A Light In The Darkness [Completed]

(More) Girl Talk

After spending a long, sleepless night playing back Trey's words in her head, Sol was at her wits end. She had been keeping this all inside for so long, and she felt like was going to explode. She had to talk to someone, and she could think of only one person she wanted to talk to. As soon as her mom picked her up from school, Sol called Cat and asked if she could come over. Cat said she would be right over.

A little while later both girls were sitting on Sol's bed. "So..." Cat broke the silence first. "What's up, girl? You haven't been yourself since... I can't even remember when."

"Oh, Cat...," Sol moaned. "I don't even know what's wrong anymore. I'm just... lost."

She felt her friend take her by the hand. "We have all weekend so take all the time you need. I'm ready for a good listen."

Sol gave a half-laugh. "What would I do without you?"

Cat snickered. "I don't think we want to know the answer to that question." Her voice then became serious again. "But seriously... I can tell you're hurting, and I want to help if I can."

"I don't know if you can help me," Sol said with a sigh. "But I need to get this off my chest..."

Cat already knew bits and pieces of the story, but Sol went all the way back to the beginning. To meeting Elias for the first time, to that fateful first fight with Trey, to every misunderstanding and misspoken word. She told Cat about all her doubts and fears, and how she felt like she'd made a mistake but it was too late to fix it.

When she finally finished, Sol felt drained. Still, just getting everything out in the open felt like a mountain had been lifted off her chest. I should have swallowed my pride and done this a long time ago, she thought ruefully to herself as she waited for Cat to speak.

Her friend stayed quiet for a long time, though, and when she finally did speak, her voice was slow, like she was carefully considering every word. "Relationships are a tricky thing... very rarely is one person completely right and the other completely wrong. And, barring certain circumstances, it's never all one person's fault when they fall apart. It isn't my place to hand out blame, but I'd say there's more than enough to go around in this situation."

Sol felt Cat shift her weight before continuing. "That's beside the point, though. What happened is what happened, and we can't change it now. All we can do now is move forward." She sighed heavily. "That's where things get complicated."

"Tell me something I don't know," Sol muttered, flopping back on her bed.

There was another long pause before Cat sighed again and said, "There's no easy way out of this, Sol. The thing with love triangles is that someone always ends up getting their heart broken."

"I don't want to hurt anyone," Sol said quietly.

"I know," Cat replied, her voice sad. "And I love you to pieces for that, but I will say this... It will hurt Elias to tell him the truth, but it'll be kinder to him in the long run than lying to him. Someday something will slip out and he'll figure it out, and I doubt he'll thank you for trying to protect him."

Cat put her hand on Sol's shoulder. "Besides, even if you and Trey never speak again, you won't be truly happy with someone you don't love. No matter how great he is."

"I know," Sol murmured. "But I do like him a lot, and doesn't love grow sometimes?"

"Sometimes," Cat answered. "But if you're this messed up about it... Well, I don't want to force my opinion, but I have my doubts."

Sol closed her eyes and raked a hand through her hair. "You're probably right... but it doesn't make it any easier."

"It never does."

For several minutes neither one of them spoke. Finally, Sol sighed and asked, "How come you never have any drama?"

"Girl..." Cat laughed. "Dawson and I have about killed each other multiple times. My life is about as far from being drama free as you can get." She poked Sol in the ribs. "But we are talking about you right now, not me."

"Yeah, yeah...," Sol grumbled, swatting her hand away. She bit her lip and picked at the blanket. "I don't know if I'm brave enough, Cat. I don't know if I can do it."

Cat took her hand again. "I know you can because Solveigh Winters is the bravest person I know."

"I sure hope you're right."

Cat gave her hand an encouraging squeeze. "I'm always right."