friendship // mirstie

▶Clean

The drought was the very worst, when the flowers that we'd grown together died of thirst.

"Stay away from Matthew." Mitch said. "That's what I was saying, not you to just disappear and leave me."

"No, Mitch! You're being mean to him!" Kirstie shouted. "You are so selfish, you shouldn't have done that! You hurt the guy!"

She breathed, then she yelled at Mitch again, "why? Just because you're jealous of nothing!"

"But I'm just afraid that he will get your feelings. I know he has something on you, he fucking looks at you like he likes you."

"Why are you cussing at me?" Kirstie asked. "Is this what you really are after the years we've been through?"

Mitch got close to her and tried to soothe her mood, "Sweetheart baby, just stop."

She pushed him away, "get away from me!"

"Kirstie! All I wanted is to-"

"Enough Mitch, enough!" She yelled. "I've heard enough from you and your excuses!"

"Listen, Kirstie, I-"

"Stop Mitch!" She yelled. "Just stop!"

"How about you stop yelling and we talk about this?" Mitch said. "Again." Then he sighed.

"That's the point!" She shouted. "We've been talking about Matthew all day and I won't stop trying to fix this even I ran out of voice!"

"Kirstie, just let me finish with my sentences." He pleaded. "Pretty please?"

"Stop," she said. "I think we're falling out of love."

"No." Mitch contradicted. Once he heard that she was falling out of love for him, his world was silently crushing. He was keeping his best to compose himself just not to cry. "You're just angry."

"Mitch," she sighed. She knew she was strong enough to do this. She is strong enough to let go of the man she dreamed of. "Let's just break this relationship up."

"No." Mitch whispered and tried to hug Kirstie, but she was resisting him. She gently turns Mitch's arms down and held both of his hands.

"Nothing lasts forever, Mitch. Nothing stays the same." Kirstie felt a crack on her heart as she said it, but they were young and this can't be their forever.

For Mitch, it was hurtful. She just ran away like that, like they were never together. With simple words that cut him like knives. They broke up because of a stupid friend.

Then Kirstie's phone rang. He exchanged phones with her because of Matthew. What a coincidence that Matthew was calling Kirstie.

"Kirstie, Mitch just did the right thing, okay?" Matthew said and Mitch let him finish. "I need to wake up from reality, I'm just a friend."

Mitch clears his throat then said, "so it's true."

As Matthew recognized the voice, chills went down his spin and he couldn't believe who he was talking to.

"Look, Mitch. I'm sorry if you don't trust me about your girlfriend-"

"Matthew, it's okay. We just broke up." He was trying everything just to sound calm and clear.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Was it because of me?"

"Yes."

"Now, I feel guilty and bad."

"Just take care of her if she'll ever be on a relationship with you. Love her like she's the only girl you see, okay?"

"Okay."

"Don't tell her that you had this conversation with me, alright?"

"Yes, Mitch. I'm sorry again."

"I hope you're happy now."

"Wait, you don't-" And Mitch hung up the phone. He's not with Kirstie anymore, and he doesn't need to hear how Matthew is glad with it.

He could hear everything crashing. His world was crushed into pieces like it was the most irrelevant thing in the universe. From here to there, to almost all the corners of his room. He felt like he was exploding inside.

He rushed to the bathroom downstairs and puked. Thankfully, he was alone there so he locked the bathroom and cried.

He puked because he did it whenever his feelings were extreme. He admitted it a long time ago, he was so young back then to even fall in love, he was from severe depression, and he's too vulnerable of breaking.

All of it disappeared because of Kirstie. Now, here it is again, double the worse.

He didn't find the strength to do anything but take a bath and rest, then locking his room to be alone for a while.

When the morning rose, Kirstie went back to Mitch's house. She was there to get her phone, noticing it was gone when she heard Matthew's conversation with Mitch. She was at Matthew's place when he called her phone.

Matthew already had a girlfriend that time, but he admits that he had this previous crush on Kirstie he can't undo.

She felt sorry for Mitch but the break up was for the best, she guessed.

She knocked and, "hi Kirstie, I'm glad you came back. This is your phone." It was Mitch's sister.

"Where's Mitch?" Kirstie asked. "Why was he not the one to give this to me?"

"He's been up in his room for the whole day." She answered. "He said that he was not on the mood to even get up. What happened?"

"We broke up yesterday." Kirstie answered. She felt a little heartbreak. She knew in the back of her mind that there was something wrong. But no, she's okay with this. Well, she should be.

"That's horrible." His sister told her. "To be honest, I don't want to see him hurt. I always have tried to warn him about falling in love."

Kirstie was just silent and Mitch's sister sighed. "But you know what? You made him so happy these days." She said.

They said their goodbyes and Kirstie felt that there was something very wrong yet it felt good. It was like, freedom.

But nothing was great, Mitch nearly died and his family are the only people who had the memory engraved on their minds.