24K Magic - Bruno Mars
15 - Forgiving But Not Forgetting
Word count: 1942
"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."
- Thomas Edison
Hannah and I spend the next fifteen minutes helping each other out on our auditions. I already have an idea in my head of what I want to act like and how I want to say things.
Hannah is still a bit nervous but with some more convincing, she seems ready to do it.
Out of nowhere, a body drops onto the seat beside me. My head snaps in the direction and my eyes widen when I catch sight of Athena sat right next to me. Hannah scrambles out of her seat on the other side of me and goes to sit next to Athena.
"Hi! How are you? I feel like I haven't spoken to you in so long!" Hannah yaps, with bright brown eyes.
Athena, however, remains focused solely on me. Her light blue eyes glued to my form, assessing my reaction. With a lot of effort, I refrain myself from squirming under her gaze. She always could trap me in an intimidating stare, whilst she read me.
"I'm good Hannah," Athena calmly answers, briefly glancing at Hannah. "Is it alright with you if I talk to Whitney for a second?"
Unbeknownst to Hannah how much I don't want her to agree, she agrees.
Hannah jumps out of her seat quicker than I can utter the word 'wait' and skips over to Brock who is sulking in his seat with the rest of the guys. Throughout my time sat here, I would feel his green eyes on me. Whenever I moved an inch, he would be watching.
Reluctantly, I turn to fully face Athena's pale, round face. Athena takes a deep, shaky breath and pinches her plump, pink lips together.
"Hello, Anastasia." She greets, in a low tone.
"It's Whit -"
"I know what your new name is." Athena interrupts me, distastefully emphasizing 'new'. "But to me, you will always be Anastasia, my best friend." I swallow at the term, racing with thoughts on whether I would still call Athena my best friend. For Whitney, Casey is my best friend. But what about Anastasia? If she was here right now, who would her best friend still be? "And as your best friend, I know I let you down. Instead of backing you up on that day and calling out Callum for what he was doing, I didn't. I watched you suffer and run away. And for that, I will always hate myself for it."
Holy hell. Is this happening right now?
"Ath - "
Once again, Athena cuts me off. "Let me finish." She pleads. "Please."
Hesitantly, I nod. "Continue."
"Anastasia, I missed you so much. We all did. Brock cried the day after you left, he sobbed in front of everyone at school. Ares and I cried at home too. I think even Callum did but at home, away from everyone. He loved you too - he still does, he just doesn't know what it is and how to express it.
"We tried looking for you before you became famous. We searched for ages, with Martin, Brock and your parents. All of us were devastated and we desperately wanted to make it up to you. We still do.
"And so the point I'm trying to make is that I want you to forgive me. I want my best friend who I teased, laughed and cried with back. It breaks my heart seeing you hang out with Hannah but now me. Nobody will ever know you like me, not even Callum."
YOU ARE READING
3.1 | Flawless | ✔
Teen Fiction"Losing yourself is the easy part, it's finding yourself again that's hard." *** Hollywood. When you think of the word, you think of glitz, glam, and perfection. You think of rich and flawless people who are admired by all. But everyone knows Holl...
