Love and Combat Boots

Liar, Liar, Secret Keeper

"Shit!" - Hot coffee comes pouring out of the cup that Jennifer once again overflowed.

All her mind did was wander lately and these were the usual results. If it wasn't hot coffee going down the front of her it was food burning or the occasionally piece of chicken salad now in her lap. With everything going on lately she found it almost impossible to focus, even on the simplest things. 

"You need to pay more attention to what you're doing Jennifer", Eliza turning around to see the damage. She no longer needed to see what had happened as the word that came out of Jenn's mouth was enough. 

"This is the third time this week you've overflowed your coffee mug, and it's only Tuesday."

"I know, I guess I just get so sidetracked on all the things that need to get done, and all the people I need to talk to that pouring coffee is the least of my worries." 

"Well you're wasting perfectly good coffee and have now successfully gotten most of your good shirts dirty, looks like it's laundry day for you!" Eliza stated as she turned around, picking up her backpack and throwing it over her shoulder. 

"I gotta get to class, make sure you clean up the coffee that got on the carpet, I'll see you later. Lunch at 11 right?"

"Right" Jennifer cheerfully applied. 

Lunch with her roommate everyday seemed to be the only stable item left in her life.  After she caught her boyfriend of 3 years cheating on her, her entire life has gone into a downward spiral. Nothing seemed stable anymore, not even her ability to go to classes. She had missed so many right when the breakup happened that her roommate had practically forced her to get up and go after a week. 

The skipping class wasn't doing wonders for her grades either. After making up an excuse that she was sick all week, the professors allowed her to make up the work. But turns out missing the classes and getting behind makes it extremely hard to catch up. 

Jennifer threw on a new shirt and walked her coffee mug out to the bathroom to dump some of it down the sink. She didn't have class for another hour or so but she made habit to get up early and talk to her roommate. More importantly make sure her roommate was actually awake. Eliza had a tendency to not wake up in the morning and then be sprinting out of the room trying to make it to a class that she was already 20 minutes late for. It amazed Jenn how a girl could sleep that much. 

As she got back in her room, Jennifer's phone began to buzz. She set down the coffee mug and picked it up. 

TEXT MESSAGE: 

JOSH:

Listen Jenny, I'm so sorry. Can we please sit down and talk about this? I was drunk, hell we were all drunk. And she looked a lot like you. Please, are you really going to throw away three years of love for one little mistake?

It surely wasn't just some little mistake. She hadn't even been at the party, mostly because her boyfriend hadn't bothered to invite her. That night she had sat down, planning on working on the scrapbook she was making Josh for their three year anniversary that was in two weeks. That was until she got the message of her friend with a pictured attached of Josh's tongue down some other girls throat. 

She didn't know whether to be sad, angry, or relieved. She had suspected he had been cheating but had no way of proving it and she wasn't going to ruin their perfect track record of never fighting  by bringing it up. But the night she found out she calmly poured herself a glass of wine and sat in her dorm room until Eliza returned and saw the tear streaks running down Jennifer's face. It was then that she broke, Eliza had been at the party and seen it all which is why she rushed home so soon, but it was too late, Jennifer knew. 

Eliza spent the night comforting her, never revealing the secrets about Josh and that night to Jennifer.