Second Chances

I picked at the reddish nail polish on my nails. It was a terrible nervous habit of mine, but one I'd yet to kick. We were sitting in an old booth in the back of Al's restaurant. It was late at night but Kate had announced a sudden craving for a chocolate milkshake. The lighting was dim and uninviting, but we decided to stay anyways. The restaurant was pretty empty. There was a group of college guys at a table in the corner and a few more people scattered in the line and walking to the condiments stand. I was sitting alone in the booth, staring at my phone. I had found an article about celebrities losing their virginity to other celebrities online, and was pulled in, knowing they were most likely lies. I scrolled through the page, and had just reached Kim K when Kate slammed my heavy drink onto the table. She was dressed in an oversized black sweatshirt and baby blue beanie. It wasn't her best look, she'd said it herself, but we'd just laughed.

"Thanks," I said, pulling it to me. The cup was ice cold, and damp with condensation. I hit a paper covered straw onto the counter until the small plastic tube popped out of the top. I slid the straw into my cup, and took a large sip. The thick, creamy liquid was sweet, almost too sweet, but refreshing. I watched as Kate did the same, giving an over exaggerated sigh after her first sip. "Good?" I asked.

"Delicious," she said, with the straw stuck between her lips and pushed to the side of her mouth. We sat there for a while, and I people watched, another one of my unkickable habits. I loved Imagining where people were going or where they were coming from. Sometimes I can guess based on their clothing or something they carried but other times I'd just make up short little stories in my head. My newly manicured hands were now messy and uneven as I continued to pick at them. I didn't know why I bothered paying for someone to paint my nails when I always did this. Each time, I told myself I wouldn't, but then something would happen, a silent moment, and anxiety attack, a nervous breakdown and they would be ruined, just like that. No, the problem was that I couldn't save money. I played a game of tug of war in my mind for the next minute, trying to convince myself I never felt uncomfortable in social situations. The left side claiming bullshit, which I couldn't help but agree with.

"That guy." I paused. "The guy you told me about in the car, tell me more about that," I prompted Kate, breaking the silence. She looked up at me from her phone, mid snap.

"What do you mean? There's not much to tell. We just hung out a lot over the summer, but then you know." My mind flashed back to the year before, when Kate and I had drifted apart. High school had been a hard transition for both of us. We'd gone in different directions and it had caused a wedges between the two of us. We weren't in the same house and never had a class together.

"Then Taylor slept with him?"

"Yep," she said, returning her attention back to her phone. I noticed her staw hadn't left her mouth, she had been slowing sipping at her drink the whole time. Kate and I had talked a lot about things that happened post drift and pre rekindling.

"Do you hate her?"

"No, I don't hate her," Kate started to say, "I don't hate anyone," she added, with a hint of humor in her voice. Ironically, Kate was the most dramatic person I knew, and had no problem expressing this. I'd definitely heard the word come from her lips more times than I could count.

"How come?"

"I mean she was one of my best friends, you can't just turn on someone like that. I couldn't anyways." She had ended her friendship with Taylor soon after finding out this information, but Taylor still, to this day, hadn't been able to admit she'd done anything wrong. "I just don't, and won't, talk to her," Kate said, now with clear sarcasm in her voice. I spun the straw around my cup, mixing the melting mocha colored liquid. "I had a really hard summer, it sucked, and this was just adding gasoline to the fire."