𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙂𝙞𝙧𝙡 𝙏𝙪𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝘽𝙖𝙙

Bonus scene 2: Apologise

♦ ♢ ♦ Kaitlyn ♦ ♢ ♦

I laugh at a joke that Collin cracks as we sit around for lunch, Xavier's hands resting on my hips as I sit on his lap.

I kind of stiffen when I see Talia coming over, this time, her eyes on me.

There's been tension between her an I, ever since him and Carter of all people started hanging out for a bit.

I don't fault him. Hell, I don't fault her for wanting to get to know each other, but come on, she hurt me like hell and kicked me when I was at my lowest.

So far, we avoid each other as much as possible, now that she's left the football crowd and Carter's been the only one to take her under his wing. Luna is nice to her for the sake of it, but I blatantly ignore, and I couldn't have made that more obvious.

"You okay?" Xavier whispers against my shoulder as he senses me tensing.

"Fine," I keep my eyes on Talia. It's her birthday today, no less. I don't know why she'd want to pick a fight with me.

Xavier's hand on my hips tighten when Talia hesitatingly halts in front of me. I raise a bitchy brow, now that she's finally asking for my attention this way.

"Can we talk?" She asks quietly, most eyes on her.

When I don't respond, she purses her lips. "Please?"

I look back to Xavier, something akin to unease right there in my chest. "It's your choice, baby," he says into my ear. "I'll be here for you."

Knowing that assures me. I take the bite, getting up from my boyfriend's lap before I step into the aisle. "Lead away," I sigh.

♦ ♢ ♦

We go out into the school ground, near the football pitch. My heart hurts a little as I remember the moments Talia and I used to share, laughing on those bleachers as we watched Dexter play.

We sit on the same seats we used to, and we both look out onto the field for a while, her building up the courage to speak, and me, to listen.

After some time, she speaks. "I feel like there is no other way to start this, so I'll just rip the band aid so that it's easier," she says, and I turn slightly to look at her, as she looks back at me, her hands fidgeting. "I'm sorry, Kaity."

I don't expect myself to be hit this hard by three simple words, but man, she'd been my best friend for a long while. We actually had chemistry together, laughed, joked and shit. Yeah, sometimes it was petty and sometimes the jokes we made about others were quite mean, but... that was the friend group we were a part of. Dexter and Connor made fun of others all the time, so it was only fair we did.

It was until after I got away from them that I realised how toxic that environment was. How bad of friends they all were.

I don't say anything, and let her continue.

"I don't expect you to forgive me," she shakes her head slowly, looking down. "I don't expect you to accept me. But I think you deserve this, for the sake of our friendship that I helped ruin."

She takes a deep breath. "It started off around the time when... I found out about my mom's cancer," she chokes, looking away. Sympathy brews in my heart as I remember her telling me in the past. How heart broken she was. She's recovered now, after a lot of treatment, but I'm sure I had to be scary as hell. "Dexter had been there, just passing the classroom when I'd been crying in there. He came in and reassured me, you know?" Torment swims in her eyes. "I needed that at the time. I needed someone to hold on to. And I couldn't find anyone else to do it," I see tears build up.