woman like me - j.f✔️

XIV

Saturday morning. It was a quiet day, as her mom spent the day catching up on sleep. She was the hardest working woman, who kept going despite the terrible pain she felt for losing loved ones. She was Love's inspiration.

Margot usually spent Saturday's with her friends, at the movies or doing some sort of activity. Which left Love time to relax in bed, feeling the warm sheets around her body, grazing her skin as she stretched. After her previous night, she was surprised at how good she felt. She was so overcome with sadness and anger, she didn't know what to do. And Justin, despite his heavy eyes, helped her through it. He had encouraged her to tell her how she felt. And so she did.

Love checked her phone, a few texts from Justin, and Rowan had replied to her messages from the night before.

What you did tonight hurt me, and I'm sick of being someone you can drag around. I'm not a doll, and I don't want to be used by you anymore.

I want friends, I want to walk the halls and not feel the instinct to hide from you, I want a relationship where I can feel comfortable having friends aside from you.

And if you can't respect that, I can't be with you.
Read 07:43am

Rowan: So Justin has coaxed you into a breakup, why do you listen to him? I know good friends when I see them, and he's not it. I don't want to break up with you, I love you and I have good times with you. We can work this out.

Meet me at Paolo's at 9.

She had gotten up, heading to the bathroom to shower. Her and Justin spent an hour on FaceTime, he'd spoken to her and given her the confidence to stand up for what she wants. And in the shower, Love compiled a list of things she wanted to change. She wanted to be able to make the choice of what friends she has, and she didn't want Rowan to complain about it. She wanted to be more independent, and didn't want to cling to Rowan like a lap dog.

After she had showered, she had found herself an outfit before leaving her hair to dry. She sat in her car, debating whether to write a message or not.

Morning, Justin. Thank you for last night, I know you were struggling to keep your eyes open. I'm going to meet Rowan and I'll let you know how it goes!

Despite Justin's late night, he had to work. So he'd ignored his phone and hauled himself out of bed, running on only a few hours of sleep, to shower and change. Luckily, with his experience in Monet's, it landed him a coffee shop job down the street from his apartment. He explained his situation, and the manager went completely maternal. She treated him like her own son; which was great. He had a great relationship with his boss. He worked weekends and some hours after school, whenever he could. But if he needed a day off, he'd get it.

It was an early start this morning, his 6-12 shift. He'd opened the shop, and started to make the place look alive for his early customers. Luckily the job pays well, especially as he's the only person who works most of Sunday. So he could afford his bills and have some money to spend. He still had some of Bryce's money, a lot of it. He'd sold the Range Rover for a cheaper car, and been wise with his money.

To his surprise, his best friend had walked in, along with her girlfriend. As Rowan sat down, Love had approached the counter to order. She hadn't even looked at Justin until she'd figured out her order. "Justin? I didn't know you worked here."

"Since I moved to town," he responded. "I see you patched things up with Rowan." He observed, placing his hands against the counter. Luckily he had time to talk, the shop was empty this morning. There wasn't a queue behind her.

"Not yet, that's what we're here to talk about." She replied. "I've got my demands in my head." He smiled, but felt bad. She thought that Rowan letting her have friends was a good thing, but it's a normal thing. It should be normal. And she didn't know that. He felt bad for her. "I'll let you know how it goes." She mumbled. "Also, two black coffees."

She retrieved the coffees and brought them to the table. Love told herself not to give in, because after Rowan would bat her sweet little doe eyes, Love would back down. Not this time. "What's the issue with me having my own friends?"

Rowan hadn't even changed her expression. "You have friends. Me, the girls. You don't need Justin or the team, they hurt you, remember?" Rowan was gaslighting Love, making her feel like she was wrong and had everything messed up.

"Justin hasn't hurt me. Justin cares about me, he waited for me outside the hospital after the fight. He's there whenever I need someone. And you aren't." Love lamented, keeping her head down. Remembering everything Rowan hasn't done made her feel worse. "You should be the one to comfort me, to be outside of the hospital for me."

"I was there for you, what about everything you went through sophomore year? It was me." Rowan argued, folding her arms. The reason she insisted they come to a coffee shop was because Rowan couldn't shout or strike Love in any way.

"So your love is selective?"

"No." Rowan grumbled. She sipped her coffee, giving her time to think about what to say next. There was nothing she could say. Love wanted the normalcy of a relationship, the normalcy of a human. To have friends outside of her relationship, to be able to go to her girlfriend when she needs comfort.

"I want to continue being friends with Justin, and I want you to stop being so controlling." Love demanded. She'd never seen this side of herself before, but Justin brought it out of her.

"I'm only doing the best for you. Justin will turn into a stereotypical jock, and turn on you. Nothing is as important as his status in this school, not even you." Rowan demurred, finishing her coffee and standing up. But Love wasn't finished yet.

"Then I guess this is it for us." Love replied casually, staying seated and sipping on her coffee. The bitter taste took the edge off of her anger towards Rowan.

"So you're breaking up with me because I don't want you to get hurt by Justin and his douchebag friends?" Love rolled her eyes, of course she would spin it into that.

"I want to choose my own friends. I don't need them to be chosen for me."

"Fine. You can be friends with Justin and his team of assholes, but when they hurt you, I don't want you crawling back to me." Rowan declared, pushing her chair in and leaving. Love watched as she trotted to her car, and as it drove away, she turned to look at Justin. Who stood over the counter with a bewildered look on his face.

"Thank you," she mumbled to herself, not that Rowan deserved any of Love's gratitude. She gave a small thumbs up to Justin, before leaving the coffee shop.