Breaking "Bad"

T h i r t e e n

[Edited]

~Scott~

I'm sorry.

It was the last thing I'd said to her.

The words seemed so stupid now, so pathetic and unworthy of conveying how I truly felt. I was sorry. Sorry that she'd ever developed her insecurities; sorry that her parents had been selfish fools who hadn't paid enough attention to their daughter over the years...Sorry about the way things had turned out between us.

I was just. Sorry.

Then why did I still feel as though I'd left so much between us unsaid?

After eight months to show for our relationship I'd let her go with just two words, that's why. I hadn't even told her I'd come to know about her past -- something I was surprised she'd kept from me for so long, despite its bleak darkness.

Instead of trying to rationalise why she'd done what she'd done all that time ago, I'd simply been spending the past few days thinking about what else she must've kept from me.

How much had I not known about her?

Worse yet, I thought as I stood at a loss at what to do, if this was all I'd focused on then what did that say about our relationship in the first place? Both questions had refused to leave me even after hours of contemplation.

I sighed.

All I knew was that in order to move on I had to stay as far away from her as possible. I couldn't allow myself to be swept in again. I wouldn't.

It would get us nowhere.

Picking up the phone, I dialled the only person I wanted to speak to.

He picked up after the second ring. "Hello?"

"I need a distraction," I told him. On hearing the tone of my voice he cursed, telling me to stay where I was. "I'm not an invalid," I joked, although it didn't make me smile.

"Doesn't mean I can't look out for my best friend," was the sharp response from the other end. "Tell me whereabouts you are."

I gave him the street name.

"I'll be ten minutes," he said before hanging up.

When he pulled up in his BMW, I hopped into the passenger seat before shutting the door as he pulled away. "Where are we going?" I asked.

He shifted gears. "My place."

I nodded, trying to appear deep in thought so he wouldn't ask me anything just yet.

The streets whizzed past as he wove expertly around the bends, only slowing slightly to go around them.

"What was the final straw?" He finally asked me, I'm guessing when he couldn't take any more. It was spoken so quietly I almost didn't hear it.

I replied easily enough, not wanting to seem fazed by the question. "Last week's incident."

He looked puzzled.

He must not have known, I realised. I was surprised he hadn't heard about it already. The video had been posted on Facebook and Twitter for the world to see; I hadn't clicked on the links once.

In order to get it over with, I enlightened him. "When I walked past her table that morning I noticed she wasn't there but the rest of the girls were," He made a sound to show he was listening.

"Layla saw me, got up and came to say hi. She knew I was looking for Hailey and said she was busy sorting something out with one of the girls,"

"And?"