𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 || 𝙋𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙤 𝙂𝙖𝙫𝙞

Chapter 1

"One can only look past someone's flaws for so long, and trust me on this, you'll soon grow tired of him too", I said, looking straight into my soon-to-be-married best friend's eyes.

Amanda rolled her eyes. "Not again with this this bullshit", I could see this was starting to get to her nerves. "You're my best friend, Mandy, and the last thing I want for you is to be trapped in a marriage where you WILL eventually lose interest and be miserably stuck in", I insisted. "Look, Kaden isn't like other guys, he's different", Amanda said, her eyes sparkling with love as she spoke about him. "You said the same for Wes, Bjorn, Norman, Sander and who else? Basically all your exes", I said, trying to make her see sense. It wasn't like I disliked Kaden, it was just that I couldn't imagine Amanda being married to a guy she'd met, 8 months ago.

"Just stop looking at him like my fiance and look at him as your friend for a second. He's kind, loving, and is okay with every single one of my flaws. He's the one, I know it,so please trust me on this one, okay?"

I sighed. "You better not come to me after your fights though, I don't want to hear no stories about your 3 hour fights and what he said about your mother". "I won't", Amanda said, smiling ear to ear.

I so wanted to be happy for her. I knew what I was saying was hurting her, but I simply couldn't help it, and I cursed myself for it. Just because two messed up people in my life couldn't make their marriage function normally, didn't necessarily mean every other couple in the world was destined for the same. And with the wedding date drawing closer, the sooner I'd get it into my thick head, the better. 

"Hey! Watch it!!", Amanda shouted, pulling me out of my thoughts . I looked looked up from my smoothie to see a guy being chased down the street by a mob of girls. "Some Pop Star?", I asked, taking a sip. "Seems like it, look they ruined my outfit", Amanda groaned, showing me the coffee stained skirt. "I'll go to the washroom, wait for me and don't leave without me", She said, quickly getting up and rushing inside the cafe. "You're driving, so I haven't got much choice", I mumbled, pulling out my phone. There were 6 messages from my parents asking when I'd come home. I huffed. There was no way, I'd ever return to that hellhole.

I deleted them, just as another message popped up. "William", I groaned, opening the text to see a screenshot of a section of yet another fight he'd had with his girlfriend.

*you never learn, and this is on you, I'm not helping you anymore*

I angrily typed and hit send.

William was the first person I'd met in Spain, who wanted to be my friend from the get go, but it may have had something to do with me finding him knocked out by his girlfriend after a fight, behind the dumpster of the cafe where we worked.

*Babe, don't do this to me, not right now* He wrote back

*I don't care, I've told you to get over with that abusive psycho for weeks now"

*Fine, we'll see about it later, but can you please come over? My nose is bleeding like it's on a period, bring some tampons for it*

I groaned heavily. "What's up?", Amanda asked, wiping her skirt with a tissue, the stain almost invisible. If there's something special about that girl, it's the fact that she cleans up better than any professional cleaner in the world. "William", I stated, picking up the shopping bags. "Not again", She replied, throwing her head back in exasperation. "That's William for you",I sighed, paying the bill. "Chop chop, let's get moving".

William's relationship with Lily had been a topic for eye rolling and constant groaning for the longest time. She was wild, he was calm and it seemed as like, though they both knew they weren't good for each other, they kept getting back for more. The toxicity of their relationship could be smelt from miles away. Lily wasn't necessarily a bad person, but she had this victim mentality which she'd use to abuse people around her and then make them feel bad for somehow "crossing" her, in the first place.

"Stay here, I'll get them", Mandy said, parking the car in front of a pharmacy and getting out.

At this point, everyone around Will and Lily knew about them and their hardcore toxic love. This only made things worse because it seemed like they enjoyed the attention and worried calls they'd receive. They were equally destructive for each other yet refused to separate.

"Okay, band aids, bandages, antiseptic cream, cold pack, antiseptic wipes, anything I'm missing?"

"His mom's number on speed dial in case it's more serious than he's leading on"

"I mean, how do the first aid items get over so fast? it's like he's fighting a bull every day or something"

"Isn't he?", I said, a smile threatening to break out.

"Ridiculous, but we're his only surviving friends so", Amanda stated, looking into my eyes dead serious, before we both broke out in peals of uncontrollable laughter.