Chapter 102: Chapter 102
Lyra
"She’s my best friend. She’s my best friend," I sobbed, shaking my head like I couldn’t believe my own truth. "She was the one person who knew all of it. Every part.
Every stupid little piece of . She was there through my first heartbreak, my period cramps, my panic attacks before school presentations, the ti I thought I had a brain tumor just because I had a headache for three days.
She brought
cupcakes when my crush rejected . She held my hair when I cried. We made stupid TikToks in pajamas and swore we’d live together forever in an apartnt with a pink toaster and matching mugs."
My throat clenched. My whole body trembled.
"She’s Tasha, for God’s sake. She knows the na I used to give my teddy bear. She knows my mom’s ringtone. She’s seen
ugly cry over celebrities and dance like a cracked-out giraffe in my room. I told her everything. Every stupid fear. Every fantasy. Every dream."
I leaned back, head thudding against the wall behind , eyes staring at the sky even though everything was blurry and burning.
"And yeah, she ssed up. She fucked up. She broke
in a way I didn’t think she ever could. But the worst part? The worst part isn’t even what she did. It’s that I still love her."
I squeezed my eyes shut, let the tears fall sideways down my cheeks, sticky and hot and raw.
"Because love doesn’t just vanish. Not real love. It doesn’t dissolve just because soone stabbed you with it. And that’s the part that kills . That I’m sitting here, shattered and humiliated and covered in my own snot, and I still want her to co out here. I still want her to explain. I still want her to cry and say sorry and an it."
I laughed bitterly.
"I’m the idiot who still wants the person who wrecked
to help clean it up."
I wiped my face with both hands again, huffing out another broken breath as my chest rose and fell too fast to keep up with.
"She was supposed to be my person. The kind you call at 2 a.m. when the world feels like it’s ending. The kind you never expect to hold the knife, let alone twist it. And she didn’t just twist it. She carved my na into it. She let
look her in the face, night after night, while she kept that secret tucked behind her tongue like gum she couldn’t spit out."
My voice cracked again. My words started slurring together between sobs.
"I just..I don’t get it. Why didn’t she tell ? Why didn’t she co clean? If it was really just once, why didn’t she fall at my feet the mont it happened? I would’ve been mad, yeah. I probably would’ve scread and broken things and ghosted her for a week. But I would’ve co back. I always co back."
I stared straight ahead at nothing, chest aching like I’d been punched from the inside out.
"I would’ve forgiven her. Because she’s Tasha. And I loved her more than I loved any boy. More than I loved any grade or dress or plan for the future. She was my ho."
Another sob clawed its way up my throat.
As I heard the front door creak open.
And soft footsteps behind .
I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.
I didn’t have to. The guilt was so thick in the air I could sll it. That mix of perfu, regret, and the weight of knowing you ruined sothing pure. She didn’t say anything at first. She just stood there.
Then her voice cracked, soft and shaking.
"Lyra..."
I didn’t move.
"Lyra, please," she said, voice wobbling like her throat was made of glass. "I’m so sorry. I didn’t an for it to happen. I didn’t—I didn’t know how to tell you. I was scared. I didn’t want to lose you."
I still didn’t look at her. My face was soaked. My hands were clenched. My heart felt like it was trying to escape through my ribs.
She stepped closer.
"I swear it didn’t an anything," she whispered. "He wasn’t you. He wasn’t even close. And I regretted it the second it happened. I’ve hated myself every day since."
I let out a shaky breath.
And finally, finally — I turned my head just a little.
Just enough to whisper:
"Then why didn’t you tell ?"
The question slipped out like a wound — soft, bleeding, shaking, but still alive. And the silence that followed was worse than any answer she could’ve given.
Tasha stood behind , still, like if she moved too fast I’d vanish. Like she knew she was standing on the edge of the last piece of us, and even one more lie would send it all crashing down.
"I wanted to," she whispered, but her voice cracked again. "I wanted to so many tis."
I turned around fully, still on my knees, still wrecked, but now I was facing her and my face must’ve looked as broken as I felt, because she flinched just seeing it.
"You wanted to?" I repeated, my voice rising as I wiped the snot off my lip with the back of my hand. "You wanted to tell ? That’s your excuse? You wanted to but what? The words just refused to leave your mouth? They got stuck in your throat behind the guilt and the fact that his cum was still sowhere in your mory?"
Her eyes widened.
I didn’t stop.
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