that picture was barely two days old it seemed like years since I had felt so happy and secure.

Amazing how quickly things could change.

I snapped out of my nostalgia to tap the picture and call Eric. He picked up on the first ring.

"Hello?"

It took me a moment to reply. "Eric, I need you."

"I'll be there in five minutes."

"Wait, Eric..."

"Yes, Butterfly?"

"Don't hang up on me." My voice cracked, and the full effect of my sadness washed over me. I couldn't even bear to be alone for five minutes while Eric crossed the street. I was too scared, too afraid of what the future held for me.

Eric chuckled, but it wasn't a happy chuckle, if that makes any sense. "Butterfly, I would never hang up on you. What's the matter?"

I breathed in deeply, and then spilled it all out. I told him about Margaux and Spencer, and Bria and Will, and feeling alone and having nowhere to go. I told him I couldn't go to Italy but I couldn't stay here. That I had been chasing my happiness halfway across the world and never been able to catch it. That I was sick and tired of feeling sad and hopeless all the time, but I had forgotten how to feel happy. That I was broke, penniless, and had nothing to fall back on. I was scared.

I was so busy pouring my heart out that I didn't realize how much time had passed. I had been talking (and crying) for almost half an hour. "Eric, where are you?" I asked suddenly.

"I didn't want to interrupt you," he explained, the first real words he'd said in half an hour, besides the occasional sound of sympathy. "I'm standing on the front step."