Between Love and Friendship (Completed)

Chapter Twenty Four

Chapter Twenty Four

Two weeks later, I couldn’t believe the situation that I had found myself in. Not only was it the one of the most uncomfortable conversations to ever take place in my life, but it caught me completely off-guard. And not in a good way.

How on earth did I end up comforting a crying girl in the bathroom when I was supposed to be taking a chemistry exam? And not just any girl.

It was Annabelle.

And she wasn’t just crying over Gabriel. She was crying because she was afraid that she had gotten pregnant.

* * *

I remember walking into the bathroom at the end of my lunch period. I looked in the mirror, noticing that my lips were dry. While I reached into my bag and fumbled around for some chapstick, I heard someone in the stall furthest from the door. Someone crying.

“Are you okay in there?” I asked without thinking.

“No,” The person answered. That wasn’t the answer I expected.

The voice sounded too nasal and croaky to even identify who it was, but I already decided that it was my job to find out and make whoever it was in there feel better.

“What’s wrong? Do you want to talk about it?”

“I-I don’t know what to do. All my friends hate me now, and-” She was cut off by her own sobbing.

“You should come out of there and wash your face,” I suggested.

To my surprise the girl walked out of the stall almost immediately. It was a red-faced, puffy-eyed Annabelle. My eyes widened in shock, but she looked unphased by seeing me.

“I’m so sorry, Aria,” She mumbled, with her head down. “You probably hate me now, and I wouldn’t blame you. But I just…I have no one to go to anymore. They-they all hate me now.”

“Why?” I uttered, surprised at the unusual high pitch of my voice.

“I slept with Stacey’s boyfriend.” The words flew out of her mouth so easily that you could think she was talking about the weather.

“What?” I asked, my jaw hanging open in disbelief. She slept with someone. As in, had sex. I mean, I knew teenagers did that all the time, but hearing someone you’ve known for a while openly admit to doing the deed was something worse.

“You probably think I’m a slut now, just like everyone else. I-I hate myself so much more than they ever could, though.”

“No, I don’t, but … why would you do something like that?” I asked, genuinely concerned for her. Sure, she betrayed me, stole my best friend, turned a reasonable part of the school against me, and embarrassed me in front of everyone. But I didn’t hate her. I couldn’t hate her.

Not when she stood there crying her eyes out.

“I was depressed, Aria. Over Gabriel. And what I did to you. And just…everything. I went to Cole’s party and got drunk and the next morning I woke up next to him. And Stacey somehow found out and turned everyone against me. All my friends won’t even look at me now. I’m nothing but a whore,” Annabelle explained, wiping her eyes.

“Didn’t Cole and Stacey break up months ago?” I had remembered her sharing this bit of news back in February when we were still friends.

“Yeah, but she still considers him hers because they dated for a year. And she’s still furious with me; she thinks I betrayed her…”