Bermuda

1.4

"What's wrong?" Vee asked. She was sitting on her bed, with her laptop resting on her lap.

"I'm not in the mood to talk right now, Sylvia." I kicked my shoes off and jumped on my bed, landing with my face first on the pillow.

"Clearly you don't know what friends do." I heard her laptop shut and her footsteps get closer and closer to me. I felt the bed dip slightly as she sat next to me. "True friends don't care if you don't wanna talk or not. A true friend knows you're upset and makes it their darn priority to help you feel better. That's exactly what I'm going to do."

"I don't want to talk about it." I emphasised. "Please. Please, just leave me alone."

"If you really don't want to talk about what happened, that's fine, sugar." She stroked my hair. "We can talk about something else. We could talk abou—"

"I don't know what's wrong with me."

"There's nothing wrong with you Rhiannon." Sylvia scoffed.

"Barclay was going to ask me to be his girlfriend today."

"That's great!" She clapped but then stopped. "Wait, was?"

"I pushed him away—just like I tried to push you away now. I can't get my emotions in check. When I get nervous or scared, I snap and put up a wall. I'm... I'm afraid of showing any weaknesses. I guess a part of me doesn't want to start something that I know will end in heartbreak. I don't know." I sat up and wrapped my arms around my knees.

"You need to stop with all that rough talk." She sat on the opposite side of me, crossing her legs. "What makes you so sure that you and Barclay will end in heartbreak?"

"Two reasons." I shrugged. "First off all, I know Barclay but I don't, um, really know him. I don't know anything about his past or his parents or if he has siblings. Nothing. But he knows everything about me. The first time he even mentioned 'family' is when he told me half an hour ago that Kingsley was one of his good family friends. I don't like surprises so that shocked me."

It was true. I only knew the simple things about him like his favourite colour was green, his favourite food was pasta and he could touch his nose with his tongue. I didn't know about his ambitions in life, or his family or anything serious, really. Was I really ready to get involved with a...stranger?

"Have you ever considered that the reason he hasn't told you is that he has a bad past? Maybe he's trying to move on from something."

"If it's in the past then it doesn't bother me."

Did he purposely try to hide his past from me? Was he in a gang? Drugs? Bad family history?

"You need to tell him that."

"I'm not good at expressing my emotions."

"Well, if you really like Barclay then you need to at least try."

I sighed. "I guess you're right."

"Aren't I always?" She giggled. "What was the other reason?"

"We leave in a month and a half. I don't think it's smart to start a relationship now especially when he lives all the way in Florida. What if we break up? I don't want to catch feelings for him and get my heart broken."

"Barclay is a good guy—he wouldn't hurt you on purpose." Sylvia squeezed my hand. "What's summer without living a little? Take a risk and have some fun. Long distance is always an option too, darlin'."