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Luck Isn't Everything.

Seven.

I woke up feeling absolutely terrible, to the point where I almost jumped out of bed to throw up. This always happened when I fell asleep upset. It’s not like I wanted it to happen, or wanted it at all, it simply happened. I hopped out of bed and headed to my closet. Today I didn’t feel like getting all dressed up and nice because it was already a shitty morning, so I knew the rest of the day was going to be the same. I got out of my pajamas and changed into a loose gray sweater, some cyan blue shorts with studs on the pockets, and my gray and light blue high tops. I changed my plugs into my silver and blue glitter anchor plugs and frowned when I looked in the mirror. They made me think of Justin.

We were obsessed with anchors at one point and this caused me to get my first tattoo on my thigh. I was so scared of getting it, not because I was underage and because I thought my Mom would kill me, but because I was terrified of needles. Justin’s cousin owned a shop so we waited until my birthday to get it, as a present from Justin. He held my hand the entire time and talked to me while I was getting it done so I could be distracted.

Honk. I looked out my window and saw Oli in the driveway. I grabbed my messenger bag from the dresser and gave myself one more look in the mirror before walking out the door. My bruise was all kinds of messed up, but I didn’t mind. I wasn’t going to wear makeup either. I wanted to show everyone what kind of guy Trey was. Sure, he hadn’t meant to hit me, but that wasn’t what made him the bad guy. It was the fact that he was going after a newly turned 14 year old, when he was 17.

“Hey, what happened to your face? And who’s outside?” I heard Liam say from the kitchen island as I was getting my keys from the key holder.

“One, Trey, and two, Oli.” I answered not looking at him. That would only make things worse.

“TREY HIT YOU?!” He yelled as soon as my Mom walked into the kitchen.

“Hit you?” She asked then looked at me, “Oh my god, darling, what happened?” She tried to touch my face to get a better look at it, but I swatted her hand away. I hated when she tried to act motherly from time to time because being a mother wasn’t a job you did when you felt like it. Being a mother was a 24/7 job, and as far as I was concerned most days, she was just Carol, our roommate instead of my Mom.

“It’s nothing.. “ I answered, “I tried to stop a fight and wasn’t careful. Anyways, I have to go, Oli’s waiting.”

“Not Justin?” Liam and Mom asked in unison.

“No,” I stated and walked out the door, slamming it behind me. Everyone knew how close we were and me hanging out with anyone else who wasn’t Justin would be weird.

“Hey, how you feeling?” Oli asked as he backed out of the driveway.

“Shitty.”

“Already?”

“Yep,” with that I ended the conversation and we stayed in silence until we got to the school. He turned the car off and we sat there for a few minutes. We could hear Justin and Willow arguing from across the lot and all I could so was close my eyes shut and wait till it was over.

“Just let me talk to her!” she yelled.

“No, alright?! You’ve done enough!” He shouted back, “I was the only person she trusted. Do you have any idea of how long it took me to get her to trust me? To know I’d never turn my back on her? I wanted her to get comfortable to the idea of you so that she didn’t think I was leaving her behind.”

“I was just trying to help!” she fired back. “It’s what I’m still trying to do! It sucked having to see my boyfriend ask his best friend out, but I still did it because I knew what it meant for both of you! What it meant for her!”

“I told you to stay away from her!” Justin spat, “I don’t need this crap. Especially from someone like you! She’s my best friend, she comes first.”

Willow took a step back and scoffed, “But I’m your girlfriend.”

“Yeah, exactly,” he explained, “If we break up, you’re out of my life for good. Her? She’ll always be around. She will always come first.” She had nothing left to say and pushed past him. Oli decided it was time for us to get out of the car and face the music. I saw Justin across the parking lot standing by his car, looking at us. He was upset and so was I, and everyone around could tell without anyone saying a word.

The selfish part of me was upset about his lies, but the nice part of me was upset for the way he had talked to Willow. I had to give the girl some credit. If I was in a situation like hers, I wouldn’t have stayed around to watch my boyfriend be over protective of his best friend, even if in this case, I am that friend.

“Go talk to him.” Oli leaned in behind me and whispered into my ear. I felt a small shiver when he said it, but not in a bad way either.

“I can’t,” I choked out, “I’m so scared of what I might do if I even get near him.” I said as I turned around to face him. He was much taller than me so when I faced him, my eyes were directly in front of his lips. “I’m not prepared to confront him yet.”

“Well you better prepare yourself darling,” he said, “because he’s headed this way.” He bopped his head into Justin’s direction and I turned around to see him already halfway across the parking lot making his way to us. “I-uh, I’ll wait in the car…”

“Fio-“ He started, but was immediately cut off by the sound of my hand against his face. He looked up at me shocked, and then switched to understanding. “I deserved that.” Everyone around us gasped and stood around to watch. I never meant to hit him, but when he got in front of me, it was my first instinct. I did it not only for me, but for Willow, too. He did deserve that.

“That and a lot more!”

“Let me expl-“

“I don’t need you to explain anything! How dare you try to use me as an excuse for treating your girlfriend like absolute crap!?” I yelled. “ And h-how could you lie to me? You of all people?”

“I was just tr-“

“I’m not done! How could you sit there and tell me there was nothing going on? That she was nothing?” I exclaimed. He stood there silently waiting for me to finish; Silent, but hurt. My eyes were stinging with rage and streaming like a waterfall, but I didn’t stop. I wanted to, I wanted to stop myself from doing something stupid, but I couldn’t. “This was a new type of low, Justin. I get that you were trying to ‘protect me,’ but I’m not a little girl. I can handle myself. Best friends don’t backstab each other the way you have! And you were right about one thing, I did trust you, but that’s over.” I pushed past him, but he pulled my arm back. Oli got out of the car and made his way to us.

“Fiona, please just let me explain myself, please.”

“Let go!” I said pulling my arm back.

“I think you’ve done enough, mate,” Oli said, taking my messenger bag from me and walking me inside.