False Start [#1]

O 2

C H A P T E R  O 2
laugh, or I promise you'll cry

"He did not!" Isla gasps, instead of howling at my misery. God bless her soul.

Giving her wide eyes, I knock back my fifth tequila shot.

How else did you think this nightmare of a day was going to end?

"And then what did you do?" Capri asks, fully invested, her chin resting on her palm.

"I knocked his hand away and told the asshole not to touch me."

The girls laugh, and that's fine, but I'm right back to being twenty-one again, freshly heartbroken, scoffing ice cream, damning whoever created love to hell.

No goodbye, no explanation, nothing. Just upped and left me like I wasn't worth even a shitty text.

Four years of my life wasted on someone who couldn't be bothered to show me the tiniest shred of respect before disrespectfully breaking me.

Rolling my eyes at myself, I neck another shot and decide to call it a night.

Since me and Isla live in the same apartment complex, we ride together after making sure Capri gets an Uber safely.

We're coming to a stop at a red light when Isla turns to me with soft blue eyes.

"You know you're my best friend, right?" she says before letting out a light laugh. "Have been ever since the first day you burst into our dorm room freshman year claiming no one is to touch your laptop, or camera set up."

Snorting, I rub a hand over my eyes, rubbing the tiredness, and slight intoxication, away.

"You became my best friend that day too." I smile, resting back against the head rest. "College wouldn't have been the same without you."

"Oh, I totally know that." She scoffs, playfully. "I was a party animal back then, could never have a shit time with me around. What I'm getting at is because we met then, you're forgetting I saw you and Huxley meet. I watched you fall in love, and give your everything to that relationship."

The light flicks green, and gently, Isla pulls off. Dragging her attention back to the road, but she doesn't stop.

And I really wish she would.
This is too deep, for this day, for this mood
I love my best friend more than anything, but please, Isla, stop talking.

"I know you're screaming for me to shut up, but because I witnessed all that, it also means I saw what happened afterwards. I heard the sobs through the thin ass walls, remember the days where you couldn't come out of your room, and times you refused to eat. You say you're okay, but I'm calling bullshit, and telling you to spill."