My Hired Boyfriend (Completed)

36. Frying an Egg

                                                                                    Chapter 36

Hazel POV

            Downstairs, the TV is droning on and on about a Wal-Mart recall. The newscaster woman is too nasally for my liking.

            Perched in the middle of my bed, I dig my fingers into my sheets, feeling foreign in my own room. I stare at my light beige walls and I half wish I was staring at the white-washed walls of my room back in Point Fortuna.

            We had gotten back from Point Fortuna a week ago and there is still no sign of Coda.

            My heart clenches and I swallow hard, the tears long dried out.

            There is a hesitant knock on my door and I ignore it, the guilt I used to feel for ignoring my family slowly disappearing day by day.

            There is another knock, persistent.

            “Haz?” Addy asks cautiously, her voice slightly muffled.

            I close my eyes, flopping back on my bed when I hear my door knob jiggle slightly.

            “Please let me in,” she says quietly.

            I can’t do it. I can’t ignore her.

            It was odd to hear the softness and uncertainty in her voice, like she was afraid of breaking me.

            “Come in.”

            I step off my bed and unlock the door, opening it slightly before heading back to my bed, my sheets wrinkled.

            She watches me carefully, gingerly sitting next to me on the bed and I suddenly feel like we’re strangers.

            That thought alone makes my eyes sting.

            If there was one thing I regretted with Coda, it was that I had gotten more distant with Addy.

            I ignored my entire family because I blamed them all for making Coda leave. Even if Jeremy was the one who actually forced Coda out, my family just stood by and watched.

            Addy though—

            Even if she did agree with Coda leaving, I couldn’t be the most angry with her because in all honestly, I had let her down as a best friend.

            In our tense silence, one that I had grown accustomed to, Addy clears her throat lightly before gently placing her hand over mine.

            I stare at the floor.

            “I’m sorry,” she tells me quietly.

            “For what?” I ask. I am surprised but the tone of my voice is eerily empty.

            I expect her to say ‘everything’ or some water shed answer about how she was just sorry because I was going through a situation like this.

            Instead she says, “I’m sorry for wanting Coda to leave.”
            And just like that, there is a roaring in my ears as I snap my head to look at her.

            She doesn’t look at me, looking somewhat ashamed and I begin to wonder when our friendship had began to be filled with tense silences and sullen looks.