(Fr)Enemies

Chapter Seven

"So how is it going living with Aiden. Any notable confrontations?"

I leaned my head back in the comfortable couch sat in Dr. Collins' office. I was trying to relax. If talking about my problems would fix me, help me sleep better, then I wanted to try my best.

"It's going alright. We decided to have a truce." I said with a light smile on my face.

She nodded noting something down in the bright pink notebook she carried.

"Last week you said he hated you. Has that passed?"

Last week I had said that. "I don't know. We haven't really talked about the fight we had."

"And what fight was that?"

I chewed on my lip not wanting to repeat my vile words. "That seems like a week four conversation, Doc."

Of course she didn't push.

"Are you still having the nightmares?"

I shrugged. They were less now. Not every night anymore. "Not as often."

"How often would you say you're having them?"

"Every three days probably. If I tell you what I said to Aiden can I ask you a question?"

She smiled softly. "You can ask me a question no matter what Grace."

Ugh she was making this hard. "Okay, can you like forget all the therapist shit and like judge me?"

She raised a brow. "I'm sorry...you want me to judge you?"

I sat up now. "Yes. I don't want you to stick to normal practices. I'm going to tell you our background and I want you to tell me how you'd respond. How you'd feel. Because Aiden hasn't given me a clue."

I realized that's why it was so hard for me to try to get back on good terms with Aiden. He never mentioned our fight. He never cussed me out or forced me to apologize. He simply stopped talking to me.

Dr. Collins thought about it before neatly closing her notebook and folding her hands. "Okay. Tell me what happened."

So I explained to her our friendship. How me and Aiden grew up together. How he always had my back and I always had his. I even told her about my relationship with Rory and Kody. I wanted her to understand the strength and the background of us before I explained how I ruined it.

I left the little crush I had on him out of it, because it wasn't important.

"Freshman year, we stopped being friends." I said preparing to speak about the difficult half of my story.

"Why did you stop being friends?" This was the first time she'd interrupted me. I felt goosebumps on my skin as I thought about how I'd answer her question.

"I changed. I wasn't the same girl that he'd been friends with."

"Did Aiden tell you that?"

Of course Aiden hadn't said that. It didn't make it less true.

"He didn't need to. And this doesn't have anything to do with my story."

She nodded allowing me to continue.

"When we stopped being friends, Aiden couldn't let it go. He kept showing up at my house and trying to talk to me at school like everything was the same. But it wasn't the same."

I moved my gaze to the window, watching the birds fly around outside while I got my emotions in check. I took some deep breaths before I continued.

"I couldn't handle it. I didn't like that he was acting so..." I trailed off. I couldn't think of the word for it.

"How was he acting?" She urged me on.

I groaned out of frustration. "He was acting nonchalant. Like shit was the same. Like he couldn't see that I was different. Like he wasn't ashamed to be seen with me."

I knew I had fucked up and said too much because Dr. Collins opened her notebook back up. "Elaborate."

I couldn't, so I didn't. Instead I went along with my original story. "I couldn't handle it. So, sophomore year, I cornered him and I yelled at him."

I could still remember the day clearly.

"I told him he needed to leave me alone. I made it seem like he was a stalker. I told him I had grown out of the friendship. I told him he was too childish for me. I even insinuated that he had a crush on me. I said it was cute, but I wasn't interested. I said 'get a life Vincent and stop following me around like some love sick puppy."

Now that I had told her the story, I didn't need her to answer my question. I knew my answer already. I was a horrible person. And if I couldn't get Aiden to admit it, our shakey friendship would never work out.

"You made a lot progress today, Grace." Dr, Collins said after it was apparent that my story was finished. "I am looking forward to our next week session. Can I ask you a question?"

I raised a brow. She'd been asking me questions all day. "Sure."

She sat up straight. "What changed?"

I feigned innocence. "What do you mean?"

Of course I knew what she meant. I just needed time to think of an answer.

"You said that you changed, your freshman year. What happened freshman year that made you believe that Aiden should be ashamed to be your friend."

I laughed uncomfortably. "Nothing happened. I just wasn't the same. It's nobody's fault."

it was half the truth.

I could tell she didn't believe me, but she knew I wasn't going to budge. "Maybe we can get more into that next week."

Doubted it.

************************************************************

I felt horrible after my session so I went to Morgan's house. She was dressed in workout clothes when she answered the door, her hair a frizzy mess.

"Exercising?" I asked with a fake smile.

She groaned letting me enter the house. Her older brother, Daniel was sitting on the couch watching some sports game.

I waved to him before slipping into Morgan's room. Her TV was paused on a Chloe Ting workout video and her room was a mess. "Should I have called ahead?" I asked with. knowing smirk.

She shrugged. "I was about to take a break anyways."

I made myself comfortable on her bed kicking my slides off of my feet. "Okay, so there's a party tonight." I said gauging her reaction.

She tilted her head a smile forming on her face. "Go on..."

So she was interested in going then. "It's at Darian Washington's house. He personally invited me himself."

She raised a brow. "Darian Washington, Aiden's best friend?"

I nodded.

I don't know what was on my expression to let Morgan know that I did not want to talk about my friendship with Aiden at the moment but she let it go. "Okay. I'll have to borrow a dress from you."

"Of course. Should I let you and Chloe finish before we go?"

"Nope." She turned the TV off immediately, tying her hair up in a tight bun. "You know Darian Washington gave me a ride home once."

I laughed. "Yeah I know."