The Truth Hurts

Him.

I was on the phone with my friends Abigail, Megan, Natalia, and Harper. We've been friends since the eighth grade. We've always enjoyed each other's company and conversations, each other's presence in general, really. We all were considered one of the "girl groups" during our freshman year. If you wanted the latest fight video, drama, or trends going around the school, we were your people to come to. 

But there was this one person the others in the group had a personal opinion over, and his name was Casper. Casper Martin. Our friend Natalia had dated him recently and had an overall bad experience with him. Apparently, he used her for sex, manipulated her into doing some bad things, and just an overall jerk to her. Now, I had no  general knowledge of this man, I only knew him as someone the others didn't like because of his rebellious behavior.

She came running to the courtyard during our lunch period the day after their breakup. Her eyeliner was running down her cheeks, her mascara was smudged, her eyes were puffy and red. Her cheeks were developing a red undertone with her pale brown skin. She was a mess.

"Guys...!"

Me, Abigail, Harper, and Megan all looked over towards the door she had busted through. We could all obviously tell there was clear distress and anger in her tone of voice. Her breath was shaking and her hands were trembling.

I quickly stood up from my bench seat at the table and walked over to her.

"Are you okay?! You're pale... and your hands are shaking..."

She looked up at me and just started crying while burying her face into her hoodie sleeves. It was hurtful to see her in this insufferable state.

I gently grabbed her arms and guided them to wrap around my shoulders and brought her into a hug. Normally I wasn't one for physical contact from friends, but this was an exception to me. I held onto her tightly while we both gently swayed with the hug. Her grip around my shoulders kept tightening by the second.

I leaned back signaling to her that I wanted to let go, so she did. Then I turned over and looked at Abigail.

"Hey- do you have any makeup wipes on you? I'm going to take her to the bathroom to clean her up and help her back on her feet."

She quickly threw her trash away, along with mine, then packed up her school bag and tossed it on her back. She tossed mine towards me, then pulled out the makeup wipes from her side pocket of her bag.

"I'll come with."

I nodded and gently pushed on Natalia's back to guide her towards the nearby bathroom so we could help her out. She was trying her best to calm down her tears, she failed terribly -- but Abigail and I were both suspicious as to why she was feeling this way. We both kept on giving each other looks of confusion as to why she was in this depressing state. 

"Hey Abigail, do you have any water on you? I had left my water bottle outside at the table. And come with us to the handicapped stall."

She gave me a reassuring nod of confirmation, then pulled out a mini water bottle from her lunch box and tossed it to me. She carried both hers, and my school bag, in each arm and sat them down by the wall near the stall door. 

I slipped off my hoodie, handing it to Natalia, trying to give her comfort. She put on the hoodie, it was probably about three sizes too big on her, but it would pass for now.

"Tell us what happened. It's obviously something you need to get off of your chest if you're bawling about whatever it may be."

She wiped her face with the hoodie sleeve once more before looking back up at me. I had taken a makeup wipe and wiped off as much of her ruined makeup, before she spoke up again. With the same tremble in her voice as before.