Not A Bad Thing//A.I.

16

When Everly got home all she wanted to do was to crash on her bed for the rest of the week. Today had been a stressful start to the week. Not only was she dealing with Stephanie drama, she had forgotten to do her calculus homework, and they had a pop quiz, which she bombed. She hadn't said one word to her mother when she got picked up from school. The second they got home she headed straight for her room. Half way up the steps the doorbell rang.

"Everly can you please get that!" Her mom shouted from the kitchen. Everly stopped in her tracks and sighed.

"Okay!" She shouted back, making her way back downstairs.

"Oh."  Everly said once she opened the door to see Stephanie was on the other side of it.

"Hi." Stephanie quietly greeted.

"Hi." Everly said matching Stephanie's tone.

"Can we talk?" Stephanie asked.

"Oh yeah sure." Everly hesitated, but stepped to the side to let Stephanie in.

"Lets go to my room."

"Mom, Stephanie and I will be in my room."She yelled out.

"Okay sweetie." Her mom yelled back.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Everly asked once they got into her room, she sitting on her bed, while Stephanie awkwardly stood in front of her.

"I just want to properly apologize. Just us two." Stephanie nervously said, only looking down at her shoes.

"Okay." Everly responded, letting her know that she was willing to listen.

"I'm just so sorry for being such a crappy friend. I didn't know that's how you felt. I thought we were good, like how it usually is."

"Did you really expect me to just continue to let you walk all over me?" Everly honestly asked.

"No, not re-"

"Don't lie." Everly stopped Stephanie.

"Yes I did." Stephanie truthfully said, continuing not to look Everly in the eye.

"And that's okay, because I let you. It's my fault for letting it go on for as long as it has, and for letting it be okay. But not anymore."

"I agree." Stephanie said, deciding to join Everly on her bed.

"But that also means you have to work on your need to control everything, because I won't have it anymore. Just because our friendship has worked that way in the past, it's not going to work that way anymore. This isn't all about you Stephanie. It's about both of us." Everly said, finally finding a sense of relief from letting out what's been bothering her for far too long.

"I know that now, and I promise I will try my best to work on it, but you also have to work on it also." Stephanie stated.

"What do you mean?" Everly asked, confused as to how she may be a problem.

"You can't lie to me about who you're hanging out with."

"Oh." Everly said finally realizing why she said that.

"If you want to hang out with Michael, Calum, and Luke, then tell me. Don't make up some dumb lie. That really hurt my feelings." Stephanie confessed.

"Sorry. I was just trying to protect your feelings, I didn't know it would be the other way around."

"I would rather have had you told me the truth, then find out from someone else." Stephanie explained.

"Okay. I promise I won't lie to you about the boys." Everly proclaimed. There was a silence that fell upon them. A knock at Everly's door broke that silence.