Fawkes

A Rude Awakening

After I pocketed my phone, I made my way across the courtyard, realizing most of my lunch had been spent by me having an existential crisis with myself. Sam was wrong about me, but he was also right. But Robin was the one who had knocked some sense into me and made me realize what I was missing.

I examined the green grass and the people milling about when a familiar blonde ponytail caught my sight.

Sandy was sitting on the edge of the fountain, chucking a wad of gum inside and crying.

I immediately made a beeline for her, anger overcoming my senses as I thought of Lauren belittling her again. What had that nasty excuse for a human done this time? Ran over her dog? Killed her father? The list of possibilities was endless.

But as I approached her, sitting there in all her smudged mascara and runny nose glory, I saw it wasn't Lauren that was at large for her tears.

She was holding her phone, a texting app open, and the name that was written across the top of the screen was Josh, followed up closely by about ten different coloured hearts.

I quickly put the pieces together as I watched her read a short but effective text message he had sent her and sob again. It was about time, anyway.

"Sandy?" I all but tiptoed up to her, scared of what she might do if taken by surprise, "Is everything okay?"

She looked up at me, and heartbreak was evident across her features, but mostly in her sky blue eyes, which glistened with fresh tears and held so much sadness. Sadness that shouldn't be there, but sadness that she brought upon herself by being so open. Recently, her actions of putting her heart on the line for everyone to step on had been coming back to bite her, and as much as I wanted to blame her for it, I couldn't. She was only human, and it was the ruthless demons that were at fault. People like Lauren and Josh who took Sandy's heart and friendship for granted. Old me might've ridiculed her for being emotional, but new me was accepting that this was the norm. And for Sandy, I didn't care about what she had done to bring this upon her, all I cared about was getting that smile back on her face.

However, I wasn't about to beat around the bush. I didn't do that for anyone.

"Look." I sat down beside her as she sobbed. With one hand I took her phone from her and placed it on the ledge beside me, and with the other hand I held hers, squeezing it gently and looking into her eyes, "I'm gonna be honest with you, he was an absolute scumbag. A shit-stained nobody. I know you loved him, but he didn't deserve you. He was nasty and foul and didn't know what he had, do you understand? You're ten times the person he'll never even be, and it hurts now, but you'll realize soon enough that you can do so much better."

My words, although all true, didn't seem to matter to her. She just sobbed and buried her face into my shoulder, surely getting makeup all over my white shirt. I found myself not caring, just rubbing her back calmly.

I spoke to her over and over, reassuring her and letting her know that he was worthless, but she was too heartbroken to listen. It was frustrating, but I didn't care, I just held her up until she calmed down a little.

It was quiet as she stayed on my shoulder, sniffling every so often but not sobbing like before. My shirt was all but soaked with her tears, but I didn't dare move, not until she sat up and wiped her eyes.

"I'm gonna go to the washroom, class starts soon." Her tone of voice told me she wanted to be alone, and I understood. I had never been the type to be great at sympathy and emotional support. I watched her grab her phone and leave, shoulders slumped and hair messy, looking so much more defeated and sad than when I had first met her. It made me mad that the world had done this to her. Of all the people it could reign its terror on, it had to choose Sandy, who still had so much hope left in her.