My Sister's Boyfriend

Chapter 11: Sorry seems to be the hardest word

"Thank you." A choked voice snapped me out of my Cameron induced trance. Grace looked up at me, her grey eyes wide and tear-filled. Feeling for the poor girl, I held my hand out and helped her out of her seat, saying softly "Hey, don't cry. Come on, let's get you cleaned up." I lead Grace out of the cafeteria by hand, ignoring everyone's awed stares. I could practically hear them think "What the fuck ? What the hell is she doing ?" At this point, I really didn't care what they thought of me.

As I stood outside Grace's stall, listening to her sob while my heart broke for her, I couldn't help but study my reflection in the mirror, wondering if my outside had changed as drastically as my inside. Of course, I looked no different than I had an hour ago, but I felt very, very different. I felt brave and courageous, like I had actually made a difference in someone's life. And that felt a whole lot better than just sitting by and watching people get torn down, despite knowing just how terrible they felt inside.

Grace came out of her stall a short while later, avoiding my eyes as she wiped away the last of her tears. She stopped in front of the mirror, staring at her reflection just as I had been a few moments ago. Then she averted her eyes to the floor, bowing her head as she quavered "I'm so weak."

I rushed to comfort her, saying "No, don't say that. You're not weak. Dawn's just.... overbearing." I cringed at the magnitude of my understatement.

"Tell me about it." Grace laughed mirthlessly. Then she turned around to look at me, and for the first time I saw just how sad her grey eyes were as she whispered "No, you don't get what I'm saying. I really am weak. The proof being that through that entire diatribe, I couldn't find a single retort. But maybe that's because Dawn was right."

"No, of course Dawn's not right. You can't think that, or she'll really have won and ruined you."

"But she did. I know that, and so does everyone else. And you didn't hear what she was saying, and you don't know the full story either."

"What full story ?"

Grace sighed, averting her eyes to the floor again. "Listen, this is really hard for me to say. But I'm only gonna tell you this story because if you really wanna be friends with me, you should know who I really am and what got me here."

"Okay ?"

"As you probably know, Dawn and I used to be best friends. Like really, really close. We were over at each others' houses everyday, and we knew each others' families as well as we knew our own. Everyone was sure we would stay best friends forever, because we really cared about each other. And I'll be honest, Dawn was a damn good friend. She always defended me, she always kept my secrets, and she stuck by me when no-one else did."

"Is this still Dawn Hollenbeck we're talking about ?"

"I know she's the devil's spawn, but if Dawn really cares about you she's honestly the best friend you could have. Why do you think Cameron Lacerda still hangs around with her ?"

"I guess that makes sense. Anyway, continue."

"So, as I was saying everything was great with Dawn and I. And through her I had made lots of friends, which is really hard for me, like Cameron, Carter and those other bastards whose names I can't even bear to say. And the girls clamoring for her attention, like Dahlia, who though were only hanging around me to get into Dawn's good graces were friends nonetheless. In short, everything was perfect until I messed it all up." Grace's shoulders slumped, and she buried her face into her hands. I hesitantly walked over to her, and put my arm around her, patting her back awkwardly "Come on, it's okay. What you did couldn't have been that bad."

Grace uncovered her face, sighing as the tears began squeezing out of her eyes again "But it was. Trust me, it was."

"What happened, Grace ?" I asked softly, dying of curiosity.