Breaking All the Rules

Three

IT WAS the noise from the TV that woke me. My sleepy eyes flitted about the whole room in confusion until it finally found Nicole, where she was seated on the floor in front of my sofa, hugging her legs to her self. My stomach flipped rebelliously as my eyes caught sight of the cereal bowl from yesterday's dinner... it appeared some creepy crawly too curious for its own good had got stuck in the now, rancid milk mixture!

Eew, Nicole's so gross!...how on earth could anyone remain calm with something like that beside them?

I shifted on my sofa, trying to find a comfortable position. There was this awful taste in my mouth that told me I really needed to scrub my dentals with some Sensodyne.

That's what you get when you put milk in your dinner.

"You're awake?" Nicole asked, surprising me. Her back was still turned to me so, it was impossible to know what she was thinking.

I sighed.

Why was she starting another conversation?

Our arguments were beginning to get more frequent and I had finally figured out that the less we talked, the less the incidence of getting on the other person's nerves.

Even if I had been too angry to think straight yesterday, a part of me knew that I didn't mean any of those terrible things I had said to her. True, I had wanted to get her meddlesome hands off my affairs but I hadn't planned for the words to come out that harshly. Truth was, Nicole could be pushy sometimes...(scratch that!) all the time, but she was still the best friend that loved me in spite of my million flaws.

"You became a CANDYgirl behind my back!" Nicole accused. She roused from her position and stretched lazily. "That's plain treacherous!"

She giggled when I threw her this dirty look. "Don't worry Jordie, your secret is safe with me."

"What are you talking about?" I felt the irritation slowly seeping through my veins. My eyes roved the sofa in search of that magazine from yesterday, I desperately prayed that the page I had been checking out wouldn't be open. I finally found it on the spot Nicole had been sitting on. It wasn't exactly lying open or anything, so no telling what she knew or didn't.

I heard my bones creak tiredly as I sat up on the chair. "Nicole... I'm sorry about yesterday. For everything I said to you."

"Psssh... It's okay." She shrugged, meeting my gaze. "I deserved it."

I searched for better words to say but all the words that sprung up seemed too fake, somehow meaningless to say to her. I ended up resting back on my chair with a sigh.

There was an awkward silence for a while with Nicole attempting to say something but seemingly thinking better of it and stalling. She plopped onto a chair facing mine and muted the t.v.

I almost missed it when she finally said, "Jeff is breaking up with me."

What? That's impossible! Nicole and Jeff had been going out since junior school. To be honest, even though I wasn't the type to do dates or any of those romantic flings, I have been slightly jealous of their relationship all along, albeit happy for Nicole. Plus, last time I checked, Jeff was still as crazy about Nicole as he had been the very first time he asked her out. So, where was the ridiculous breakup idea coming from?

"Why?" I asked incredulously.

She chuckled, as though my question had surprised her.

"He says he's not comfortable with this long-distance thing because he's not seeing me as often as he'd like. And I'm oh, so confused, Jordan...I'm not even sure if I'm ready for anything serious."