Toxic ✔️

13 | truth's out

chapter thirteen: truth's out

Trudging towards the door, I open it, yawning. I haven't looked at the person clearly yet, blinking multiple times. It's 11am on a frickin Saturday, and someone just very rudely woke me up with the doorbell.

Instead, the moment I see the person, my eyes go slightly wide. How did she track down my new address? "Brooke?" I ask. Her face instantly makes me angry, because, why not?

Folding my arms across my chest, I lean across the wall. I did not wake up this early just to see her. "What the hell are you doing here? Make it fast, because I'm not gonna waste time on you," I tell her.

Brooke looks like she wants to say something, but from her facial expression, it's obvious that she changed it. "So, um..." she begins. "This is where you've been staying? It's nice," I glare at her, waiting for her to get to the point. "Can I come in? I have to talk you," she murmurs the last sentence.

A smile grows on my face and she looks slightly hopeful. "No," I snap, shutting the door in her face. Damn, I'm really getting influenced by Kellan. Instead, she holds the door open with her foot.

"Ow, fuck!" I hear her from outside. Ha ha. I open the door again. She winces in pain at her foot but looks up again at me pleadingly. "Astrid, I need you to hear this. Come on, please let me in," she tries again.

I roll my eyes and my voice goes an octave higher into falsetto mode. "Go away, Anna," I prepare to shut the door again, but she holds it. This time, she's smart enough not to put her foot there.

"Listen, I know—I know you hate me," she looks at me and sighs. Damn right I do. "And I also know I've been a pretty shitty best friend to you—"

"You're not my best friend."

I catch the look in her eye and I almost hate that I'm doing this to her.

"Astrid, please. We can't seriously just—stop being friends over a boy—?"

I slam the door in her face.

My breathing is suddenly heavy as I lean my head back against the door. Close my eyes. Six seconds gone just like that. She is still there when I open the door, and any mental preparation is suddenly for nothing.

Brooke looks surprised when I open the door again.

"It wasn't just over a boy, not just over Nick. It was about you, and us. And the fact that you call yourself my best friend, and yet you would deliberately do something you know would hurt me?"

I almost laugh in her face.

"You aren't sorry if you this is about Nick anymore," I speak in hushed, quick whispers, not quite wanting to say this and needing it to be over now. "Because you know damn well I wouldn't have done anything to hurt you like you did to me."

"Really? You wouldn't?" Brooke says, almost spitefully. "You really just turned a blind eye to everything going on between us, as if it wasn't even there. You're telling me you never saw it?"

I would be lying if I said no.

"You couldn't tell that I might have loved him too?"

Another pause.

My voice is shaky when it comes out.

"You had feelings for my ex-boyfriend and you decided that instead of talking to me about it, you would sleep with him? Real mature."

She almost wants to snap at me, the same slight raise in her eyebrow that she had when she gets mad. And then she takes a deep breath.

"I get it. And I'm telling you I'm sorry, but this wasn't what I can here for. I need your help."