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“And you would’ve been okay with that secret? Restarting our relationship with a lie? It makes me wonder what else you’re holding back.”
“Nothing. And you know that.”
“Right now, I don’t. And that’s why I have to leave.”
“So this is it? After everything, you’re just gonna fucking walk away from us?”
“That’s not what I’m saying. I need distance. This has been a lot for me.”
“Well, it’s been a lot for me too. And yeah, I fucking lied to you. But I’m not the one giving up. Again. You are. I can’t keep doing this back and forth, Callie. I know if you walk out the door, we’re done. So, make your choice. We work this out together, or you run away just like last time.”
“Are you serious?”
“I need to protect myself too.”
“Right, right.”
The slamming of a car door halts my thoughts, and I strain my neck to look out the front window. I don’t know what else to say, so I walk away, open the front door, and walk out on the porch.
“Jesus Christ, snow is so fucking stupid,” Tory says as she shuts her door. I gaze to the passenger side as Ashley climbs out, then back to Tory, who sees me and screeches, “Oh, my god! You’re alive!”
Tory starts walking towards me. I don’t know what, but something comes over me. My emotions are running so high, and I don’t know whether to cry or scream. Instead, I must black out for a moment because the next thing I know, I’m darting down the stairs and lunging at her. “You fucking bitch!” She squeals as I take her down into the snow.
“What the hell, Cal?”
“How could you do this to me? How could you do this to me!” I scream. I grab her by the lapels of her jacket and shake her.
“Dang, so I take it didn’t work?”
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” I pull her up from the snow just to slam her down again.
“Okay, shit, sorry!”
“What the hell were you thinking?” I screech at the top of my lungs.
“Cal, we just wanted our friend back. We couldn’t sit around and watch you fall apart anymore.”
“I wasn’t falling apart.”
“Oh, please. Yes, you were. You were so lost. Ever since Easton, you’ve been a ghost.”
“I didn’t ask you to meddle in my life.”
“Somebody had to. No matter how hard we tried, you weren't getting better. We had to do something.” She takes a few breaths. “I ran into Easton a few months back.”
My eyes widen at her confession. “What?”
“Cal, he looked worse off than you. It was clear neither one of you had moved on and were both miserable. And you ask what we were thinking? We werethinkingthat we were willing to risk our most important friendship and put you both out of your misery. I’m sorry it didn’t work, but you know what? If you didn’t do this, you would’ve continued to live your life as this shell of a person. Always with this what-if shadow following you around. At least now you know.”
I stare at her, taking in her confession. My chest becomes tight. “I hate you both.”
“I’m sure you do. Kind of figured that would happen if this blew up in our face. But we love you enough to risk it.” She looks up at me, sincerity in her gaze. I struggle to wrap my head around how they could have done this. And then I allow her words to sink in on why. They did this because they love me. Because they would rather risk our friendship to make me whole again.
I retract my vow to murder my best friends. My lip starts to quiver, and tears fill my eyes.
“Uh, oh” and “Oh shit” echo in the crisp air.
“I need you to take me home now,” I choke out.
