"𝗂 𝗁𝖺𝗏𝖾 𝖺 𝗉𝗈𝗌𝗍𝖼𝖺𝗋𝖽 𝗆𝗈𝗎𝗍𝗁
all it ever says is:
𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦."
- trista mateer, honeybee
when valerie forester heads south to visit her best friend in nashville, the last thing she expects when she departs is an...
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★ ★★
it was eleven o'clock in the morning when layla woke up. i wish i could say that she'd done so peacefully, but that wasn't at all the case.
she shielded her head with her arms from the blows i was landing on her, a pillow in my grasp. "what the fuck, valerie, stop!"
i whacked her on the shoulder. once. twice. three times. she could yell and curse at me all she wanted, but i wasn't about to let up until i'd made my point. and considering she could only back away so far before she wound up cornering herself, i would be the one to decide when enough was enough.
"alright!" she shouted, backing away just like i knew she would. "alright! that's enough!"
but i'd climbed onto her bed with the pillow in the air, and it came down quickly on her hip as she scrambled beneath her duvet.
"quit resisting retribution!" i demanded. i hit her again. "this is all in the name of justice."
"well, if you'd stop beating me up, i'd be able to apologise!"
"i'm not done yet!"
after i'd pummelled her a few more times, and she protested so loudly that i was certain her neighbours heard, she finally tapped out.
"alright, i get it!" she exclaimed, snatching the pillow from my hands and sticking one onto the side of my head. she looked at me a moment, almost incredulously, while i recovered from the blow. why she was surprised by my outburst was beyond me. she knew me. sometimes she even seemed to know me better than i did. just like she knew that i didn't take things like this lightly, and yet she still stared at me as though i'd just run her cat through the washing mashine.
i scowled at her as i shoved my hair out of my face.
"look, val, i'm sorry," layla groaned.
silence lapsed between us. with my arms crossed tightly and defensively over my chest, i leaned against the adjacent wall.
"i shouldn't have left you alone like that; i should have called, or texted, or something," she continued.
my eyebrows drew together. my nose wrinkled. "so why didn't you? why'd you even leave in the first place? and don't tell me you met a guy, layla marie. if you tell me you met a guy, so help me god..."
she didn't say anything, which told me everything i needed to know.
i cried out dramatically, falling onto my side and pressing my face into one of layla's many pillows.
"at least hear me out before you suffocate yourself!"
i looked at her the same way she'd looked at me. "you ditched me for some nookie?!"
"no, no, no, 'cause that's the thing, val. we didn't even do anything."
i frowned. between the fact that she'd left me high and dry to have sex, and that she'd left me high and dry to have sex and didn't have any sex at all, i couldn't quite decide which was worse. although, in the end, i supposed it didn't really matter much. i was alone whether she was getting some or not.
