Never Met a Girl Like Her | ✔️

(38)

L E O N I E

Things changed fast after Amy and Ethan split up. I mean, she'd been drifting from us before they made their break up official. But it felt different once we were all back at school. She didn't sit with Jess and I in homeroom. She moved to a new cooking group in food tech. She left the group chat. I never believed that friends who were opposites couldn't work out. It was all in the respect that you had for each other.

But she made it clear that she felt, she didn't belong with us. She spent more time with Yulia and her club friends. And as the weeks went on, she seemed happier. Happier than I'd seen her in a long time. So did Ethan. He stuck close with us though and I could see the shift in him. He was more relaxed. Less on edge due to the fact that there was no arguments that he had to dodge.

On Friday at school, I wandered down the locker corridor, reading a text from Heath - we had the baby's twelve week scan on Monday - when I saw Amy coming from the other direction. She had her head down, reading a letter with an enormous smile on her face. She looked up before we bumped into each other.

"Oh, hey," she folded the paper up and slipped it into her shoulder bag. Her gaze flickered down to my stomach. It was quick. "How are you?"

"Great," I smiled.

It was still a secret that I was pregnant. I figured I'd get through as much school as possible before I had to leave. My grades were good at the moment. Thanks to Heath. He helped me a lot. I'd even been accepted to University of Miami on early acceptance. I hadn't turned down the spot but I did need to get on with that and give them a call.

"How are you?" I asked and pointed at her bag. "You looked excited about something?"

"Yeah. That was an acceptance letter. To the University of California. They have the top veterinary program and I'm going to be joining it."

"Congratulations," I said. It was sincere too. That was impressive. She'd worked hard for it. "Wow. California, huh? That's a big move."

She shrugged. "Good thing there's nothing keeping me here."

That was sort of awkward. But I nodded along and decided not to get into it with her. I hadn't exactly been a big advocate for her and Ethan remaining together. In fact, I'd been vocal as hell about letting go of their relationship. It was a toxic mess and they were both better for it ending.

"You didn't have to stop being friends with the rest of us, you know?" We moved over for a group of sophomores filing through the corridor, loud chatter and excitement echoed in the halls. "You and Ethan split up. It didn't mean that the rest of us wanted to split up with you."

She made a pssh sound with her mouth, amused it would seem. "I didn't fit in. I didn't fit in for a long time. You were all so close and I was on the outs. No matter how hard I tried, I could never seem to fit like you and Jess did. Neither of you had to do a damn thing apart from be yourselves, and the guys loved you. But if I was my true self, I was teased. And it made me resentful and angry. I'm actually relieved to be away from that toxic environment."

"You're kidding, right?" I blinked. "When you told us that you were going vegan, we were all like, alright, that's cool. But then it started. The lectures and the judgement. You'd have a go at all of us for eating meat or drinking or doing this, that and the next thing. So we might have started teasing, but we never put you down the way that you did to us."