Treadmill

XIX.I

I told you.

There was a lot of talking in that last part, and not by me. So, I'll let you know a few things right off the bat.

1. While Leo Lutz was talking to me, explaining everything that had happened in excruciating detail, I couldn't really think. I couldn't process everything that was going on around me. So, by the time I got out into the real world again, I was completely shellshocked.

2. I had some weird, preconceived loyalty to Kennedy. Even after she had implicated me in a hit-and-run, even after she had kicked me off of the influencer account. I had this loyalty to her and to our friendship; or, at least, what I perceived as being our friendship. I didn't want to give her up.

3. I didn't want to believe what my mind was itching for me to realize: that the timing of my 'friendship' with Kennedy was awfully convenient for her. Awfully, terribly convenient.

I was the most lost I'd ever been in my life. I didn't want to believe a word he was saying, and yet, at the same time, I knew he was telling the truth. And I knew that Kennedy had been lying to me. I just didn't know how to make sense of it all.

I had also been going through this entire thing completely on my own. No help from Leo, no help from my friends, no help from my family, and especially no help from Kennedy. Everything was hard, and I didn't want to have to do it on my own anymore. I decided that I didn't owe anything to Kennedy anymore, and I could start talking to someone I trusted.

And can I just tell you?

It was liberating.

><><

Rebecca spent the entire ride home in complete silence. Music played from the radio, but she didn't sing along. She didn't enjoy the beautiful weather by opening her window. Eventually, the music playing from the radio started to annoy her, so she turned that off too. Complete silence. Nothing but the cars going past her and the inane beating in her chest that had been bothering her for over an hour.

She walked into her apartment and made a beeline for her room, where she immediately sprawled out on her bed as if she had never felt anything quite so comforting in her entire life. Which, perhaps she hadn't.

She felt her Fitbit buzz with a phone call and flipped her phone over next to her, half of her hoping that the call would be from Kennedy and half of her hoping she never heard from Kennedy again.

It was Lyla. Essentially an extension of Kennedy.

She ignored the call and tossed her phone over to the other side of her bed, not looking at it until her Fitbit buzzed again with a voicemail notification a few minutes later.

Rebecca raised her eyebrows slightly. She never got voicemails. And especially not from Lyla Rose.

She unlocked her phone and started listening.

"Rebecca? Rebecca, I need to answer me." Her voice was high-pitched and she was sniffling between every word, "I...I didn't know who else to call. Doug broke up with me. And I know you're probably like 'Oh, why didn't she just call Kennedy?' Because he dumped me for her. He dumped me for that lying, backstabbing slut and he didn't have any problem telling me that. I need to talk to you...Rian's going to take Kennedy's side because she wants to keep her status, but you don't care about that stuff! I need you to call me back, Bec, it's so rough right now and this is like the hardest thing ever and...well, you don't have friends, so you should at least be one to me." She let out a loud, dramatic sob before the message finished, "Call me back. And don't call Kennedy!"