Failing For You - Gojo x Reader

Chapter 19

Elaine sits in front of me, wringing her hands. 

"I don't know why you're nervous right now," I laugh, a little uncomfortable. 

She texted me (finally) this morning saying she wanted to get breakfast and I, of course, accepted. I figured she'd talk about whatever happened yesterday, but her nervous energy right now is only making me nervous too. 

"Girl, spit it out, you're freaking me out," I blurt. I can't handle all of the beating around the bush. 

"Okay..." she fiddles with her napkin. "I haven't really told anyone this. So I'm kind of nervous."

"I can tell," I raise my eyebrows at her. 

She lets out a breath. "So...I'm moving out of my parent's house."

I stare at her. "...Okay?"

I'm not understanding the huge significance here. Maybe it's because I don't have the wealthy family-centric lifestyle she does, but this doesn't seem like a big deal.

"It's um...it's not the greatest situation," she says awkwardly. I've never seen her fumble over her words like this. She's normally very sure of herself. 

"What happened?" I ask, tilting my head. 

"Well," she says quietly. "I sort of found something I shouldn't have. I was just scrolling around on the family computer when an email popped up addressed to my dad. I shouldn't have clicked on it. I never snoop. But for some reason...I had this feeling in my gut. So I clicked on it. At first I couldn't tell what I was looking at. It looked like it was a doctor's appointment reminder or something like that. But...but there were these pictures at the bottom of the email. There were all these pills...like tons of pills. Bags and bags and bags of them."

"Pills?" I repeat.

She nods, looking like she's close to tears. "Y/n, I think he's like...supplying them or something. To doctors. Illegally. The email was thanking him for all of the pills. There were all these code names that I didn't understand."

"Oh holy shit."

"My parents are pharmacists," she swipes a tear from her cheek. "I...I don't know what they're doing."

"Elaine, maybe you misunderstood the email," I say, trying to comfort her. 

"No," she shakes her head forcefully. "I didn't. The next day, I checked the computer for the email and it was gone. Someone deleted it. When I tried to keyword search to find anything related to pills or doctors or anything like that, nothing came up."

"Gosh..." I don't even know what to say. What is there to say when your friend reveals her parents are illegally selling pills to doctors on the down low?

"I'm so embarrassed and humiliated," she presses her hands into her face. "I know I'm privileged and rich and all of that. I'm fully aware. But my whole damn life I've been so proud to be my parent's daughter. I've been proud of what they've built for themselves. I thought they deserved to live comfortably because at the end of the day, at least they were helping people. Now I feel like an idiot. A fraud."

"Oh Elaine," I say. "It's not your fault. You didn't do anything wrong!"

"I think I might hate them now," she cries. 

I get up and slide into the other side of the booth with her. I wrap my arm around her shoulder.

"I can't stand eating with them. I can't stand hearing my dad's car pull in the driveway. I can't stand it when my mom laughs at something he says. I can't even stand looking at them anymore," she sniffles. "They don't help people. They hurting people."