The Timeline

71.

July 2nd, 2018:

Breaking up with a friend was, in fact, way more painful than breaking up with a boyfriend.

Especially if said friend was doing anything in their power to completely erase you from their life.

It had been three days - two days and a half to be precise - since Jacopo had stormed out of the house promising he'd be leaving it as soon as possible and Claire's heart hadn't stopped hurting ever since. And she hadn't stopped crying, either.

She knew that crying so much in front of Theodore wasn't good, that she was probably traumatizing him, that she'd be giving him a lot of troubles when he grew up. But she couldn't stop. Physically and emotionally, she was a wreck.

Whenever she thought about what had happened, the way Jacopo had looked at her, the things he had said, the way he had said them, her waterwells would open back up and she'd find herself with fresh tears running down her cheeks and a trembling bottom lip.

She didn't sob anymore, she had stopped doing that halfway through the second day. It was more like a silent cry she had.

Whenever he saw her cry, Theodore would start pouting, and Claire had to reassure him, hug him and tell him that she was just getting rid of some very sad emotions, that it was good to cry from time to time, and that he didn't have to be afraid for her, because she'd be feeling better soon.

At first, Theodore had asked where uncle Jacopo had gone, and when he was coming back, once everyone had calmed down slightly after the fight - which had made Claire start crying again, as she felt responsible for everything bad that was happening in the house, while David had had to calm himself down by taking a walk around the property.

When he had come back, he had sat Theodore down in the living room and had told him, keeping his calm, that it seemed that uncle Jacopo was going to live somewhere different, from then on, and Theodore had asked why, and David had to hold himself back from uttering out all the expletives he was thinking in reference to Jacopo himself. Claire had remained silent, sniffing and trying to stop crying.

Apparently, Jacopo had come back to the house, while Claire was outside, the following day, taking a walk around the block to calm herself - and the whole thing had felt done on purpose, as if Jacopo had been expecting her to leave the house so he could go back to it. He had finished taking his stuff, filling the suitcases he would've needed to bring to his new place - an apartment he was renting with Toby - and he had said goodbye to Theodore, hugging him and telling him he'd try to be back to see him as much as he could. David had had to hold himself back from telling him that LIKE HELL he'd be back. He didn't want to scare the child.

And then he had as good as disappeared from their lives.

He had exited their groupchapt, which felt like the biggest slap in the face known to man, since that groupchat had existed since all of them had downloaded Whatsapp. He hadn't answered any of Claire's texts trying to get him to talk (he had also turned off reading receipts so Claire didn't really know if he was reading her texts). David wasn't talking to him, because he was too mad, not understanding how he could've had a complete 180 on them, and on Claire, especially, choosing to believe and side with Toby, a guy he had known less than 2 years. He couldn't get over it.

Claire was doing terribly.

Never, in a million years, she could've expected for Toby to do this to her, to turn her own friend against her, and have him pick his side without even hearing her side of the story.

Out of all the people she had known, her closest friends - David, Jacopo and Fabian - were some of the only people she was sure would never abandon her. The only people who had seen her at her worst (her many worsts, actually) and that still loved her. The people who loved her, despite her being hard to love.