Me, You, and Mason

26

Her room was in disarray. The usual organized chaos had been torn through, a result of Hurricane Darcy.

There was nothing left but heaps of things— items and emotions. Nothing worth having pride in. Everything deserving of shame.

But it was her place. Her one safe space.

One step outside of it, and she'd be faced with her latest heartbreak, living just a room over.

Not even work could get her out of bed today. Between her oscillating emotions and the growing pressure of her new role at work, she just wanted to shut the world off for a while.

She was stressed and breaking out, becoming swallowed whole by her brokenness. When she wasn't working, she was sleeping.

She tried to write. She changed her hair— box braids stretching for her tailbone. She tried to keep busy, but the heartbreak had become too much.

It was strange.

She'd spent hours, days, months preparing herself for what she thought would be an inevitable fate with Sage. Never in a million years did she think her relationship with Aria would be the one to falter.

She couldn't believe it.

After years of being so close, they'd never felt so far apart. Darcy wondered where it all went so wrong.

They'd been friends since they were barely teenagers. Aria was Dani's friend first, and since then, they'd all been stuck together.

Dani's passing was supposed to pull them closer— solidify their bond— but it seemed to only highlight their differences, their shortcomings.

Darcy's shortcomings.

It pained Darcy to digest it all, especially considering the fact that of all people to choose over her, Aria chose Jay.

The very man that had played with Dani's mind and beaten her heart beyond repair. The very man that had to be held at knifepoint so he wouldn't harm Darcy.

Aria had chosen his side. All because he'd attended a few more outings than she had?

It wasn't fair. The feeling of betrayal fizzled in her gut and only burned deeper at the thought of Eric also not coming to her defense.

They'd all been in cahoots. They all disparaged her and were waiting for the moment to let her in on the fact. And they took the very first opportunity to.

The thought sickened Darcy. Every day, it made her more and more nauseous. It triggered her gut enough times to make her question her health.

She even utilized the spare pregnancy test kept from a scare last year— just to get to the bottom of such a feeling.

It wouldn't be the first time that stress and emotional pain made her distraught enough to send her insides flying out.

This level of brokenheartedness and embarrassment reminded her of childhood. When her father was taken away to prison. When she felt her mother's love fading.

Soon enough the pain got easier to endure. No longer had she dealt with the gross outcome of her overgrown emotions.

Until now.

How could they embarrass her like that? How could they sit there as if she was the villain, chastising and speaking up only when she had something to say?

But when Jay called her classless and childish, it was Sage that told him to stop. Not the people she'd known for at least a decade.

It put a lot into perspective, and it also said a lot about Sage's character.