Worth The Risk

16

In just a month, Normani and I went from inseparable to not even greeting each other when we passed each other in the hallway because Sam was always by my side. She was slowly retreating back into her shell, making less eye contact (not that she ever made that much to begin with) and being so painfully quiet that no one noticed her except me.

She always had an excuse for why she couldn't come over when my parents invited hers over on weekends, and she didn't sit next to me at church either. Even though I had no right to, I missed being around her. I missed her laughter, her jokes, being annihilated every time I tried to play any game with her. I even miss the tiny little smiles when Sam wasn't looking.

'Dinah!' Mom screamed my name probably for the second time judging by how irritated she sounded. I put my stuff aside and ran downstairs only to find her and Andrea in the kitchen.

'Hi, is everything okay?'

'Of course,' she smiled sweetly at me as she handed me a plate of chocolate cake. 'Have a seat dear, Andrea made that and I wanted you to have some before everyone else goes crazy and finishes it.'

As I sat down, I noticed that Normani was in the living room, playing with Seth. Andrea called her to the kitchen and she came with Seth, who would have just followed her into the kitchen anyway. Andrea handed her a slice of cake too and instructed her to sit down.

'Why are you avoiding each other?' Andrea asked quietly.

'We're not,' Normani answered immediately. 'Senior year is just really busy and we have different class schedules.'

I was rarely ever on the receiving end of my mother's death glares because I never did stupid shit that was worthy of the glare. She put the knife that she had been using to slice the cake down and rested both of her hands on he counter.

'Andrea and I spoke and we thought Normani might say that. Dinah is this true.'

'It is,' Normani answered for me. Apparently that was all for her because she got sent back to playing with my siblings in the living room. I felt a pang as I watched her give half of her slice to Mila and then half of her half to Gina.

'Is he worth it?'

'Mom what are you talking about?'

'Before you decide to continue down this path, I just want you to stop for a moment and ask yourself if Sam is really worth ruining your friendship with Normani. And you're not just ruining your friendship, you're breaking her. And soon enough she'll start to rebuild walls so thick and so high that even you won't be able to get through them this time.'

Neither of them said anything else, so I took that as my cue to leave. I wasn't even in the mood for chocolate cake anymore, so I ended up leaving my slice downstairs in my haste to get away. Half an hour later, there was a quiet knock on my door. I wiped my tears away and shouted for the person to come in.

Normani opened the door and got into bed beside me when I started crying again. I turned to face her, and I buried my face against her shoulder.

'I'm sorry, I treat you like shit and then I have the audacity to cry into your shoulder like a victim.'

'I'm sorry that I put you in this position. I never should have kissed you.'

'No we were playing a game, we were both tipsy.'

Normani shrugged. 'The point is I understand, and I'm not mad. It's not the first time I've had to do this.'