Everything Changes

Chapter Thirty: Happy and Sad

It was the afternoon following the fundraiser. It was a cold and cloudy day, which was different from Florida's usual eighty degrees and sunny. Toby stood on the empty beach, the wind blowing his fluffy light brown hair in a million directions. He had just finished walking an elder women's dog and figured he would stop at the beach on his way home. He kept his eyes on the ocean's rough waves as he took in the peaceful and unoccupied beach, something he couldn't do quite often.

After taking in the view, he stepped off the beach and planned to make his walk home. In the corner of his eye, he spotted a young couple who were bundled up in jackets as they walked past him. He gave them a friendly wave as another figure came into view. Without thinking, he yet again greeted them with a wave, but was quick to stop short once realizing who it was.

Brittany.

She held an almost empty cold brew in her hand from Isla Coffee as she sported a navy blue workout set and a zip-up hoodie. She planned to pick up coffee and take a peaceful walk home - but she was quick to discover that wouldn't be the case.

She was first to notice that Toby was alone - his girlfriend named after one of the four seasons wasn't accompanying him as usual. She figured Autumn took the first flight out to JFK airport for Thanksgiving break, wanting to leave south Florida as soon as she possibly could. She then noticed she had just been awkwardly standing there as she tried to fathom the weird coincidence - of course she saw Toby the one day West Coral felt like a ghost town. That was just her luck. When she transitioned back into reality, she hastily waved to him and proceeded her walk home.

"You're mad," she heard Toby say in a monotone voice from behind her.

"No," was all she said as she stopped walking and slowly turned around to meet his eyes. They were standing more than twenty feet apart.

"Then what?" He questioned as he walked closer to her. "You didn't even talk to me yesterday at the fundraiser."

Brittany clenched her plastic coffee cup in anger. She knew exactly what he was doing - he was trying to ask questions and play dumb so she would get worked up and spill what was bothering her. She hated his tactic and how it was working. "You want to put our friendship on hold for your girlfriend, Toby? Cool. Then I'm not going to fucking act like your friend."

"Why are you being so petty?" He shot at her, trying to get a better gist of the situation at hand. "You're reading into this way too much. I didn't ask to stop being friends with you."

"No, you just said it in different words," she told him as she crossed her arms. "And I'm not the only one who has noticed trends, Toby," she said in a mocking tone, causing him to roll his eyes. "Like how both your girlfriends confessed to being jealous and intimidated of me, how they both fought me to prove they're better than me, tried to make me seem like the villain... and of course you'll always take their side... because you put 'love' before a twenty year long friendship."

"What?" He questioned, furrowing his eyebrows. Attempting to read what went through Brittany's head was a skill that no one could ever master - she was always extremely unpredictable. "So... what? You're saying you're jealous?"

"Maybe!" She exclaimed as his eyes widened, not expecting her to confess that. She always denied things that hurt her ego. "I feel like I've lost you now that you're with Autumn. It's so obvious that our friendship isn't what it used to be. It feels like so much has changed and I hate it—"

"And that's not Autumn's fault," Toby was quick to jump to his girlfriend's defense.

"I never said it was," she retorted in a sassy tone, not allowing him to make any more assumptions. "It's not anyone's fault. Things just changed," she told him as he remained silent. "And when you started dating Lex, you didn't talk to me for like... seven months. Sure, the situation was different then, but that makes me so scared it's going to happen to us again and I'd hate to lose you because you've been one of the best friends I've ever had."