just friends

sweet sweet girl

Real Life

"Okay, Melissa calm down. You're just meeting Kelsey. No reason to panic." I felt the panic rising in me, I took a couple deep breathes, trying to calm myself. I hated that my anxiety would come up no matter what. No matter what I did or how small of a thing I was going to do, it would come up and hold me hostage. I hear a knock on my driver side window, I turn and see Kelsey standing there with a worried look on her face.

"Melissa, open the door." She says in a soft voice. I quickly unlock it, and she flings the door open, pulling me into a hug. "Breathe Mel, deep breathes." She soothes my hair. By this point I was already hyperventilating, my heart was racing. "Sweet girl, you are okay." We stood in the parking lot for a good half an hour until my breathing started to normalize, and my heart beat slowed down.

"What set you off Mel?" She asked me, still in a soft caring voice.

"You." I say bluntly, seeing how her face dropped. I quickly retracted myself. "No. No no, not like that, just the idea of seeing you and us not being okay it scared me."

"Shh, shh it's okay Melissa. It's okay." I nod my head, pulling her closer to me.

"I've missed you so much Kelsey."

"Oh sweet girl, I've missed you as well. I've been the worst friend in the world. I should have been there for you, everything was just a mess, Diego was always calling Ethan and I over, mainly to talk about you, and how much he missed you. But i-we should have been there for you too."

"I forgive you, I'm sorry. I overreacted. You were trying to be there for him too, I just ever since you started dating Ethan, its felt like I'm on the outside looking in." She gives me a sad smile, "Oh no, I'm over the moon that you two are together, but it just doesn't feel like the trio anymore." I sigh knowing my emotions were selfish, I should be happy for them.

"You didn't overreact, we were terrible to you, not purposely but we were. I'm so sorry, we've been so wrapped up in eachother. We never realized how exclusive we were being, and I know you are happy for us, but you're a best friend too and we needed to not wrap ourselves up in eachother leaving you out. I love you Melissa." She says, pulling away from the hug to look at me, I smile at her.

"I love you too Kelsey. Back to best friends, please?" I ask.

"Sweet girl, of course." She gives me a kiss on the head. "Ready for that coffee now?"

"Caffeine might not be the best thing for me, I'll get some tea though." I laugh as we walk to the entrance of the coffee shop. Once we walk in the smell of roasted coffee and tea fills my senses.

"Here sit here, I'll order our drinks." I take a sit and a corner booth and wait for Kelsey. I'm scrolling through my phone when I hear someone sit down across from me.

"Hi Melissa, right?" I look up to see, the one the only Tana fucking Mongeau sitting across from me.

"Uh yes." I gulp not ready to have a showdown, especially since I wasn't 100% after my panic attack. I think she could tell that I was weary of her sitting here.

"Look, I'm not here to fight with you or anything. I wanted to bury the hatchet actually, I don't want to fight with anyone over a dick, even if its good dick." She gives me a cautious smile.

"Wait, really?" I asked surprised. I really thought she came over to yell at me to stay away from Diego, which really wouldn't be a problem.

"Yes, deadass serious. You seem like a really nice girl, and I'm a girls' girl, or trying to be." She says, sipping her coffee.

"Okay. I'm down to be friends or at least have no beef. Whatever works for you." I say, happy to have one less issue in my life.

"Cool, let's be friends babe. Give me your contact info." She said excitedly, handing me her phone, putting her hand out for my phone. I carefully take her phone, handing her mine. I type my info into her phone, handing it back to her.

"Here you go." I say as we switch back phones.

"Alright cool, I'll text you later and we can hang out!" She grabs her coffee, "I got to go, have to shoot a video with James right now. But I'm glad I ran into you, bye!" I wave bye to her.

"Bye Tana." I say, watching her walk out of the restaurant. Did that really happen.

"Okay was I hallucinating or was Tana just sitting with you?" Kelsey sat down right where Tana just was.

"No hallucination, real life." I say, grabbing the tea she brought me. Taking a long sip, the warmth hits my throat and I instantly relax.

"Do I need to kick her ass? Or call Jess to kick it? Cause let's be real she is way stronger than me." She says, ready to get up.

"No, you're good. She just wanted to bury the hatchet? Be friends, random ass hell but I agreed." I shrug my shoulder, drinking my tea.

"Are you for real? That's crazy." Kelsey says, drinking her coffee. "Anyway catch me up, I know it's been a week, but I feel like we've missed so much."

"Right? And well Jess and Alissa have been dragging me out, so I don't curl up at home and cry, and honestly it helped so much. I made new friends, met this new guy- "

"NEW GUY?" Kelsey shrieks, I look up from my drink.

"He is a friend, he is the one whose pool party I went to." I shrug my shoulders not thinking it would be a big deal.

"Sweetheart Diego is going to kill any dude that goes near you. You were blessed he never attacked Neels if we are honest, and now that Neels is out of the picture you can bet your ass Diego is going to make a move on you."

"I don't think anything is going to happen with Diego." I sigh as she pops her head up looking at me with shocked eyed. "Look, at least not anytime soon. I'm serious about this space thing. I need time to be single for a bit and figure my shit out, can't jump into a relationship a mess cause it'll just be another mess." I sigh, I had been thinking about this for a while, and I knew as much as it would suck that it was the right decision.

"Well that's a really mature way to go about things. Look I'm here to support you no matter what. And you're right you have to fix your shit before you get involved with someone else's shit. Look if Diego really cares, he'll support your decision. Plus he should be happy to just be in your life, if not fuck him." Kelsey flashes a smile while looking down at her phone.

"Is that Ethan? How's that going?" I ask, happy for her happiness.

"Oh yeah it is. It's going really well so far, but he really really misses you. He deadass cried that day you walked away." Her smile falters a little.

"He did not cry." I roll my eyes, I loved Ethan so much, he was like a brother to me which I think is why I was so hurt when it felt like he friendship dumped me.

"I'm 100% serious, he cried Melissa. He misses you so much." She says, extremely serious. I feel my stomach in knots, guilt eating at me for hurting Ethan.

"Oh fuck, okay I'll talk to him. I'll call him tomorrow. I can't deal with more tonight, you get that right?" I say, panic rising at the thought of having to call Ethan right now.

"Calm down, he isn't mad at you. He is mad at himself, he loves the shit out of you. And I get it, I'll tell both of the boys to be patient." She says in a calming voice, reaching over to hold my hand. I started to calm down and felt happy that I had Kelsey back in my life.