Everything Changes

Chapter Twenty: New Relationships

Brittany couldn't stop thinking about Toby's girlfriend. She was struggling to complete her philosophy homework as the situation kept playing over and over again in her head. She hated being distracted.

She was heartbroken that Toby had a girlfriend, especially right after she went through an entire self-discovery with herself. She felt unsuccessful, because she finally figured out what she wanted two years later, and now she couldn't get it. She was stuck to deal with her feelings and emotions by herself.

But she wasn't going to blame herself for being too late to confess her feelings to Toby. He broke up with her first and she did what anyone would do: move on. She couldn't dwell on the breakup for the rest of her life. And then she met Trevor. She took a chance on him and rejected Toby because she wanted to try something new. She did just that and realized that she and Trevor were only good together for the first few months, then things got messy. She wasn't going to blame herself for wanting to be with another guy. She wasn't going to blame herself for not realizing her true feelings, either. She was just mad at the world for the bad timing.

And she wasn't going to blame Toby for moving on, either. She told him to do that. If he was happy, then she was happy too. It just hurt that things didn't go as planned. Now, as Toby was in a relationship with someone else, she was getting a taste of her own medicine - and it tasted like shit.

The knock on her door made her jump, bringing her back to reality. She was thankful for that, mostly because she was sick of thinking about Toby and his beautiful sorority-girl girlfriend.

Isabel groaned, covering herself with the duvet. As usual, she didn't spend the night in her own bed and got zero sleep, so she was trying to nap. Brittany knew that was her cue to get the door - and to her surprise, it was Toby. He looked into the room, seeing Isabel sleeping. He wasn't fazed, as that was usually the case.

"Hey?" Brittany greeted in confusion, closing the door behind her. Toby sheepishly put his hands in the pockets of his grey sweatpants. She could hardly look at him without feeling stupid. "What are you doing here?"

"Why'd you come over the other day?" He questioned, meeting her blue eyes. He furrowed his eyebrows, curious to hear her response. To Brittany, he sounded annoyed or as if she wasn't allowed to go to his house. His attitude made her seethe.

"I didn't know you had a girlfriend," she responded to his attitude. If she knew, she wouldn't have gone over. Simple. She felt bad for walking in at the wrong time.

He shook his head. "No, it's okay," he assured her, his tone quickly changing. Brittany figured he realized how annoyed he sounded earlier. "I'm sorry. I was going to tell you about Autumn. I just didn't think you'd stop by. That's all."

"That's alright," she answered, crossing her arms. Their conversation was quick to turn awkward. She wondered if Isabel could hear them from inside the room. She knew she would comment on it later. "I think she's really pretty."

Toby nodded in agreement. "Yeah." Her chest was getting heavy as she felt her heart thumping rapidly. She was in so much pain. "So, why did you come over?"

She would never tell him the whole truth. She didn't want to put his new relationship at risk. She would feel terrible for doing that, which was part of the reason why she was hesitating to tell him that she and Trevor broke up. She didn't want him to put two and two together - going over to his house to say she was single = she was going to confess her feelings for him. The last time she told him she and Trevor were on a break, they had sex.

But then she figured she would tell him about Trevor. The chances of him conjuring up any ideas about her when he had a girlfriend were slim to none. Plus, at the end of the day, they were friends. She wanted to inform him about what happened.