It Kills Me

For the last two days I went to work. Each day, before stepping into Bella, I braced myself. I was half expecting Zoey to blow up at me about the whole Adam situation. I was half expecting her to yell at me for being a bad friend- to yell at me for not telling her that Adam and I had a "romantic" history. I was also half expecting her to tell me to stay away from Adam.

I don't really know why I didn't tell her. I just guess.. I just guess that I don't want the whole world to know what happened. It's not something I want to broadcast: "Yeah, so Zoey, I got drunk and slept with my best friend." I guess.. I'm ashamed of myself for letting myself get in that situation and ruining my friendship with one of my best friends. This didn't affect just me, I mean, this affected the entire group- all 6 of us. We can never normally hang out ever again. I can recognize that it was partially my fault.

But, Zoey didn't mention anything on Monday. In fact, she was gushing over the fact that Adam was into her (I told her that he really liked her, but I left out the part of the whole "I can't talk to you anymore" part) and was eagerly waiting for him to call her for their second date. I figured that Adam didn't get around to talking to her about it that day, so I was extremely defensive on Tuesday. I was defensive until I realized that Tuesday was Zoey's day off.

Walking into the store today, I didn't see Zoey. I assume that she was going to start after Haylie left for the day. As much as I didn't want to see Zoey, multiply that times three and now you have my feelings towards Haylie. I spent the next hour listening to her whine about how Henry was ignoring her and not answering any of her texts or her calls. I knew why, but I wanted her to figure it out for themselves.

I was surprised to hear the door open and see Sarah and Justin walk in. I practically knocked them down in my excitement.

"What are you guys doing here?" I exclaimed, delightedly. "I thought the two of you are super busy with your wedding?" Haylie came over to greet Sarah and Justin also.

"Oh, we are! It's really coming together!" Sarah said, excitedly. "But, we felt bad that we've been ignoring you guys so I wanted to invite both you and Haylie over to Justin's house for a little get together on Saturday." I hugged her.

"It's going to be awesome," Justin said. "We can watch a movie, just like old times."

"I'll be there!" I told her. We made plans to meet at Justin's at noon on Saturday. I hugged them both goodbye.

"Well, I'm going to go now," Haylie said. "Zoey should be here after me." I nodded and said bye to her.

A couple minutes after Haylie left, Zoey stormed into the store. Her face was beet red and she looked incredibly angry. Even though I expected this reaction, a little part of me hoped that it wouldn't happen.

"What the hell, Courtney?" she yelled at me. "Why didn't you tell me that you had sex with Adam?"

"Well, um, I-I-" I stuttered. She was making me extremely nervous by yelling at me. I was speechless.

"I thought we were friends, Courtney!" she practically screamed at me. Thank goodness that I was the only one in the store. "Friends don't keep secrets, especially one as big as this!"

"Do you have feelings for him? Is that why you didn't tell me?" she half asked, half demanded. I had regained my voice.

"No!" I protested. "We're friends and nothing more. That night was a mistake and I wish I could take it back. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you, but just so you know.. Friends don't date their friends' friends, especially the ones they've known forever."

"You can tell Jasmine that I quit!" Zoey exclaimed and she stormed out of the store, leaving me completely heartbroken.