The Anatomy of a Broken Heart //Completed//

59. Caleb

"Speaking of the wicked witch of the west..." Santana whispered. I looked up in time to see Farrah strutting down the aisle towards us. She was flanked by Bo and Adriana, who wore matching scowls. Unexpected disappointment flooded my body, but my heart still skipped a beat at the sight of Farrah. When she approached the table, she wasn't looking at me. Her eyes were focused on Ansel.

"Congrats on the win tonight, Ansel," she said sweetly, but I recognized the edge in her voice. "Bo here was waiting for you after the game. You guys had a date, didn't you?"

Uh-oh. Unlike Farrah, Bo wouldn't even look at Ansel. It was clear to me that Farrah had dragged her over to our table. I didn't know her well, but it wasn't hard to guess she'd rather be swallowed into hell rather than be humiliated like she was now. She and Ansel had gone to a couple of parties together, but he never really mentioned anything about her to me. Only when he was really interested in someone, did he confide in anyone about them.

Ansel pulled Maria a little bit closer to him and smiled at Farrah, but I could see his discomfort. "I don't remember making any date with anyone other than my girlfriend. You've met Maria, haven't you Farrah? The lead in your play?"

"Oh, I just figured you were on babysitting duty."
Ansel's face got red and his hand balled into a fist atop the table.

"Did you want something, or are you just making your nightly bitch rounds?" Santana spoke up.

"Careful, Santana. You don't want to spend your whole vocabulary in one sentence," Farrah sneered.

"Do people actually take you seriously? Or are their heads that far up your ass that they can't distinguish between the shit in there and the one that comes out of your mouth?"

"You little b—"

"How about you leave us alone and take your band of groupies with you?" Maria cut Farrah off.

I laughed unconsciously, noticing for the first time how similar Maria was to her sister. I liked her all the more for it.

"You think this is funny, Caleb?" Farrah finally addressed me.

"I think you're making a big deal out of something that's completely irrelevant. Your friend clearly doesn't give a shit and yet here you are. Making a scene." I spread my hands out. "Like always."

"Of course you wouldn't understand. This is exactly the kind of thing that..." she trailed off. Around us, people were beginning to stare. If there was something Farrah hated, it was being the subject of gossip. It meant you were doing something wrong, that you had failed, and failure was unacceptable. She was like a fifty-year-old sophisticate in a debutante's body.

Oh, Lord, she's like my mother.

"You know what? This is pointless." She turned to my cousin. "Ansel, when you inevitably break this little girl's heart, try to do it after the play. We don't want her ruining the show as she breaks down in tears in the middle of her lines."

She turned on her heel then, and walked away with Bo and Adriana in tow. Bo shot me an apologetic look but didn't linger.

Nobody said anything when they left, but I could feel heat radiating from Ansel. Maria looked so sad and everyone else just looked annoyed. Santana looked at me with an expression I understood all too well. It asked, "Are you an idiot?"

I was. Before I could apologize on her behalf—which was a ridiculous notion because I didn't do anything but I'd developed a habit of doing it whenever she went on one of her rants—my phone pinged.

We need to talk.

It was a text from Farrah. Santana's eyes flicked to my phone and then to me. Her eyebrow arched in question.