Fuck Up The Friendship | Tom Blyth

9

Bella often thought that the first few seconds after waking up were the best part of her life. When she couldn't remember anything yet, when she was blissfully unaware of everything going on in her life. She couldn't bring herself out of bed when she remembered last night.

Throughout her whole life, Bella had an immense amount of pressure put on her. During her childhood, her then undiagnosed ADHD always made her feel inferior, different from others. When her little sister was born, his dad would spend his days half in the bottle rather than taking care of the two girls. So, Bella had to step up and be a backup mother to her little sister. She loved her, but it was too much for the then 10 year old. She'd always been on her own, fending not only for herself but her sister as well.

Bella sighed as she finally dragged herself out of bed, brushing her teeth and doing some skincare while avoiding the broken glass before putting on some sweatpants and walking out of her room. She'd been pretty sure Tom would have left by now. She frowned as she smelled bacon and heard commotion in the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" she asked as she stepped into the kitchen, watching Tom cooking on their stove.

"Making you breakfast" he stated, not turning around to Bella. He shut off the stove and put the bacon on plates, grabbing two mugs and pouring coffee into them. Then, he grabbed a plate and a mug and brought them over to Bella, who was still standing in the doorway, stunned.

"But why?" she asked as Tom stood right in front of her.

"Just felt like it" he shrugged as she took the plate and mug from him and sat down at the table. Tom sat down opposite from her, digging into his breakfast. Bella nibbled on the bacon a little, feeling quite hungover from last night. Tom sighed before breaking the silence.

"Can we talk about last night?" he asked, eyeing Bella's hand that he'd wrapped gauze on last night.

"What about last night?" she asked, staring at the coffee cup in her hands to avoid Tom's gaze.

"Everything. Why did you punch a mirror, Bella?" he asked.

"It was an accident" she lied, still not able to look at Tom. She was embarrassed that he had seen her like that.

"Don't lie to me" he stated.

"It's nothing, Tom" Bella sighed as she stood up and took her dishes to the sink, Tom following closely behind her.

"Clearly" he stated, sarcasm oozing from his voice.

"Why do you care? It's not like you're my boyfriend or anything" Bella snarked, finally turning around at looking Tom in the eye. Tom frowned at her words.

"Maybe not. But I care about you" he said, looking her in the eyes.

"Don't worry about it, Tom" Bella stated, walking around Tom and into the living room. She really did not feel like having a heart-to-heart with anyone, but especially with him about this. Tom followed her to the living room, quietly sitting down next to her on the couch.

"What about us?" Tom suddenly asked, wanting to know Bella's thoughts on them having sex last night, once again.

"There's no us, Tom. We were drunk, we had sex. That's it" she stated. She felt a strange tug at her heart as the words came out of her mouth.

"Gotcha" Tom just said before pulling on his coat and walking out the front door, not saying another word to her.