𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐬 | 𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑠

one

❝ 𝐈'𝐦 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲, 𝐉𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐞, ❞ 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫 ❝ 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭. ❞

And Hope couldn't. Blue eyes stared at the ground, unable to even glance in her friend's direction. Her mind tried to rationalize the confliction and want that had her heart aching. This was for the best. Not only for herself, or Landon, or anyone else, but for-most importantly-Josie.

But why was that? That was a question that Hope was unable to answer.

The sound of a sniffle had her glancing up. Waves of regret and guilt, along with something indescribable, crashed against the walls of her chest. The emotions that crossed Josie's (beautiful) face and had the girl hugging herself because of the words that she had said, nearly had Hope stumbling over. A stale apology laid on her tongue.

"Why not?"

The flatness of Josie's voice made her flinch and stare back at the floor. Yet, she still saw the clear confusion in her friend's eyes. Not anger, Josie was never angry at her and she could never be angry at her either. Hope wasn't sure what to make of that, nor of her question.

She opened her mouth to say- to say something. To apologize, but the words died in her throat.

"You say all these things- spill all your feelings, to me earlier, but now," Josie trailed off as her voice cracked, "I don't understand."

She didn't either if she had to be honest. She had told herself that everything would be better this way, but the way her chest hurt, she wasn't sure anymore. Hope's breathing hitched as the coming of tears burned her eyes. She took a shaky breath, rolling her response around before she dared to speak.

"It's-"

"It's Landon, isn't it?" The question was followed by a weak, humorless chuckle.

For a reason Hope couldn't explain, her blood ran hot at that. It forced her to look up and stare into chocolate brown eyes. "No," her voice came out with a bite, "no, it's not about him. It- It was never about him."

Josie's brows furrowed in confusion as she glanced away and shook her head "Then who is about," she asked, at this point she was desperately trying to understand, "what is it about?"

It was a(nother) question Hope was unable to answer. She saw the annoyance flicker across Josie's face, no doubt almost fed up with her inability to answer her questions straight and not half-assed. Hell, she was too.
She hesitated for the thousandth time today before she decided to give a truthful answer.

"I don't know."

She watched as Josie's face fell; a tear slipped down her cheek before she turned away. It made her shoulders feel heavy, slumping underneath the guilt and an embarrassing amount of shame. She wanted to reach out, provide some amount of comfort, but she couldn't. Instead she dug her fingers into her skirt.

"I think," she heard Josie's voice waver with choked up emotion, "I need to be alone for a bit."

Hope blinked. She can't say she was surprised, but it did hurt. A little. "I- uh, right."

It was sort of pathetic how quickly she left after that.

𖦹

this might just be a regular drabble, but i might write some more depending on what people want. which is why it's a bit open ended.