Kissing Is the Easy Part

Chapter 63 The Gatorland excursion

Flora

"I still can't believe this," Sandra repeated for the fifth time that night. I expected her to say something catty or just plain mean, but she seemed to be lost in perpetual shock. "I can not believe this. You broke up with him over a random tiramisu guy?"

I sighed from my bed. "You just don't get it."

We had already gone through the bawling (me) and the comforting (mostly Carmen), and now the interrogation phase started. To be honest I questioned the decision myself, profoundly and constantly, and after seeing the reaction from my friends, the feeling of having done something ridiculously wrong became stronger than ever.

It was like comparing answers to an exam; I wasn't entirely sure I put down the correct choice in the first place, and now everyone was telling me it was D instead of B.

Ever since the breakup, I wore the PJ's Sean gave me and cried myself to sleep every night, thinking of him till it felt like I was ripped apart. Missing someone was the scariest feeling--

"I think that guy sounds like a creep and you made a humongous mistake." Sandra propped a pillow against her back before reaching out for more ice cream. "I'll just go ahead and say what everyone's thinking. You're going to regret this."

"I don't really understand either," Carmen said softly. "I thought you guys loved each other?"

"Love can't solve every problem."

Sandra snuck a quick glance at Carmen. "Well, unless he's 42 and married, I don't see what the problem is."

At this point Janet interjected and told me she understood, but Sandra didn't let her finish before starting again with her rants. It was like I personally offended her by breaking up with a guy she deemed merely tolerable before.

"I think the whole incompatibility issue is bullshit," she said. "It's not like he slaps you every time you mention the word Michelin. Besides, he's just asking you to refrain from locking yourself in a room with Raymond Corbett, a guy with questionable morals and intentions, I might add, and that's completely reasonable."

"Sandy, can you just tell me you support me?" I pursed my lips. "I feel bad enough as it is. I thought you didn't like me with Sean."

Her eyebrows shot up. "I never said that! I said you were obsessed with him. It's like being addicted to social media or Xbox. I suggested that you learn to be more in control and manage your time better, but you went ahead and deleted every account! Extreme much?"

"Deleting is actually very effective," Janet said. "I want them to stay together too, but right now Flora's got to put herself first."

"True love survives a little time apart, right?" Carmen said, her face wistful but her tone skeptical, like convincing a child of Santa's existence. "Maybe you're better off alone for the time being, and in the future you can find a way to be together again. I heard this saying that sometimes a person has to go a very long distance out of his way to come back a short distance correctly."

"Pfft. Do you honestly believe that?" Sandra's shiny blonde head shook like a rattlesnake. "You can always reactivate an account, but once you lost a person, you lost them for good."

"Maybe he'll want to marry me if we're both still single at 28," I said. My lame attempt of a joke didn't even amuse myself.

Sandra looked at me gravely, like she was my fairy godmother and had just caught me wearing rags for a ball. "Sean's not even going to wait till prom, honey, and after he goes to college, it's a lost cause, even if MIT isn't exactly a modeling agency. Guys like him don't stay single for long. He'll meet someone who's simple and easy to handle, like...pizza, and when he marries pizza girl someday, you'll whine about why he doesn't appreciate a French cuisine type of girl such as yourself."