Third Love's The Charm [PUBLISHED]

Chapter Thirty-Six: Side by Side

Mia and I stood there in the cafeteria, each of us holding our tray of food, looking scared shitless. Pat and Leon exchanged a look before the former sent as an encouraging smile, "Good luck you two."

Alright, at the end of the day, we just wanted to be civil with our former best friend. We have slowly accepted that we might never go back to the way things were, but we wanted to at least be in the same room without feeling like there was a ticking time bomb.

As the days progressed, especially after the party, Sasha has completely disassociated herself from our group. She joined another group of friends, some other girls from our class, so that was when we got the signal that she no longer wanted anything to do with us.

So Mia and I decided to have one final talk with her.

Some part of us should have been shy with approaching her, but nope. I think bashfulness and shame was thrown out of the window when she confronted us in front of the entire soccer team and everybody who watched their training.

"Sasha, can we talk?" Mia straight up asked after we approached their table.

Everyone who was sitting there looked up towards us before switching their gazes to the said girl.

I think the gears were turning in her head because instead of immediately answering or proceeding to ignore us, she blinked multiple times as if we would disappear on our own.

Sorry, but we were here to stay.

Although I would be lying if I said that I wasn't five seconds away from turning on my heel and rushing back to our own lunch table.

But Mia looked so determined that I felt some sort of confidence being injected into me.

And after what felt like literal forever, she answered, "Okay."

She stood up after sending a silent excuse to her new group. She stared at us, waiting for us to lead the way.

Honestly, I didn't thought we would get this far.

"Please get your tray and let's sit over there," Mia then told her and miraculously, she did what she was told.

Alright, so far so good.

"So where did we go wrong, Sasha?"

Mia was in a very blunt mood today because this whole time, I've only been silent and letting her take the reins. This was good since she was the more straightforward one and if I was to take over, we were going to go nowhere. Besides, we all know I wasn't really good at confrontation.

But I figured something out when I returned back to the original timeline where I came from – I missed having Sasha by my side. It would totally suck I we never get to repair this friendship but at this point, I would gobble up any sliver of acquaintanceship that she would offer.

"I would just like to preface this by saying that this was completely my fault," she said and my eyebrows shot up at this because if you remember her little tirade, she was pointing fingers at us for being "better" than her, "But as I thought about it more, it would be healthier for all three of us if I removed myself from the picture."

Mia's scrutinizing gaze sharpened, her eyes squinting as if she was scanning the girl sitting across from her. When a minute ticked by, I started to carefully take a bite of my sandwich just as a way to occupy my hands to stop them from fidgeting. Somehow, this was the moment that she decided to talk.

And let me tell you, I almost choked.

"You like Pat, don't you?"

Yup, blunt.