“Join the club. It’s not like I’m doing cartwheels here,” I muttered, slowly picking up the cards we had dropped.
“You don’t seem to understand what I’m going through here.”
“What you’re going through?” I shook my head at his arrogance. “You think you somehow hold the market on hate?”
“You have no reason to hate me,” he said, shaking with barely suppressed rage.
“Really? What about the fact that you left me and refused to listen? That you never considered my feelings or how hard it was on me. I hate to break it to you, but you betrayed me long before I betrayed you. So get off your high horse. Contrary to what you believe, the world does not revolve around you.”
“I did not cheat on you with Shelly,” he said, jumping to his feet so he could pace again. “I told you that.”
“I’m not talking about cheating.”
“Then what do you mean?” he yelled.
I cringed as his voice vibrated off every corner of the small enclosed space.
“I’m talking about my heart,” I said, surging to my feet. I stood directly in front of him with rage cloaking us like a blanket. “You betrayed my heart. You left me broken and alone in front of everyone,” I added, jabbing him in the chest with my finger. “You left me alone holding all the shattered pieces,” I whispered as the dam holding my sobs at bay finally crumbled.
24.
February 2011
“Brittni, you’re going to be late,” Melissa said, nudging my shoulder.
“What?” I said groggily, squinting in the bright daylight streaming through the window above our desks.
“I said you’re going to be late. Don’t you have biology at ten?” she asked, pulling on her jacket while she crammed her feet into the cute pair of flats she had gotten for Christmas.
“Yeah,” I answered, placing the pillow over my eyes to block out the unwanted light.
“Well, unless you get your ass in gear, you’re going to miss it.”
“What time is it?” I mumbled. My heavy eyes tried enticing me to stay in my nice comfortable bed for the rest of the day.
“It’s nine forty-five. Unless you’re skipping for the second time this week, you have to get up now,” she said, pulling the pillow off my face.
“Nine forty-five?” I repeated, trying to make sense of the time in my head, which seemed to be in permanent foggy mode lately.
“Yes, so get up,” she said, grabbing her shoulder bag.
“Yes, Mom,” I snipped, dragging my legs around so I was sitting up. The room spun slightly, making me feel queasy.
“Are you okay?” Melissa asked with her hand on the doorknob.
“Yeah, just a little light-headed. I didn’t eat much yesterday. I think I have a dumb stomach bug,” I mumbled.
“Maybe you should stay in bed. You look like hell,” Melissa replied, looking concerned.
“Thanks for the compliment. Philips would have my head. We’re covering mitosis phases versus meiosis phases this week. She’s hinted that they’ll be important facts to know for the midterm.” I struggled to pull on my favorite yoga pants at the same time that I was yanking my UW hooded sweatshirt over my head.
“Yeah, but if you’re sick,” Melissa said, taking in my lethargic movements.
“I’ll be fine. Once I finish biology, I’ll come back here and go to bed,” I said as I shoved my hair into a clip to secure it.
“Don’t you have a date with Justin tonight?”
“No, he’s studying with some guys from his humanities class tonight. His teacher is being a complete asshat,” I said, grabbing my bag and following her out of the room.