Hunting Sunsets

Thirty Five

The voices of students milled around the dinning hall like an incessant wood pecker in the morning or a fly in your ear. I just wanted to kill the damn thing for some silence. It was a reminder of my isolation, even from a smaller table in the corner of the window lined hall. I angrily stabbed my chicken, just as I had forcefully and uncontrollably hit my tennis ball this morning. My right leg bounced up and down under the table, anxiously trying to soothe my busy mind as I glared at the empty chair in front of me. My knuckles were practically white on the silver fork, my own bitter discontent contracting them like a lemon congealing milk.

A maroon tray slid infron it my vision, softly scraping against the table as my pupils snapped up to the dyed blonde hair of the beautiful and illoyal Egyptian. "No," I said immediately, before she could even start to sit down with her food.

"You're sitting alone, Maeve. We've been friends for years. You can't seriously be mad at me right now," Jess spoke incredulously, like I was the one that had lost my mind.

My jaw clenched in rage as I looked up at her. "I thought we were friends too. Then you cheated on my brother. You and I are never going to be friends again," my defiant voice seethed at her despite the hurt painted on her expression.

"You're some shity friend if your loyalty depends on me sleeping with your brother," she bit back while picking up her tray in one hand. "You're throwing away three years of friendship for nothing. I can't believe I was stupid enough to once call you my best friend."

I watched expressionlessly as Jess turned on her heals and walked away with smoke practically billowing from her ears. It hurt to know I'd just ended a friendship but it had to be done. Jake was my brother and she was the one in the wrong, not him. Tears built up behind my eyes, rapidly trying to blink them away as I turned back to glare at the table in front of me.

Three of my closest friends and I were no longer on speaking terms. That's over half. What the fuck have I done to deserve this? Clearly, I'm the problem here.

Just like always, a familiar voice echoed in the back of my head. I resisted the urge to laugh out loud humorlessly, but only because I was in public. I wonder what the fuck Noah would say now. Probably something about how I was a whore who had too many dicks in her mouth to have friends. The only problem was he wasn't exactly wrong this time. My fixation with Smith Kyoh had ended a relationship and three friendships, one of which I'd had since birth.

In all honesty, I thought it was worth it and that's what scared me the most.

"Why are we all sitting at three different sides of the room and glaring at each other?"

The image of my black shirted best friend sitting down in the wooden chair in front of me was enough to draw my eyes upward as he raked a hand through his ravens head of hair. Troy carried an effortless attitude on his shoulders that seemed to radiate onto me, which while comforting, didn't exactly make me calmer.

"You're sitting with the black sheep of the group, if that's what you're asking," I muttered a little too aggressively.

"Well your brother and your best friend are talking to your ex right now so I'd say something is wrong." My vision followed Troy's line of sight over his shoulder, catching Jade standing at the table Siya and Jake were sharing, all of their eyes turning to me when Jake met my glance. A scowl formed my face as I turned back to Troy, attempting to forget their move of spite.

"What's going on?" Troy repeated the question with his thicker black brows furrowed.

"Some people don't like seeing other happy," my boyfriend cut in dismally, taking the seat beside me on the left with the window on my right. "Though I can't exactly explain what's up with Si."