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Needing a moment to grasp all that occurred, Angela gathered her troubled breaths and ran out of the restaurant. Behind her, the other women followed.
"So you just gone up and run?" Whitney asked, being the first to follow behind the woman. It bothered her that Angela hadn't given some sort of response. "You don't have nothing to say for yourself?"
"Whitney, just let her go," Mariah added, trying not to walk as fast as the other women as she needed a moment to catch her breath. She hadn't fully recovered just yet and everything that was happening was becoming too much for her. "Give her some time."
But, Whitney didn't listen. She continued to follow after their dear friend, demanding an explanation.
"C'mon, y'all. Can't we just stop and talk about this like the adults we are?" Janet asked, motioning within everyone present.
Toni moved her head in an up and down fashion, in agreement with her lover. She then looked over at Angela and said. "Angie, c'mon now, we're your girls. You know you can talk to us about this."
"Can I?" Angela said back, stopping in her tracks. She eyed everyone sideways, feeling rather indignant. She did not like how she was treated back at the table. "Can I talk to y'all? Because the way y'all just did me back there—that's not how girls treat their girls." She placed her eyes onto Whitney, then upon the other ladies. "Whitney I have no words for you. We are done. And as for the rest of y'all, I can't believe y'all stood there and let her talk to me like that. Any time she acts a fool with any one of you, I am always the one trying to keep the peace."
"Okay, okay," Mariah replied, her hands upon her chest. She tried to calm things before they were to escalate. "You're right, Ang. You're right."
"Hey, I'll apologize on behalf of all of us." Toni pointed within herself and the other friends, aside from Angela. "We shouldn't have let things get carried away like they did."
Whitney eyed Toni as though she had lost her mind and said, "you don't have to apologize for me." She crossed her arms above her chest. "I said what I said."
Angela rolled her pupils in circular motions, praying that Whitney would just be quiet and let things be.
"Yeah, and what you said was some bullshit!" Mariah added, yelling towards Whitney's direction. Truthfully, she was still annoyed by how she was spoken to at the table.
"Girl, why are you saying anything to me?" Whitney replied back, waving the other woman off. "Stop trying to make this about you, just like you did in there at table. You should've kept your mouth closed." To be quite honest, Whitney's words were indeed true. Even though she was usually the one to start with Mariah, things of this night happened the other way around.
"Look, we don't ever have to say nothing else to each other ever again—" Mariah began responding, but had her words cut off by Janet.
"Alright, enough!" Janet's voice rose a bit, wanting her friends to stop their constant bickering. "Lord knows there's a time and place to discuss you two, but right now this is not about y'all." She motioned at the fighting women, then at Angela. "Look, Angie, we love you. You do not have to hide this from us. We want to be here for you, but you gotta talk about it first."
Angela's head moved from side to side, while she laughed at the irony in what was spoken. "You know what, Janet? You should be the last person to talk about hiding things." She remembered just the night of which she saw Janet and Toni in a rather romantic setting, giving themselves to one another. "You need to watch what you say."
