Chapter 6 #2
“And that’s the kind of person you want to be with?” Sierra asked with a scoff. She knew she wasn’t perfect, but she always treated Teresa well, whether they were friends or more than friends. Even at their worst moments she never would have left Teresa somewhere without a ride.
Teresa threw her hands into the air. “I don’t know who I want to be with. All I know is I want to have a little fun. I’m not trying to find my soulmate.”
Sierra stabbed her finger into her own chest. Her tears were falling again, but she was too overcome with emotions to care. “You used to tell me I was your soulmate. Remember? It was only a few months ago. Or have you completely erased us from your mind?”
“There is no us ,” Teresa spit back at her. “There never was and there never will be. Get over it.”
That one hit Sierra hard, straight to the chest. The impact of those words caused her to stumble backward slightly.
Ever since ending things between them, Teresa had never denied that there had once been something between them.
She said they couldn’t be together anymore and she refused to listen when Sierra tried to reason with her, but she never denied the beautiful relationship they once shared.
Sierra shook her head. The tears were draining from her eyes like a faucet now, but she was too weak to stop them. “Don’t say that. Please don’t say that. Don’t deny what we had. Don’t minimize it into nothing. I can’t handle that.”
“You know what? I was really trying to be your friend, but I don’t know if I can do this anymore.” She motioned her hand in front of Sierra. “All of this is too much. I want to have fun, not deal with your constant up and down emotions.”
“But… but you’re my best friend.” Sierra hated how weak and frail her voice sounded. She hated that Teresa had so much control over her.
“I know.” Teresa’s voice softened. She closed the space between her and Sierra and took Sierra’s hands in hers. “I would love to be your best friend, but the way you’ve been acting lately has made that impossible.”
Was it really Sierra’s fault they were in this position?
Should Sierra have gone along with everything Teresa wanted so she could salvage their friendship?
It didn’t feel that way, but she couldn’t stop herself from questioning everything she had done since they got to school.
Pushing Teresa to talk. Breaking down every time Teresa talked about a guy.
Being in a shitty mood ninety-eight percent of the time.
Maybe it was her fault they had gotten to this point.
Teresa squeezed Sierra’s hands once before letting go of them. “This doesn’t mean things have to be weird. We can still be cordial toward each other and respectful roommates, but we need to stop trying to hang out outside of that. I can’t be your person anymore.”
Sierra wanted to fight her, but how could she? And what was the point? When Teresa made up her mind about something, she stuck to it. Fighting her now would only make things worse. “Okay. Yeah. You’re right.”
“Good.” Teresa smiled as if it was the easiest thing in the world. “Want to go find ourselves a ride, roomie?”
Sierra nodded, but she waited until she could stop the tears from falling to follow Teresa into the crowds of people. She didn’t need anyone else, stranger or not, to see her crying tonight.
When they made it to the exit, they silently walked out to the parking lot together. Sierra had just pulled out her phone to call them a rideshare when a hand landed on her shoulder.
She turned around to see Chris from the track team grinning at her. “You ladies heading out?”
Before Sierra could answer, Teresa answered for her. “As soon as we can find a ride. This one scared ours away.”
“Come with me,” Chris said. “I have two extra seats. There’s only three of us in my car.”
Three of them? Oh no. Sierra was sure she knew who the other two were and she couldn’t get into a car with them, especially not after the night she had.
“That’s perfect!” Teresa said.
Sierra had no fight left in her, so she didn’t even try. This was just the fucking cherry on top of one of the worst nights of her life.
Juniper stepped out from behind Chris and when she noticed it was Sierra that Chris had just offered a ride to, she didn’t try to hide her disgust. “Seriously, Chris? I get shotgun.”
As if the night couldn’t get any worse, Sierra ended up sitting right in the middle of Teresa and Ellie in the back of Chris’s small car. Teresa refused to look at her, but even worse than that, Ellie wouldn’t stop looking at her.
Sierra wanted to crawl out of her own skin the whole drive back to the school. The drive seemed to stretch on forever, and Sierra had to hold back tears the entire time.
When Chris finally stopped in front of her dorm, she jumped out of the car behind Teresa and took a deep breath. It was nice to feel like she could finally breathe again.
Unfortunately, that feeling didn’t last for long.
The small dorm room she shared with Teresa seemed even smaller after their fight.
Neither of them said a word to each other as they got ready for bed.
The tension between them could be cut with a knife, and Sierra hated it.
How was it possible that the girl who had been her whole world a few months ago was now like a stranger to her?
It wasn’t fair. Life wasn’t fair, and Sierra had no idea how she was possibly going to make it through the rest of this year if things continued the way they were right now.