Between Love and Friendship (Completed)

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen 

Friday was a disaster. My friends weren’t speaking to me. I didn’t know if it was because of the fight me and Gabriel had the day before, or if Annabelle was mad at me for something that I just wasn’t aware of. Maybe they were sick of me tagging along all the time.

But I was also sick of being the third wheel, whether or not they were actually together.

I went through the first three periods of the day without confronting either of them. But by fourth, which I had with Gabriel, I walked straight over and sat down next to him. Class was about to start. 

He closed his binder and got up. I stood up, too. “Why are you mad at me?” I asked, pulling on his arm to keep him from walking away.

“What are you talking about?” He sounded way too casual.

“You’ve been ignoring me all day,” I said, feeling stupid.

“I’m not mad, but I’ve just been busy and stuff. Don’t take it personal.”

Did he really expect me to believe that?

He walked away as soon as he finished his sentence, sitting down at the opposite side of the room. I couldn’t believe him. How long was he going to pretend that he “wasn’t mad”, when clearly something was bothering him? Had I done something wrong?

Yeah, I had made some nasty comments the day before, and we had some disagreements about Annabelle and Trevor. But that was no reason for him to be a complete jerk and pretend that I didn’t exist anymore.

I had been mad too, but I wanted to face and fix the problem, rather than ignore it, the way he was ignoring me. He could be such a coward sometimes.

I folded my arms and rested my head on the desk. I couldn’t pay attention to the teacher’s lecture on global warming. Usually, Gabriel and I never fought. It was only because of Annabelle and Trevor that we were starting to have disagreements.

It’s not worth it, I thought.  

Petty arguments weren’t worth our friendship. But now that Gabe had Annabelle, he didn’t seem to value my friendship anymore.

I hated the thought.

I took notes and raised my hand a lot and tired not to think about it for the rest of the period.

When lunch time finally arrived, I walked into the overly crowded cafeteria half-expecting that I would sit at my usual table with Annabelle and Gabriel. Except, when I saw them laughing together from across the room, I realized that things really weren’t the same. Gabriel was mad at me. And Annabelle also seemed to be avoiding me, probably because Gabriel had told her to.

That’s when it hit me. They had each other, and they didn’t need me anymore.

This was how it was going to be. He had chosen to be with her, and she wanted to be with him. And neither of them wanted me there, butting into conversations and annoying them with my existence.

“Fine,” I muttered to myself. Fine by me.

I bought two bags of chips from the vending machine, and went outside and sat on a bench and tried not to think. I neatly re-wrote my global notes. I read a chapter of To Kill a Mocking Bird. I ate my potato chips. I took out a sheet of loose leaf and did my math homework.

But by the end of the period, there were three teardrops soaking into the page.

* * *

“Aria, are you okay?” Someone asked me, during 8th period Chemistry. I turned to my left, and realized that the voice had belonged to a red-headed girl named Promise. I remembered a time I had helped her pick up her books in the hallway a few weeks back. She was shy and reserved, but she seemed to really care about people.

“I’m fine,” I lied, faking a smile.

“I-um…I saw you outside during lunch,” She mumbled quietly.

“Oh.” She had seen me crying. “It’s fine, don’t worry about me.”

“Well, you helped me once before, so if you need a friend, I’m here.”

My eyes began to water. No one had ever said such kind words to me.

“Let’s go to the bathroom,” Promise suggested. She asked Mr. Shubert if we could go, and then lead me outside.

By the time we had gotten to the bathroom, a couple of tears had escaped. I stubbornly wiped them away with the back of my hand. Don’t be such a baby, I mentally scolded myself.

“Here, wash your face.” Promise said kindly. I glanced at myself in the mirror. My eyes and nose were all red, and let’s say I was not at my most attractive. I splashed my face with cold water for a minute or two. It really cooled me down, and I was able to stop the tears.

“You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to, but it might help to get it off your chest…”

I dried my face and took a breath. “It’s just…I think I’ve lost two of my best friends and I don’t even know why. They kind of have a thing now, and I don’t know, I feel like the third wheel most of the time. They-they don’t need me as a friend anymore and I just feel really lonely and betrayed.” I couldn’t believe that I was able to put it into solid words. It made my problem seem stupid and childish.

“Well, why don’t you talk to them about it?” Promise suggested.

“They’ve kind of been ignoring me,”

“You should confront them. They have to tell you why they’re mad, at least. And if they’re real friends, you guys will be able to work it out. If not, they’re not worth being friends with anyway.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“And if they’re dating now, like you said, try talking to them separately. If they were your friends for a while, I doubt they would just ditch you like that without a reason, or without feeling bad about it.”

I looked at the floor, and muttered, “Yeah.”

“And if they do turn out to be jerks, forget both of them. You have me.”

Promise gave me a quick hug. “Okay?”

“Okay,” I nodded. “Thanks.” I said, smiling weakly.

Thanks for being a good friend.

 A/N: Thanks for reading! Please vote and leave a comment if you liked it! :)