safety pin

chapter 30 - the end

"There are people that help you become the person that you end up being, 

and you can be grateful for them, 

even if they were never meant to be in your life forever."

-

"I know I called you on short notice, but I need someone who's willing to listen...for real this time." I looked at Natalie, who was sitting across from me in my office, like she was my last hope out of the labyrinth I call my life.

Today is Candice's party; which means that a whole week has passed since the unfortunate events of coming to Ashton's place and the play out of my super smart "plan".

Spoiler alert: I still feel as clueless as ever. I have no idea whether this is going to work out or not, nor what I should feel towards Niall and what I'm going to do with Steve. There's just too many loose ends and every time I try to think about it and figure my shit out, I get out of it having more questions than I originally had. I needed to talk to someone, someone who knows enough about what's going on but not too much to be involved. Which brings me back to...

"And since you were already keen on knowing everything, I'll tell you everything." I continued.

I kept wondering whether I should turn to the girls in these desperate times, but I still couldn't get past the idea that they're still oblivious of the snake they're befriending. I mean, sure, I'm the one who told them to befriend her in the first place and I, too, was fooled by her nice act but I know better than to change my priorities just because I stopped being close with one of my best friends anymore.

"Really? I thought you brought me here to give me some bizarre going-away speech."

"No, I- wait, YOU'RE LEAVING?!" I exclaimed, almost falling out of my own chair.

"Yeah. You didn't know? Everyone who was originally from Black Inc. is being transferred back. Mr. McCarthy as well."

"B-b-but...why?" I didn't think they were staying forever...but to leave this soon? And no one thought to mention it to me at all!

Natalie shrugged, almost as if it didn't even bother her at all. "The project ended, we're moving on to something else."

I felt like my heart was being crushed into tiny little pieces.

I was about to part my lips, but she cut me off, "You can still tell me what's going on, though." My face lit up like Christmas tree. 

As if I wasn't miserably crushed a second ago, I started to explain to her the causes of the pain that's in my ass at the moment, starting from my birthday party when I kissed Steve to how I ended up dating Niall for a month or so, only to realize that I'm getting more and more attracted to Steve each day but it was also scary because I didn't want things between us getting ruined by some uncalled for attraction. It all happened when I was in a committing relationship, which what I thought I needed for the long run, but as soon as I got it, I let it slip away that easily.

"To get this out of the way; you shouldn't have agreed on dating Niall this quickly, that was an impulsive mistake. He clearly didn't know better as well, dude just got out of a freakin' engagement." She started out by saying.

"That part I certainly know now." I sarcastically said. She glared, so I apologized and let her continue.

"You clearly needed to figure out your feelings for Mr. McCarthy before jumping into any relationship with anyone."