I FEEL LIKE I should be hurt or infuriated by what Aarya did, but it actually feels normal―like this is a day to day basis thing. Which is why I don't understand why Jeff finds me in over my head.
"Quinn. Hey. Man." He scrunches his eyebrows―I can see now why Aarya finds it annoying―once I regain my consciousness. "You okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah."
"Damien and I are going to Burger King for lunch..." He looks at me for a response, which I would've found confusing considering he didn't finish his sentence.
"I'm good." And for the first time that I've known Jeff, he seems concerned. For me.
"Are you sure? Didn't you say you didn't eat breakfast today?"
"What? No, I―oh yeah, but I-I had a granola bar earlier."
"I doubt that's enough."
"Well, uh..."
"Are you sure you're okay? 'Cause honestly you don't look like you are."
"Well... I don't honestly know." Jeff scrunches his eyebrows. "Like i-it's complicated."
"Okay." He leans against the cubicle wall.
"It's not that big of a deal." I compress under pressure.
"Are you sure?" Jeff asks and I look at him surprised.
"Uh, y-yeah."
And he lets it go. Just like that. ✤✤✤
I THOUGHT THIS gnawing feeling would be over by the time I got back from Burger King, but I feel even worse―like I betrayed myself. So, in spite of staying away from Mell, I call her.
"Hello? Quinn?" She panics.
"Yeah."
"Oh my god. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Look, are you free?"
"Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why?" I sigh. "I have time."
"Uh, so I met this girl—"
"Wow! Are you two together?"
"No! God, no."
"Okay. God. Chill."
And then I get furious. "What do you mean chill? She's the girl who I drove to the hospital." And suddenly Mell becomes silent.
"Oh. Well, I'm glad that she's better now."
"Yeah." A tight knot forms in my throat. "I guess, I mean, I think—I think I made it worse."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, I-I might've said some stuff that ticked her off."
"Like what?" Mell's voice softens.
"Well—well in my head it didn't seem that rude, but I mentioned how she had a lot of packages."
"Wait. You came into her apartment?"
"Yeah. Duh, that's—"
"That's a big step in opening up to someone. And you just—you kind of just insulted her."
"What?! It was a joke!"
"Joke or not, that shit still hurts."
"I—"
"I buy a lot of packages, would you acknowledge that?"
"No! That doesn't make sense."
"Wh—alright, even if you did, I wouldn't care because I've received so many rude comments from you. But the point is this girl hasn't and the fact that you just acknowledged her packages like that—"
"I didn't insult her."
"That's an opinion."
"You could've said that earlier."
"Yeah, but you wouldn't have known that what you said could've been interpreted as insulting."
"Wait. Wait, wait, wait. You're saying that Aarya thought that what I said was insulting?"
"Yeah? Did you not understand what I said bef—oh my god."
