Wingless {Clifford A.U}

Chapter Twenty

Astrid was cuddled up against Michael's side while they watched t.v in the living room. Luke was gone to the store with Maddie and Naomi was almost never home anymore. She wasn't really paying attention to the show, she kept getting distracted. It had been a week since she told Cassie and Cassie told her she would only wait a week so it could happen at any moment. She shifted and made herself more comfortable and Michael rested his arm around her.

There was a knock at the door and Astrid sighed, not wanting to get up. "I'll be right back." she said and he nodded. She opened the door and standing there was Lauren with tear stained cheeks and dark circles under her eyes.

"Hey." she said weakly.

"Lauren you look awful, are you okay?" she asked and Lauren shook her head.

"Can I come in?" she asked and Astrid nodded.

"Of course you can. Come on." she said opening the door wider so Lauren could step in. "You wanna talk about it?" Astrid asked and Lauren nodded and sat down on the couch. "What's wrong?"

Lauren sighed and wiped her eyes on her sleeves. "I went to a cafe for lunch and I went and sat down and then there was this waitress, Caity or something, and she knew who I was and she started talking to me and she told me some things." Lauren started.

"Okay, go on." Astrid said trying to be as compassionate as she could because she knew exactly where she was going with this and she couldn't help but think about all the times she had warned Lauren, but she said she was 'in love'.

"She told me Ashton was cheating on me." she said and Astrid didn't say anything. "She told me that he had been dating her too and I didn't believe her at first. Then she showed me the messages and I realized that she was right." she said, starting to get upset again. 

"And I know I shouldn't be so quick do hate someone, but I didn't like her, she was very blunt and the fact that she knew and let it go on-" 

"What if she didn't know?" Astrid said cutting her off. "What if she's hurting too, because of all the things he told her too, but she's not our concern right now. What else happened?" she asked even though she could figure out the answer on her own.

"Both of us broke up with him. We met him in the school's parking lot and he tried to deny everything like I was stupid, saying he didn't know who she was even though I saw the messages that proved everything. Was everything just a lie? He seemed like he didn't even care that we broke up, or maybe it's just his giant ego getting in the way of it. I just hate this. I really did love him." she said wiping her eyes on her sleeve again. Astrid sighed and bit her lip. Seeing Lauren in this state made her feel bad, she needed to tell her that she knew, maybe she'd understand.

"I need to tell you something." she said and Lauren looked at her.

"Okay, what is it?" she asked.

"Please don't be mad at me, but I knew that he was cheating on you, I've known for a little over a week." she said. Lauren sat there silently just staring at her, and this made Astrid nervous. It looked like Lauren was debating whether or not to scream at her or just let it all go, but she never made up her mind.

"Y-you knew?" she said finally after several minutes of  awkward silence. Astrid looked down, feeling really bad now.

"Yes but-" she started and Lauren cut her off.

"You knew, but you didn't care to tell me? What the hell is wrong with you?" she said glaring at her.

"A lot of things. I'm sorry." she said and Lauren shook her head. 

"No, sorry isn't going to work this time. You're my best friend, we're supposed to tell each other everything." she said raising her voice causing Astrid to flinch. Lauren almost never raises her voice.

"Please I couldn't-" 

"Oh whatever. You could have told me instead of waiting for the other girl to tell me. What kind of friend are you?" she said. Ouch that hurt. Astrid bit the inside of her cheek and stayed silent, but this only made it worse.

"You have nothing to say. I have been there from the beginning, telling you everything and you tell me absolutely nothing." she said. 

"What do you expect me to do? I couldn't tell you, but I have my reasons." she said and Lauren narrowed her eyes at her. 

"And those reasons are?" she asked. 

"I can't tell you. I'm sorry." Astrid said. 

For the several years that Astrid has known Lauren, she knows that Lauren has always been the peaceful type, didn't like arguments, yelling, fighting, none of that, so what happened next was surprising. Lauren couldn't help it, she was just so angry and she hit Astrid hard in the face, her nails scraping across her cheek, causing her to yelp. Astrid was shocked, this had never happened before. 

"You know what, I'm through with you. Do me and everyone else a favor and just go kill yourself like everyone tells you." Lauren said coldly and let herself out, slamming the front door behind her. 

Astrid stared blankly at the door, covering her cheek with her hand. She never thought that would ever happen. She was feeling so many different emotions, anger, sadness, hurt, but overall she was just numb. Maybe she deserved it, maybe she deserved the slap to the face, maybe she deserved being yelled at, maybe she deserved to lose her best friend, but it wasn't like she had a choice in the matter, it was probably for the best anyway. 

Michael, who had been listening and watching the whole time, moved next to her and moved her hand from her cheek so he could look at the damage. All there was, was a red mark and light scratches. "It doesn't look too bad." he said and she shrugged. 

"I don't care about the way it looks, I deserved it anyway." she said and he hugged her tightly. 

"That's not true, you had no choice but to keep it a secret." he said and she sighed, leaning her head on his shoulder. 

"You're right, but I can't help but feel like this is all going to come back and bite me in the ass." 

A/N: So how's everyone? I hope y'all are doing better than I am. Please vote and comment, love you guys.

-Xx E.J