"It's day 10, Isla. I wish you would wake up. I've lost everything and you're the only person who understands."
Bradley Monse used to have everything. He was the star basketball player. He dated the most popular girl. He had good grades and friends...
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Shards of glass lay around Nicole. It seems that some reckless teenagers broke the glass of the shop. A huge gaping gap stares at me from the cracked wall.
I pat Nicole's back awkwardly. She just sits there, sobbing, her face contained in her perfectly manicured hands. She looks up at me with a blood-shot face.
"He broke up with me. In the middle of the cafeteria." Her face is damp. I produce a tissue from my pocket and begin wiping the black tears produced from her mascara-covered eyelashes.
"I'm sorry I put you through this, Bradley." Nicole looks me in the eyes. This was a different Nicole, fragile and cracked, like a broken mirror. Not the facade she put up at school.
"I'm sorry you had to tell him, Bradley." She says, grabbing the tissue from me, and wiping away all that made her broken.
"You know, I just wish I could turn back time. Make all this never happen."
That's something I've thought too many times myself.
"We've all done bad things, Nicole." I reply. "Now we face the music, no matter how loud they crank it up." I wipe away a stray tear from my eye.
She nods.
"Now we face the music." She whispers, with a croaky voice.
"Can I give you a ride home?" I ask.
"You drive?" She asks, looking up at me.
"Hell no! In my friend's car." I laugh and she joins in too.
"That would be great." Nicole throws her tissue down onto the glass-infested floor.
I get up myself, grab my crutches, and offer her my arm. She gladly takes it and I pull her up. We walk back to Murphy and Shauna; the dull argument they were engaged in before is now drawing to a close.
"I can go out with a hot girl if I want Shauna."
"Yeah, okay. Don't get so worked up. I'm just wondering how the hell this happened." Shauna laughs out loud, leaving Murphy in an irreversible scowl.
This is an argument Shauna has won. Murphy catches sight of me walking back to the table with Nicole.
He wolf-whistles. I don't know why. But, then I look down. My hand and Nicole's are firmly intertwined. I quickly let go.
"Hey, isn't that the girl that was cheating on your best friend, Bradley?" Shauna calls out, quite bluntly.
"Yes." Nicole says, stepping forward and putting her hand out for Shauna to shake. "I'm Nicole."
Either Shauna's not a hand-shaker or she really hates Nicole. I'm assuming the latter, but the awkwardness slaps us in the face, when Shauna doesn't extend her own hand. She only nods and says: "Cool."
