𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐀𝐑𝐈 | 𝐂𝐋𝟏𝟔

𝐗𝐈𝐈𝐈

·˚ ༘

────────────────────────────────────────

November 4th 2018

ZAHRA NICHOLS

It had been hours since the shitshow, and Amara, Rory, and Emmy had finally decided to act their age and stop "washing their eyes" with cold water. Charles and the guys had gone out, which was probably for the best. Them not being here has actually made the place more calm and less, chaotic I guess.

We all sat around the kitchen floor, I laid down and my skin touched the cool tiles. Emmy broke the silence, her curiosity getting the better of her. "How did that even happen? I thought you guys hated each other!" she asked.

I sighed, trying to piece together an answer for myself as much as for them. "Honestly, I don't even know. I guess he was drunk or hungover, woke up in the middle of the night, and I happened to be awake at the same time. It wasn't planned or anything, just one of those random things that happen."

As I spoke, something clicked. Something in what Emmy said struck me a little late. What had she meant by that? "Wait, what made you think we hated each other?" I asked, rising to sit upright. I was half-joking but the other half felt curious and maybe a little concerned.

Emmy turned over to look at Rory and Amara before responding. "Well, maybe not hate-hate, but things have seemed off. Like a rough patch. I mean, admit it, you guys haven't been all lovey-dovey for a while now," she said, stuttering a bit.

"Yeah, and it looked like you guys didn't really want to share a room," Rory added.

Amara crossed her legs and leaned forward. "Don't take this the wrong way, but it just seemed like you were keeping it alive just for this trip," she said. 

All of them sounded more like showing concern rather than giving snark comments or criticism. Maybe they're right, things aren't really like they were, but I do want to go back. I don't want this to die, not when I'm this far deep.

"You're right, but it's not like there's anything going on. I haven't felt anything specific. Maybe he did, but something's just off, you know? A little bit bland," I admitted, feeling flustered.

They all leaned in closer to me, Amara placed her hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes, in a supportive way. "No matter what, always remember; I can slash his tires for you," Amara offered. Rory chimed in, "And if or when you need me to, I can always spread a rumor online saying he's a huge manwhore," and she continued to hold my hand. "We'll make him pay, I'm gonna make sure it's his life that gets fucked over, not yours," Emmy said, laying her head on my other shoulder. 

Now, to the average person, you'd consider what they said to be jokes. But trust me, I know these girls; they're dead serious. I laughed, shaking my head at them. "You guys are batshit crazy," I said, grinning.

Rory chimed in, "I love you guys though." Her laughter was infectious, and soon we were all laughing together, the sound echoing off the kitchen walls.

Suddenly, Amara's laughter grew louder, and she pointed at Emmy. "Wait, Emmy, are you crying?" she exclaimed, her eyes widened. 

Emmy finally gave in, her tears flowing freely as she tried to speak through her laughter. "We weren't this emotional at graduation! I love all of you California trashbags!" she declared.

Tears swelled up in my eyes, and I noticed Rory and Amara wiping at their own. "And we love you too!" we all yelled in unison, the words bursting out of us with heartfelt sincerity.

November 5th 2018

ZAHRA NICHOLS

Charles was lying on the bed, scrolling through his phone with one hand and sipping his coffee with the other. I sat at the vanity, starting to do my makeup for the day, the sun hitting my face in the right angles. 

"Are the girls still annoyed from yesterday?" Charles asked, his tone casual as he glanced up from his screen.

I paused, beauty blender in mid-air, and turned to look at him. "No, it's fine now. We had a good talk about it yesterday when you and the guys were out," I said, trying to keep my voice light. I turned back to the mirror, focusing on my reflection.

Charles set his phone down on the nightstand and took another sip of his coffee. "Good, I was worried they might still be upset."

You know those moments where you can just feel that shit's about to go down? Yeah, this is definitely one of those. In a second, I could already think of a handful of possibilities that could happen. Maybe stating the inevitable, or a vent of feelings.

"Do you have a problem with me?" Charles's voice cut through the silence, his tone sharper than before. Boom.

I froze, my hand trembling slightly. "What? No, why would you think that?"

He sat up, placing his coffee mug on the bedside table with a clink. "I don't know, nothing's been going on lately between us. It's like you've been distant, did I do something?"

I turned to face him, my heart pounding. "You've done nothing, I swear." I tried to reason with him. His eyes narrowed. "Then what the fuck's happening?" His voice started to rise. "I don't know okay! There's something going on but I don't know what!" I said, matching his tone.

Charles stood up, pacing around the room now. "Then why have we gotten so boring? We only talk in small talk, and we only ever go out if it's a group thing," he stressed, running his hands through his hair almost as if he was about to pull strands of hair out.

Before I could say anything, he started to ramble again. Let the man speak, Zahra, don't outburst now.

"You wanna know why that happened yesterday? I did that so we could be fun again okay! To fix things from being dry!" He vented, looking at me in desperation. I scoffed. "That was you trying to fix things?" I exclaimed, bad move on his hand honestly. "Well you didn't have to be so negative and insufferable about it!" he complained and the room fell silent.

Well fuck, that hurt a bit. But deep down, I knew there was truth in them. "So what, are you blaming me for this? For us going fucking stale?" I shot back, my anger and hurt bubbling to the surface.

He stopped pacing and looked at me, his eyes intense. "I'm not blaming you. I'm just trying to understand. We used to be... close. Now it's like you don't even want to be with me anymore."

"That's not fair," I retorted. "You think I don't feel it too? This... blandness? I hate it just as much as you do!" I put my foot down.

"Well at least put it effort and fix it!" He complained. "Charles, no offense but, anyone but you would agree that's not how you fix shit!" I shot back. "Well let me try to for real! Let's just ditch the group today and run off to the beach!" Charles argued, frustrated, stammering, like words just escaped his mouth without second thought. Looked like he hated the idea, like it was a last resort.

I'm still mad at this guy, fucking blazing. I coldly rushed over past him to the closet, and grabbed a bag, and started to fill it in with things. "Where are you going?" He sighed in defeat. I looked up at him blandly. "I thought you said we're going to the beach," I said, frustrated as well, but I know this is a last resort, so why not give it a try?

┏━━━━━━━━━━•❃°•°❀°•°❃•━━━━━━━━━━┓
𝐀𝐔𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐘'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒
❀ I don't have anything to yap ┗━━━━━━━━━━•❃°•°❀°•°❃•━━━━━━━━━━┛