Other Worlds - The Wilds

Chapter 43

  "Can we please stay here? Just for a minute?" Toni asked quietly after a few minutes of crying silently into Martha's shoulder, her voice hoarse.

  "Of course. Whatever you need."

  The porch light finally gave in, sputtering until it finally plunged both girls into darkness. Toni stopped worrying about how much she cried, how tightly she hugged her best friend, how much she missed Shelby already. She just felt it all, grateful for the darkness allowing her to forget that she was an actual person outside of her own feelings.

  She didn't know how long they stayed like that, Toni wrapped up in Martha's arms. She wished she could be the kind of person that was the comforting one, the one with logic and an ability to ease a situation, but that was not her, at least not right now.

  They broke apart, Toni was once again thankful for the darkness, giving her another chance to try and wipe her eyes and appear as presentable as possible following an unexpected breakup.

"You okay?" Martha asked as she peeled her body away from Toni's sweaty, uncomfortable form; cringing as she realised the dead end nature of her question.

  Toni played with the frayed edges of her sweatshirt. "Yeah." She wished she could elaborate but that was all she had; a halfhearted lie.

  "That's okay," Martha responded, sensing Toni's inability to provide real answers. She wrapped her arms around Toni's shoulders comfortingly.

  Toni didn't comment on the fact that Martha had recognised her lie, instead opting to just soak up the comfort whilst it lasted. Not that Martha's comfort ever had an expiration date, just that Toni's ability to receive it did.

  ————

  "B.Y.O.B? Right? Leah?'

  Toni instantly recognised the voice as Fatin, or she recognised the statement as one Fatin would say. She wasn't quite sure but it made her heart glow a little despite the darkness she held. The familiarity of it all.

  Despite her recognition, Toni stayed put, curled up on her double bed in her room, as she had been for the past two days; just quietly soaking in her grief, hoping that it would fade in time.

  So far it hadn't, but perhaps it just hadn't been long enough to tell. Probably that.

  Footsteps thundered down her stairs, Fatin first, the loudest with a bottle of expensive wine in hand, and Leah second, quietly following behind a few paces, far more conscious of herself.

  "Hey," Toni greeted them, her position unchanged, too lazy or sad or uninterested to get up to properly greet her friends. She didn't bother to even wonder if it was rude, simply accepting it as how it was. She was sure they would understand.

  Fatin started to talk first, probably something a little out of touch or dirty, Leah interrupted before she could finish her sentence. "Toni, how are you doing?"

  Toni couldn't hold back a cold scoff, "Ah yes, the experts on the situation."

  To her surprise, Fatin chimed in, her voice gentle and empathetic, a tone that Toni hadn't really heard in the past. "You don't have to know the full story to care. Or to recognise a friend in pain."