Welcome to Welton

4 Kendall

I practically run up the stairs, Maddie in tow. We get to our dorm and I collapse into my bed, tears already falling down my face. "Kendall, what's up?" Maddie says, sitting down next to me, patting my hair. "Maddie I...I met a guy last year" Maddie nods, and I summon the courage to tell her the story. "You know how Abby forbid fraternizing with competition?" Maddie rolls her eyes "course I do"
"Well I met this guy backstage at one of them-the one where the cameras didn't come because they were filming Candy Apples. He was really cute, and he got first place, and we traded numbers". Maddie sees where this is going, I think, but I need to get it out of my system. "We texted all year, and over the summer we both went to Dancer Palooza, and we were a thing for a week, and he kissed me and promised to visit" I take a deep breath of air, but Maddie just stays quiet. That's why I wanted to talk to her, because she's a good listener. "And we kept texting and yesterday he called and said he loved me, and I just saw him in the cafeteria and he was making out with..." and I break down because he was the reason I put up with Abby, the reason I kept dancing. He was my everything, and now he is nothing. Maddie rubs my back, and when the other girls come in she fills them in.
"Oh Kendall" Chloe says, her voice full of sympathy.
"What's his name so I can beat his ass?" Paige growls.
"No bad words!" Sophia says.
"His name is A-A-Ashton" I say, and I lapse into another round of sobs. Someone calls Nia, who was the only one of us with any sense in this sort of situation. "First off, if Abby gets wind of you guys calling me, I am dead. And Kendall, don't worry about him. He was a stupid player, and it's a good thing nothing really bad happened." "Yeah" I manage. "Now," Nia says, "put me on speakerphone, and Doctor Nia will teach you the cure to heartbreak"
Doctor Nia's cure to heartbreak involves a lot of silly jokes, chocolate, dance parties, and a classic chick flick-our choice is Mean Girls 2. Honestly, at the end I do feel better, but knowing that I'll probably see Ashton in class tomorrow disappoints me a little. I finally fall asleep in the same bed as Maddie to the muted sound of an old episode of dance moms, the final phase of doctor Nia's cure for heartbreak. Knowing that my girls will back me up no matter what is an amazing feeling, and Nia's last text is still in my mind:
Just know that you, dahling, are worth seventeen of whatever shameless 🐶 he's dating, and twenty five of him 😜😘😘😘