Highly Inappropriate

57.

"Huh, hello? Did my name suddenly change to 'terms and conditions' without my knowledge? Cause you're ignoring me a lot!"

Once I was a few blocks away from the park, the first thing I did was to call my best friend and tell her what just happened, resulting in her making herself at home and waiting for me on my my couch.

"Honey..", she trailed off, chuckling as she busied herself in tidying my kitchen. "I'm not ignoring you. You've been telling me the same exact story for the past three hours and my opinion still hasn't changed: I know you're upset and you have every right to be, but biting her head off like that obviously didn't do you any good."

"Well what was I supposed to do?! Throw her a welcome back party and act like I was happy to see her?"

"Like you weren't..", she mocked, a teasing smirk on her features that caused me to roll my eyes.

"I wasn't.", I grunted, releasing a big ass sigh a split second later. "And that's a lie. God, I hate my life."

"What do we say when life disappoints us?"

"Called it."

"Seriously?", Jess whined, shaking her head at me and causing me to stifle a laugh.

I hated when she went all therapist on me, and I ultimately enjoyed messing with her when she did.

"Like, what the hell?! I'm supposed to be pissed out of my mind for fuck's sake.", I groaned, running a hand through my hair. "Which I am, by the way! But I'm also relieved, I think? I shouldn't be feeling this way goddammit. I shouldn't be so affected by her or by what happened, yet I am. What the actual f-"

She was about to interrupt my rambling when we heard a loud thump coming from upstairs, the both of us sharing a puzzled look before staring at the ceiling.

"Matt? Are you okay?", I called out, waiting for an answer as we heard shuffling upstairs.

"Huh yeah, I'm fine sis. My shirt fell.", he replied, causing me to frown.

"Your shirt fell and made all that noise?"

"Well.. I happened to be in it.", his sheepish grin appeared from the top of the stairs as he made his way down. "Have you seen my car keys? I'm running late, I need to get to the airport in half an hour and-"

"They're on the coffee table.", Jess cut him off, earning a thumbs up from my brother who rushed to the living room without further ado.

"Drive safe and text when you get to Philly!", I called after him just to see him jog back to us.

"Sure thing. I'll see you both on Sunday, okay?", he stated before hugging the both of us and dismissing himself.

"How ironic..", I huffed, Jess flashing me a questioning look as a result. "My brother is managing to make his relationship with a girl living in another city  work without the slightest hiccup and I can't even have a conversation with my ex girlfriend. Just great.", I scoffed, cracking open a beer and downing half of it.

"Maybe you should try talking to her next time you see her instead of going ballistic?", Jess suggested, stating the obvious.

"I honestly don't think that's gonna get me anywhere with her."

"You won't know until you try babe.", she shrugged, giving me a weak smile.

"I do know, Jess..", I trailed off, running a hand through my hair. "She's hiding something, something she apparently can't tell me about, and for the life of me I can't figure out what that is."