Paper Cuts (COMPLETED)

Chapter Twenty-Five: Eyewitness

"Hey," I said when Clara picked up the phone.

"Hey.." Clara said, her tone already exhausted, "So, what's been happening is just... There's been some stuff with Helen and Julia."

"What stuff?" I tried to make my tone as light and polite as I could - the more comfortable she was, the more rational she would be.

"Thea and I were meant to go on a holiday with them over the summer, but we just found out that we couldn't go this week," she said, "and... Helen decided to invite two of her friends before we even said that, even though we'd already paid. She put their names down on the rooms for the hotel and everything, because she was the one organising it, and she's not giving us the money back," she sighed, her voice getting more strained, "because she 'apparently' forgot we were coming and thought we'd cancelled, and that the account won't take refunds once paid."

"Well why can't their friends pay you back?" I said, interjecting to try and stop her from rambling herself into a fit.

"They were told that they didn't need to pay for anything, that it was already paid for," she laughed hotly, "which is funny because we're actually the ones paying for it."

"Okay," I said slowly, "Have you talked to them about paying you back?"

"We've tried!" said Clara, her voice getting higher and higher, wavering as she began to cry. "We got Julia and Abbey to talk to her, but she apparently said that if we wanted to get our refund we needed to talk to her ourselves."

"So maybe you should talk to Helen," I said, keeping my voice as calm as I could as she began to sob, "Getting people to talk to her for you isn't such a good idea. If you really want to solve this problem you need to talk to her yourselves."

Clara gulped a phlegmy sob and scowled, "I don't see why you're siding with them."

"I'm not?" I said, my voice beginning to get angry as well, "I was saying that you need to sort it out yourself, not get other people to do it for you."

"Oh, so it's up to us to fix it now, is it?" Clara said venomously, "This isn't our fault. I'm sorry if I messed things up with you and Lola, but it's out of our control. I just don't know what to do!"

I sighed, rubbing my eyes tiredly, and said, "Look. Clara, you're twisting my words. It was a mistake for me to ask. I don't know what you're going to do about this, if you don't want to listen to my advice. I'm sorry for pinning it on you, I didn't mean to, okay?"

Clara sniffed, "Okay. I'm going to hang up now."

"Bye," I said, trying to push all the kindness I could into the word.

"Bye."

My hands shook as I put down the phone. What had I just done? I began to tell myself that I was right. They need to sort this out themselves. You don't care about the problem, you care about the situation. It's affecting you and Lola, and you want it to stop. You also don't like how they're not confronting this head on. It's just immature.

Yes. Those were my views. Don't get them confused with what they try to tell you, Sarah. Say what you mean, and that's it. 

I had once said to my brother, "Stand up for what you believe in, and you will be surrounded by people who respect that. Those are your true friends."

I hoped it was worth practicing what I preached.

I thought of how friendly Helen and Julia were with Thea and Clara. As family friends, they'd known each other for long enough to become so close that they would go on holidays together. If they talked about them behind their backs like this, spreading it and involving people to solve it for them, then what were they saying behind my back?

Did I want friends that acted this way? Friends who couldn't even tell someone if they had a problem with them, instead resorting to talking crap about them behind their backs?

Was this what having toxic friends was? I stared down at my phone again, thinking over and over everything. I'd let myself get soft because Clara'd cried. I should've made my point clearer. 

I stared at my physics notes, sitting below the hard light of my desk lamp, and felt my stomach sicken at the sight of it. I couldn't do it tonight. I was just going to have to wait until my study tomorrow. Maybe.