Disabled.

Thirty-Six

Previously

She entered the school shortly after and began making her way to her locker. But as she was going, the sound of someone laughing caught her attention. She turned to look in the direction where it had come from to find Chris laughing as she gently hit Mason. Unlike her though, he looked at Chris with a blank expression before looking at Nadia. And as soon as their eyes met, he coldly turned away from her.

Nadia felt her eyes sting as she looked away, feeling the tears begin to fall.

They really weren't going to be friends anymore. That was it--they were done.

By the time she reached her locker, she was fully crying, no longer caring what other people would say about her. She attempted to open her locker several times but she found it hard to open the lock, her vision blurred by her tears. When she had tried for the fifth time, she banged her locker in frustration before putting her face in her hands.

Nothing was going well for her.

No matter what she did, there was always something that went wrong.

She pulled out her phone and unlocked it. And through her blurry vision, she was able to open her contacts list. She searched for Mason's name before pressing the option to delete.

Are you sure you want to delete this contact?

Yes No

She stared at the screen for several moments, finding it hard to move her fingers. And when she was finally able to delete the number, she couldn't ignore the painful expression in her chest as she continued to cry.

"Nadia?" she barely heard her name as someone called her. Attempting to wipe her tears away, she turned around to find Mandy standing there with a concerned expression.

"Are you okay?" Mandy asked as she walked closer. And before Nadia could even say anything, she began to cry again. Mandy rushed to her and knelt in front of her, wrapping her in a tight hug. Nadia wrapped her arms around her ex-best friend as she allowed her to be a source of comfort.

"Why is life so unfair?" she found herself asking,

"Why is my life so hard?"

- - -

(unedited)

Thirty-Six

The sound of a cup being placed on the table caused Nadia to look up at Mandy as she took a seat across from her. Behind her, through the window, Nadia could see that it was beginning to snow once again.

"I hope you still like hot chocolate with whipped cream," Mandy said as she looked at her with a small smile. Nadia looked down at the hot chocolate and tried to smile at Mandy's gesture but thoughts of what had happened with Mason came flooding back, causing her eyes to fill with tears. And before she knew it, she was crying again. 

She tried to wipe away her tears but they didn't stop. Through her blurry vision, she saw Mandy slide a paper towel towards her. She picked it up and dried her eyes before looking up at Mandy to find her taking a sip of her drink before looking towards the door of the cafe.

"Why haven't you asked me about what happened? About why I'm crying?" she heard herself ask. Mandy turned her head to look at her with a saddened expression. There was a moment of silence before she said,

"Because I don't need to know the reason to be there for you." 

Nadia wasn't sure how to reply as she continued to look at Mandy, watching as she took another sip of her drink before looking back at her.