As A Friend

11: Nova, the Piece of Shit

I spend the majority of my week recalling my embarrassing encounter with Eli. The more I think about it, the more I beat myself up. He didn't even try to contact me these last few days and I can't say I expected him to. I can't imagine how much that hurt him. Dominic, still extremely unaware of the true catalyst behind the 'break up,' keeps insisting that I'm not a bad person and that it's Eli's loss.

The only person I figured I could tell without feeling extreme bouts of embarrassment is Kat. She listens to me with open ears and nods occasionally, not making any grimaces or faces of discomfort when I tell her of my mistakes. When I finish, she exhales for a brief second before shrugging.

"I mean honestly, it was bound to end," she confesses. "You like Dominic. Eli likes you. You want a relationship with Dominic. Eli wants a relationship with you. It would've eventually come to light that you guys had different goals."

"Except it wouldn't have been so...damaging." At least he wouldn't have ended up with a broken heart.

"Maybe not, but what can you do?" she replies. "It's happened to me before if that's any consolidation."

"How'd it end?" Hopefully this makes me feel a little better.

"He apologized and I cried," she explains casually. I cringe when I realize she was the Eli of the situation. "But I'm fine now, obviously."

"Yeah..." Didn't make me feel better.

"Have you tried visiting him?" she inquires.

"No!" I answer immediately. "He was so angry. If he wanted to talk to me, he'd try to. I don't think he even wants to have a conversation with me, never mind see me."

"Did you tell Dominic?" she queries and I bite my lip.

"Partially..." I couldn't exactly tell him all of it, now could I?

"What does that mean?" She looks genuinely curious as if the answer isn't quite obvious.

"How would I even explain that, Kat? 'Oh yeah, while Eli was pleasuring me, I moaned your name.' Yeah, no, I'd rather not," I retort and she nods.

"Yeah, I didn't think that one through, huh?" she mumbles. "Well what did you tell him?"

"Just that Eli broke things off with me," I confess. "I said that Eli wanted a relationship but I didn't so he called everything off. I also briefly mentioned how we were being...intimate when the very heated conversation occurred."

"So now he thinks Eli is an ass?" Kat catches on and I nod slowly.

"Well, this is a perfect situation." My phone dings with a notification and I quickly glance at the screen. I readjust my vision when I see Eli's name pop up. I quickly grab my phone and read the message aloud.

"'Can we talk?'" I recite.

Kat, whose eyes are locked on her food, laughs. "We are talking."

"No, Eli just texted me that." Her head snaps up and she looks at my phone.

"Well?" she hisses and I stare at her in confusion.

"I-I don't know. Yes?" Am I ready to talk to him?

"Of course yes, you idiot. Give me the phone!" she demands and I hand it to her. She quickly types a reply. A few seconds pass and her acrylic nails are tapping on the screen. This happens a few more times before she delivers my phone back to me.

My eyes scan the screen before I gape at her. "Today? You made plans for today?"

"Yeah because if it was for any other day, you'd have time to talk to Dominic and ruin any chance you have at making amends!"